What is SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC)?

The forward-looking topics of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are more than just buzzwords; they are the key to your journey to becoming an intelligent enterprise. Access to a single, trusted database is crucial for making informed business decisions. SAP BTP offers a solution for precisely these use cases: the SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC).

The challenge: fragmented data and inflexible legacy systems

The reality for many SAP customers is a fragmented data landscape. Data is spread across different systems, including the classic SAP Business Warehouse (BW), SAP ECC, or S/4HANA, as well as many additional departmental solutions and cloud applications.

This fragmentation leads to massive problems:

• Data silos: There is no unified 360-degree view of the company, which makes solid, data-driven corporate management difficult.
• Inconsistency: Sales, marketing, and production often have their own “data truth” because data comes from different sources and is not synchronized. This undermines confidence in the company's own figures.
• High operating costs and inflexibility: BW architectures that have grown over many years tie up immense resources through maintenance costs, complex ETL routes, and individual customizations that require in-depth specialist knowledge.
• Pressure to modernize: Old architectures cannot keep up with dynamic requirements such as huge amounts of data or modern AI tools that require flexible scalability. Added to this is the imminent end of support for BW 7.5 standard maintenance at the end of 2027.

The SAP Business Data Cloud

The Business Data Cloud, which was introduced in February 2024 as a relatively new bundle, is SAP's strategic response to these challenges. Understand the BDC SAP not just as a single product, but as SAP's vision for a fundamental transformation of your entire data and analytics strategy.

The BDC is fully embedded in SAP BTP and relieves customers of the complexity of the infrastructure, as SAP takes over the operation. This allows you to focus on extracting real value from your data instead of worrying about the technical underpinnings.

The BDC builds on the strengths of SAP DataSphere and extends them to a deeply integrated environment that SAP calls the Business Data Fabric.

Core components of the BDC architecture:

BDC combines several powerful BTP services on a robust foundation, the SAP HANA Cloud:

1. SAP DataSphere: The core for data management and modeling. This is where data products are created and managed, and the integration of various data sources is controlled.
2. SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC): Serves as a central tool for reporting, visualization, planning, and analytics.
3. SAP DataBricks: Fully integrated for complex data processing pipelines to implement and operate AI and machine learning models in a procode approach (e.g., Python).
4. SAP BW in the Private Cloud Edition (PCE): An optional integration of the modernized SAP Business Warehouse.
5. BDC Cockpit: The central control unit for administration, subscription to Inside Apps, and management of authorizations.

The platform is multicloud-enabled, runs on hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), and is designed to integrate data from a variety of SAP applications (S/4HANA, SuccessFactors) and non-SAP sources (APIs, files).

The key concepts: Data Products and Inside Apps

The real magic of BDC lies in two new, central building blocks that enable consistency and fast results:

Data Products: The single source of truth

Data Products are reusable, quality-assured data modules. They not only contain raw data, but are also equipped with uniform, semantically rich business logic. This logic is managed in DataSphere and makes data from different sources comparable and consistent.

Data Products form the central single source of truth and can either be managed by SAP (for specific business areas such as finance) or created by you as a customer (Customer Managed BW Data Products), for example from your BW system.

Inside Apps: Fast business insights

Inside Apps are ready-made applications, dashboards, or planning scenarios developed by SAP or partners. The key feature is that they use data products as a reliable data source, eliminating the need for long and complex development cycles.

Their goal is to provide fast and often AI-supported business insights for specific questions and give business users easy access to complex evaluations.

The combination of clean, trustworthy data from data products and their intelligent, process-oriented use by inside apps leads to faster value creation and informed decisions.

Why BDC? The strategic advantages

The SAP Business Data Cloud is a strategic enabler that delivers three key benefits:

1. Flexible modernization and investment protection: BDC supports SAP's clean core strategy, as extensions and new analysis applications are created on the BTP platform rather than in the core system. Specifically for BW customers, a structured migration strategy towards BDC even ensures maintenance extension for SAP BW 7.5 systems until 2030 if they are migrated to PCE.
2. Faster results with prebuilt content: The platform's deep SAP expertise provides you with prebuilt content (SAP Managed Data Products and Inside Apps) based on decades of process knowledge. You can install these Inside Apps with a single click and combine them with your own BW data.
3. Future-proof with AI integration: BDC is future-oriented and serves as the data foundation for the entire SAP Business AI. Native integration of DataBricks enables sophisticated AI and machine learning applications directly on your enterprise data.

The path to the cloud: Migration for BW customers

For many customers with SAP BW NetWeaver systems, SAP recommends a clear two-step approach to migration:

Step 1: The lift (modernization of the basis)

• Your existing BW NetWeaver system is lifted into the Private Cloud Edition (PCE). This creates a stable, SAP-managed cloud basis. Conversion to SAP BW/4HANA is optional and can be done later in the PCE. With a clear BDC strategy, this step ensures that BW 7.5 maintenance will be extended until 2030.

Step 2: The shift (utilizing the logic)

• From the PCE Edition, you use the Data Product Generator.
• The generator reads your proven BW data and structures (e.g., InfoProviders) and publishes them as data products in the SAP DataSphere object store. This step enables you to quickly use your trusted, individual BW data and logic for new AI and analytics use cases within the BDC without having to wait for a complete modernization.

Even for customers who already use SAP BW/4HANA in the PCE, the second step is performed using the Data Product Generator (typically via a Fiori UI) to make their BW data available for innovative scenarios in the BDC.

PCG accompanies you every step of the way: from analyzing your existing BW landscape to successful operation in the cloud. Our goal: a smooth, risk-free transition with maximum added value for your company.

Use data meaningfully and comprehensively

SAP Business Data Cloud is the strategically necessary platform to end fragmentation in your data landscape and make your company fit for the age of artificial intelligence. It modernizes your data management, creates a single source of truth, and enables fast, informed business decisions through the interaction of data products and inside apps. Use BDC as part of BTP and get the most out of business intelligence.

We look forward to accompanying you on your individual BTP journey. The best first step: our BTP assessment questionnaire. Our questionnaire will give you an initial assessment of your individual potential for BTP. Discover opportunities for optimization and lay the foundation for your individual roadmap toward an innovative SAP strategy.