SAP Datasphere and its BW Bridge: a winning team

Hi there!

Welcome to the third stage of our Tour of SAP Datasphere!

During this stage we will be tackling a very exciting feature of SAP Datasphere – The BW Bridge.

In the Tour De France, riders climb mountains to be rewarded the polka dot jersey. In our tour, we are rewarded with a seamless BW integration in SAP Datasphere by setting up the BW Bridge. With this feature, you can easily bring your existing SAP Business Warehouse (BW) data (models) into the cloud, unlocking new opportunities for data-driven insights.

Let’s clip into our pedals…

What is the BW Bridge?

The BW Bridge is a feature in SAP Datasphere that brings functionalities of BW/4HANA into the Datasphere platform. When you set up the BW Bridge, a dedicated space is created that runs on an ABAP runtime environment. This allows you to reuse existing BW models, such as infoproviders and transformations in Datasphere, and take advantage of advanced BW capabilities within SAP’s Datasphere platform.

It’s important to note that the BW Bridge does not have OLAP features, so it is not intended to be used as a source for reporting. It is only intended to help you reuse existing BW models in Datasphere, or to use advanced BW capabilities within Datasphere.

Datasphere and BW Bridge, nice! But should we leave our on-premise SAP system peloton behind?

SAP Datasphere and the BW Bridge are not necessarily intended to replace BW on HANA or BW/4HANA. Rather, they are designed to work alongside these existing platforms and provide additional capabilities for data management and analysis.

The BW Bridge is a feature within SAP Datasphere that allows users to reuse existing BW models and take advantage of advanced BW capabilities within the Datasphere platform. This can be useful for organizations that want to migrate their data and models from BW on HANA or BW/4HANA to Datasphere, or that want to use both platforms in tandem.

2 scenarios exist:

Scenario 1: From SAP on premise to SAP Datasphere

In this scenario, you can use SAP Datasphere (DWC) to work with data coming from your on-premise S/4HANA and/or BW/4HANA systems. There are several ways to do this.

For example, you can set up your BW/4HANA system to collect data from S/4HANA and other sources, and do all of your BW modeling there. Once the data is ready for analysis, you can federate it to DWC so that your business users can access it and do their own modeling in the cloud. This can be a useful way to take advantage of the scalability and flexibility of DWC while still using your existing BW/4HANA system.

At the same time, DWC can also get data in real-time from S/4HANA for operational reporting purposes, among other use cases. This can be a useful way to get real-time insights into your business operations and make data-driven decisions on the fly.

Scenario 2: From SAP on premise to BW Bridge

If you have an S/4HANA system but don’t have a modern, up-to-date data warehousing solution, the BW Bridge feature in SAP Datasphere (DWC) might be a good fit for you. Whether you have a legacy BW system that you want to carve out or no data warehousing solution at all, the BW Bridge can help you take advantage of BW features right within DWC.

To get started, you can replicate data from your S/4HANA system to the BW Bridge using ODP (Operational Data Provisioning). Once the connection is set up using the Cloud Connector, you’ll have access to important BW features like InfoObjects, InfoProviders, Transformations, and even ABAP. Non-SAP sources can connect directly to DWC itself.

Tour of Datasphere Stage 2 retrospective

In conclusion, the BW Bridge is a powerful feature within SAP Datasphere that allows users to take advantage of BW/4HANA capabilities within the cloud platform. Whether you have a legacy BW system that you want to migrate to DWC or no data warehousing solution at all, the BW Bridge can help you access important BW features like InfoObjects, InfoProviders, Transformations, and ABAP.

Continue your tour!

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