Balancing group standardisation with localisation is no easy task. It requires process alignment and adaptable strategies that can meet the unique needs of local teams with the overarching goals set at the global level. To succeed in this multifaceted approach, organizations need a well-defined planning process and the right platform to empower local teams to execute their forecasts, budgets, even simulations efficiently, while at the same time remain in sync with global objectives ensuring that both local and global teams work toward shared planning goals.

From May 19–21, 2025, SAP Sapphire in Orlando promises an exciting lineup of insights, innovations, and real-world stories designed to inspire and empower. Whether you're leading a digital transformation, optimizing support processes, or exploring new technologies or product features, this year’s sessions offer practical strategies and firsthand experience from SAP experts and customers alike.

I have been in many customer discussions over the past weeks since SAP Business Data Cloud was launched on February 13, 2025 as part of the business unleashed event. People always ask similar questions, also during the technology days of the German SAP user group DSAG last week which led me to create this blog to reach a broader audience to clarify regular questions we get and help you find answers to avoid confusion.

Where do I find more information about the product and the announcement?

With the announcement there are new pages on our corporate sap.com website as well as a new page on the SAP community with lots of details about the new solution:

📺 Watch the replay of the launch event

🔗 Check out the product page overview on sap.com

🔗 Join the SAP Community for exchange with your peers

What is SAP Business Data Cloud and why does it matter?

SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) is a fully managed Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that unifies and governs all SAP data while seamlessly connecting with third-party data. It provides line-of-business leaders with the context needed to make impactful decisions. The solution combines the functionalities of SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP Business Warehouse, along with managed SAP Databricks and context aware Insight Apps. It includes curated business-ready data products from SAP line of business applications.

SAP Business Data Cloud is at the core of SAP's Business Suite strategy, which aims to provide a comprehensive view of business operations by integrating applications, data, and AI. It brings together the world’s most comprehensive and mission-critical data with the leading data platform to deliver transformational insights across all lines of business.

This integration helps businesses manage complexity and interconnected processes more effectively, enabling smarter decision-making and optimized business outcomes.

🔗 Discover more details on the eBook online.

📺 For a more detailed view on BDC watch my overview session on YouTube

SAP Business Data Cloud specific questions

Which components are part of SAP BDC?

SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) is a fully managed SaaS solution that comprises several components that are integral to its functionality. These components include:

1. SAP Datasphere: This component is part of the BDC offering, providing capabilities for data modeling and business semantics, data integration and data management, as well as for the definition of custom data products.
2. SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC): SAC is included in BDC to offer advanced analytics, visualization and planning tools.
3. SAP BW 7.5 / SAP BW/4HANA private cloud: This component is part of the BDC to support data warehousing needs and the path forward for existing on-premises SAP Business Warehouse customers, while being able to leverage the data product generator to create custom data products based on BW data and semantics.
4. SAP Databricks: This SAP managed component is included to provide data science, data engineering and machine learning / artificial intelligence (ML/AI) capabilities. Also here you will be able to create your custom data products shared via zero copy delta share.
5. Insight apps and data products: These are prebuilt apps that consume SAP managed and curated data products to provide analytical, process, or domain insights, and access via zero copy delta share.
6. Data catalog: The data catalog is a central component that supports federated metadata management providing a unified view of metadata from various data sources. This central catalog is complemented by metadata APIs, which facilitate integration with other catalog systems. The catalog is a crucial component for managing and discovering data products within the BDC environment, ensuring that users can efficiently access and utilize the data they need for their business processes.
7. Business AI with Joule: AI infusion with Joule and its agents leverage the data foundation provided by SAP BDC and its embedded SAP Knowledge Graph technology.
8. SAP Business Data Cloud cockpit: It is designed to facilitate administrative tasks such as the installation of Data Packages and Insight Apps. This cockpit serves as a centralized platform for managing various components and functionalities within the Business Data Cloud, streamlining the process for users to perform necessary administrative operations efficiently.

These components work together to unify and govern all SAP data while seamlessly connecting with third-party data, providing a comprehensive solution for data and analytics.

What is new with data products?

SAP data products are a central feature in SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), that provide curated and enriched data sets for various analytical and business needs. Data products are not a new concept to SAP and they are a core part of the data marketplace of SAP Datasphere for custom-built data products.

Here are some of the new aspects and functionalities related to data products in BDC:

1. Curated and Enriched Data: BDC offers SAP managed curated and enriched data products that are designed to provide advanced analytics and cross-analytics capabilities. These data products are intended to help users make smart decisions and optimize business outcomes.
2. Plug-and-Play on a Harmonized Data Model: SAP data products are delivered out-of-the-box using an always-on experience and following a harmonized data model to provide scalable access without data duplication. This not only includes metadata, but also includes the data of connected customer systems like from SAP S/4HANA PCE.
3. Integration with Insight Apps: SAP data products in BDC are consumed by Insight Apps, which provide analytical, process, or domain insights. Currently these apps cover analytic models in Datasphere and pre-defined SAC stories, with the intention to expand the app coverage beyond analytical use cases and also leverage pro-code applications built on SAP BTP.
4. Data Sharing and Consumption: BDC facilitates the sharing of data products between applications, allowing for seamless data integration and consumption leveraging zero copy delta share. This is part of the broader goal to enable easy data sharing and consumption across different platforms and applications avoiding the need for countless data copies, while using the same data for multiple use cases and tools.

What are these insight apps?

Insight Apps in SAP Business Data Cloud are low code apps designed to deliver tailored insights and actionable recommendations out-of-the-box. They are a collection of pre-built apps that leverage SAP's curated unified semantic models. These apps are integrated with essential business applications to automate critical daily decisions in various areas such as working capital management, sales and distribution, and people analytics.

They contain an SAP managed collection of analytical assets and functionalities to provide value to customers through analytical, process, or domain insights. They can contain data products, semantic models, stories, planning models, AI-powered analytics, and more.

SAP Datasphere related Questions

What does that mean for existing SAP Datasphere customers?

For existing SAP Datasphere customers this means you are on the right track with your investment in SAP Datasphere. There will be no immediate changes, and existing customers can continue using their current services without interruption.

Over time, existing customers will have the option to transition to the fully managed solution offered by SAP Business Data Cloud. This transition is designed to be simple and ideally seamless, ensuring that customers do not experience any disruption in their services.

The initial release of SAP Business Data Cloud for controlled availability in Q1 2025 is mainly addressing greenfield customers. Later in 2025 existing SAP Datasphere customers can also start adopting SAP Business Data Cloud and bring their existing landscape into the fully managed SaaS experience.

Can existing SAP Datasphere systems be used without SAP BDC?

Yes, existing SAP Datasphere systems can continue to be used without transitioning to SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC). Customers currently using SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud services can continue their operations without interruption. Over time, they will have the option to transition to the fully managed solution offered by SAP Business Data Cloud, but it is not mandatory. This ensures that existing customers can maintain their current setups and workflows without being forced to migrate to BDC.

How can an existing SAP Datasphere system be integrated into SAP BDC?

Existing SAP Datasphere systems can be onboarded into SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) through a service that will be available at a later point in time. This onboarding will allow existing Datasphere customers to transition to BDC, leveraging the new functionalities and services offered by BDC while maintaining their current data and workflows. The onboarding process is designed to be simple and ideally seamless, ensuring that customers do not experience any disruption in their services.

Is the SAP BW Bridge of SAP Datasphere still supported in SAP BDC?

Yes, the SAP BW Bridge is still supported in the context of SAP Business Data Cloud. However, the strategic solution for SAP BW customers is to move to SAP BW Cloud, private edition to accelerate adoption of SAP Business Data Cloud. If customers envision a decommissioning of their SAP BW systems and the SAP BW investment can be covered within the scope of SAP BW Bridge, customers can replace the SAP BW 7.5 or SAP BW/4HANA systems with the SAP BW Bridge via a tool-supported conversion. Customers can benefit from the access of S-API extractors and business content similarly to the SAP BW on-premises world, while moving SAP BW investments to SAP BW Bridge. At the same time, customers can adopt data products and insight apps with SAP Business Data Cloud.

Roadmap and Learning

In which data centers is SAP BDC available?

SAP Business Data Cloud will initially be available on various AWS data centers. By mid-year, we plan to offer several data centers for Google Cloud and in the second half of 2025 also data centers from Microsoft Azure.

What is the roadmap for SAP BDC?

SAP Business Data Cloud was launched with the SAP Business Unleashed virtual event on February 13, 2025, and is commercially available on a controlled availability basis. It is planned to be broadly available in April 2025 (GA). A more detailed roadmap is currently being developed and will be published on the SAP Road Map Explorer.

🔗 Explore our product plans on the Roadmap explorer

Are there any learning tutorials available?

To quickly learn more about SAP Business Data Cloud you can enjoy the SAP Business Data Cloud product tour, which is a click through demo to experience SAP Business Data Cloud's most powerful capabilities.

🔗 To get a level deeper you can learn more with tutorials on the learning journey.

An introduction to the Information Design Tool version released in SAP BI 2025. 

Overview

SAP customers will be able to integrate their SAP BW data with SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) easily with a new tool, planned to be released soon: the BW Data Product Generator (short BW DPG). The BW DPG allows you to easily replicate your BW InfoProvider data to the managed Object store (HDLFS) of the Datasphere tenant of your BDC system for further usage in data product generation and consumption in analytical/planning scenarios on top of the Datasphere/SAC stack and/or sharing with Databricks and other consumers. This replication can be done as onetime snapshot, using regular re-loads or with incremental delta updates, if the underlying BW InfoProviders support delta. It will be available for SAP BW 7.5 on HANA and SAP BW/4HANA systems subscribed as part of BDC and RISE.

Details

How to install the BW DPG and setup your BW system as part of the BDC landscape will be rolled out in a different channel (see SAP Note 3590400). Here we assume that this is already done and the connection between the BW system and the BDC landscape is created.

The BW DPG comes with an own editor in BW (SAP GUI in SAP BW and a Fiori UI in BW/4HANA). Here you start by creating a so-called subscription. For a subscription you choose the InfoProviders that should be part of this replication package. You can select the relevant fields of the InfoProviders that should be replicated and can apply filter conditions to reduce the data to be transferred.

You can add the subscription as a process to a process chain, e.g. to orchestrate the update of the data in BDC right after the data has been updated in your BW system or to do the replication at a time of little load in your BW system to minimize any impact.

For each InfoProvider in a subscription a LocalTable (File) is created in a dedicated BW space of the Datasphere tenant. The data of the InfoProvider is materialized in this LocalTable (File) every time the subscription is executed.

The LocalTable (File) contains the basic metadata of the InfoProvider like data types, descriptions and field names. It can now be used as any LocalTable in Datasphere for further modeling. And you can use the LocalTables and easily create a DataProduct in the Datasphere Data Sharing Cockpit.  

Usage Scenarios

New consumption

The main use case for the BW DPG is to quickly enable new consumption scenarios based on your BW data. Most prominent in the context of BDC is of course the zero-copy consumption of your BW data in Databricks. With a Data Product on top of the LocalTable (File) you can share the Delta Table of the Local Table (File) via DeltaShare with Databricks allowing e.g. machine learning algorithms to be executed without moving the data outside of your BDC landscape.

Using the LocalTable (File) for analytic consumption is also possible. The LocalTable (File) in the BW space is then simply shared to a consumption space in Datasphere where you build Views and Analytic Models on top of them combining BW data and data coming from other sources including SAP-managed DataProducts. At query runtime the data is accessed via HANA Cloud SQL-on-file directly in the Objectstore.

BW scenario replacement

While the main use case for the BW DPG clearly is the quick and easy creation of new consumption scenarios on BW data, the BW DPG can also be leveraged as part of the overall BW Modernization path and help to move certain scenarios from BW to Datasphere. When it comes to replacing BW scenarios customers should always first look at the availability (and roadmap) of SAP-managed Data Products and SAP Apps that can replace this out-of-the-box. For legacy scenarios in your BW system, where the data is no longer changing and not needed for consumption in the BW stack, you can use the BW DPG to move this data to BDC-Datasphere and then delete it in your BW system. The copy in Datasphere Objectstore becomes the only source should the data be needed again.  

Should you plan to replace a complete data flow in BW with the data integration capabilities of Datasphere the BW DPG can also be used to create the necessary persistency objects (LocalTable(File)) and do the initial load of the historic data. The new data flows in Datasphere would then combine the data of the BW DPG and the recent data.   

Supported InfoProvider types

The following BW InfoProviders can be used in a subscription for the BW DPG:

• Base Providers: InfoCubes, Datastore Objects (Classic and Advanced), InfoObjects (Masterdata)
• Composite Provider, MultiProvider
• Queries: Query-as-InfoProvider

Availability

The BW part of the BW Data Product Generator will be available as a SAP Note Transport-based Correction Instruction (TCI) that can be installed on the following BW releases and product versions:

• SAP BW 7.50 SP24 or higher
• SAP BW/4HANA 2021 SP4 or higher

For the avoidance of doubt, the usage of DPG is only permitted for ‘SAP Business Warehouse private cloud edition’ systems deployed in SAP's private cloud as stand-alone installations.

The parts of the end2end flow in Datasphere are planned (!) to be available as follows

• SAP Datasphere Wave 8: data can be loaded to Datasphere using the new BW tool, the LocalTable(File) can be consumed in analytic scenarios
• SAP Datasphere Wave 11: the LocalTable(File) can be used to create a Data Product which can be shared to Databricks

Possible future enhancements  

• Mass object selection for complete scenarios (e.g. an InfoProvider and all its masterdata)
• InfoArea hierarchy as folder structure in the BW space
• Support of multiple BW spaces as target (to separate data via spaces)
• BW Process Chain and Datasphere Task Chain integration

Please note that future items may be subject to change.

注意: このページは、以下の英語ページを翻訳しています。オリジナルの内容に関しては、Karthik-Thiruのオリジナルのブログ(英語)を参照してください。

ターゲットグループ
SAP Build を利用した SAP S/4HANA Cloud 拡張の詳細に関心がある全ての皆様

背景
SAP S/4HANA拡張の概要
SAP S/4HANA の標準機能では完全に対応できない独自のビジネス要件があるの場合は、システムを拡張する必要があります。これらの拡張は、以下の 2 つのカテゴリに分類することができます。

• On-Stack (In-App)拡張は、Key User ツールまたは ABAP を使用して、コアS/4HANAシステム内で SAP S/4HANA をLocal APIを介して直接拡張します。
• Side-by-side 拡張は、SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) を使用して、コア S/4HANA システム外でカスタムアプリケーションまたは統合を開発し、柔軟性とアップグレードの安全性を高めます。

SAP Build とは何か?
SAP Build (SAP Build Codeを含む) は、SAP BTP におけるデフォルトの拡張開発のためのツールセットです。

Low Code ツールとしての SAP Build ツール：

• SAP Build Apps - モバイルおよび Web アプリケーションの作成
• SAP Build Process Automation - ビジネスプロセスとワークフローの自動化
• SAP Build Work Zone - デジタルワークスペースとビジネスサイトの作成

Pro Code ツールとしての SAP Build ツール：

• SAP Build Code - Business Application Studio (BAS) および Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) を使用して、アプリケーションや多くのものを作成します。
• ABAP Cloud - SAP BTP と SAP S/4HANA の両方で ABAP Cloudを使用します。(Teched 2024 でSAP Build に追加されたことが発表されました。)

対処すべき課題

• S/4HANA アプリケーションにおいてどの拡張方式が利用可能をシステムで直接特定することが容易ではないこと。
• S/4HANA アプリケーションにおいて適切な拡張ポイント (API、イベントなど) を決定するのは容易ではないこと。
• SAP S/4HANA をSAP BTP を用いてSide-by-side拡張を行う際に統合されたエクスペリエンスが存在しないこと。

イントロダクション

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2408 では、1 つのウィザードに統合されたOn-Stack (In-App)拡張とSide-by-side拡張の両方を提供する新しい拡張ウィザードを利用できます。
• これにより、拡張を開始するためのガイド付きエクスペリエンスが提供され、SAP S/4HANA から SAP Build へのシームレスなナビゲーションが可能になります。
• ウィザードでは、呼出し元の S/4HANA アプリケーション(例: 受注登録)が認識され、ビジネスコンテキストに基づいて関連する拡張ポイント (API、イベントなど) がフィルタリングされます。

　　　このウィザードには、以下に示す任意の拡張可能な SAP S/4HANA アプリからアクセスできます。　

　　　"拡張の登録" オプションは、S/4HANAの画面の右上にある Me Area (ユーザメニュー) にあります。

”拡張の登録”オプションをクリックすると、拡張ウィザードが開き、さまざまな拡張オプションが表示されます。

注記: "拡張登録" オプションを表示するための前提条件として、以下に記載されている設定ステップが必要となります。

設定方法
設定ステップの概要:

すべてのステップを詳細に説明するビデオ(YouTube )です。

セットアップの SAP ヘルプページ:

• SAP BTP 側の設定手順 - リンク (2502 最新 - 日本語)
• SAP S/4HANA側の設定手順 - リンク(2502 最新 - 日本語) 

ウィザードの拡張オプション (2024 年 9 月現在 )
On-Stack (In-App)拡張の領域

カスタム項目拡張

必要なビジネスオブジェクトへの新規項目の追加を可能にします。ウィザードにより、ビジネスコンテキストが事前に設定されたユーザ定義項目のFioriアプリが開きます。

カスタムロジック拡張

拡張ポイント(新しい BAdI ベースの標準機能拡張ポイント)を介したカスタムロジックの追加を可能にします。ウィザードにより、ビジネスコンテキストが事前に設定されたカスタムロジックのFioriアプリが開きます。

Side-by-side 拡張の領域

カスタムプロセス(=ワークフロー&RPA)拡張

SAP S/4HANA アプリのイベント(例: 受注伝票の登録)に基づいて開始される SAP Build Process Automation でプロセスを作成します。Wizard が起動された時点のSAP S/4HANA アプリのビジネスコンテキストに応じて関連するイベントが事前に絞られたるめ、簡単に目的のイベントを見つけることが可能です。

このプロセス拡張の詳細については、こちらののSAP Blog(英語) を参照してください。

拡張ウィザードは、今後、より多くの拡張オプションによって拡張される予定です。

結論
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 向けの新しい SAP Build 拡張ウィザードでは、On-Stack (In-App)拡張とSide-by-side拡張の両方を作成するためのシンプルなガイド付きエクスペリエンスが提供されます。

SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition システムへのアクセス権がある場合は、設定ステップに従い、拡張性ウィザードを確認します。

In the realm of cloud computing and enterprise technology, effective user authentication and synchronization are vital for smooth operations and enhanced security. By integrating SAP Integration Suite with SAP Cloud Identity Services, businesses can unlock the full potential of user management across SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and its applications.

• Usage Analytics will be available in the BTP Cockpit on productive landscapes from April 17 on
• Why Usage Analytics? Benefits for customers and partners (please list quotes to resources/articles that supports the activation of usage analytics)
  • Improve product experience and quality in the long run
• How it works?
  • First, customer consent is needed for every global account. Global account admins can decide whether they want to allow users to send anonymized usage data
  • Then, when individual user decides to take part, anonymized user interaction data will be collected.
  • Product teams will be able to see aggregated information about most visited pages, time spent per page, exit rate. This will help them to identify issues and prioritize improvements.
• Data Security and Privacy:
  • No Monetizing and Advertising: Your data will not be used for monetizing and advertising purposes.
  • Control: You have full control over whether to activate usage analytics. If you choose not to, your user experience will remain unchanged, but your anonymized data will not be collected.
  • Anonymized Data: The data collected through usage analytics is anonymized. This means it is stripped of any personally identifiable information.
  • Transparency: We are transparent about the data we collect and how it is used. You can find detailed information in our privacy policy.

We don’t collect any data related to your applications, that also includes inputs you’ve made.

In SAP Cloud ALM for Implementation, while both Guided Implementation and Task Management Application serve important roles in managing projects, each has its specific strengths and is designed for different use cases. Below, we compare both tools to help users understand when to use each application and the benefits they provide.

You can find more information about the Guided Implementation here. 

Guided Implementation 

• Purpose: A structured approach for managing and executing implementation tasks with clear task phases, dependencies, and roles.
• Key Benefits:
• Focused Execution: Ensures users see only tasks relevant to their role and project phase, improving task prioritization and reducing clutter.
• Role-Specific Filters: Tasks are filtered based on the user’s role, ensuring they only see tasks assigned to them or their role.
• Streamlined Workflow: Provides direct access to related tasks and checklist items, with a clear, visual progress tracker.
• Integrated Navigation: Users can easily navigate between tasks, quality gate checklist items, and project progress reporting.

When to Use: Use Guided Implementation when you need a streamlined, phase-based approach for task execution and project monitoring, especially during the initial stages of an implementation project where following a set order of tasks and completing checklists is critical.

Task Management Application

• Purpose: A comprehensive tool for managing detailed tasks, tracking their completion, and handling task dependencies across various project types.
• Key Benefits:
• Detailed Task Management: Suitable for detailed task tracking, including assignments, deadlines, dependencies, and task progress.
• Customizable Views: Provides flexibility in creating custom views and task reports tailored to the needs of the project.
• Advanced Task Editing: Ideal for complex tasks that require detailed editing or handling of multiple dependencies and relationships.

When to Use: Use the Task Management Application when you need deep task tracking with flexibility and advanced configurations, such as handling non-linear dependencies or when tasks do not follow a strict phase-based approach.

Summary: When to Use What

• Use Guided Implementation for a structured, easy-to-follow approach when managing SAP project implementation tasks, particularly when handling project phases, task dependencies, and quality gates. It's perfect for teams focused on following a well-defined, linear path to success.
• Use Task Management Application when the project requires more granular, flexible task tracking, especially when tasks are non-sequential, complex, or need custom configurations that go beyond the scope of Guided Implementation.