BusinessObjects Explorer – Deployment

[former_member186358]

I had been working on couple of deployment projects of late and mostly on Data Services, BWA and BusinessObjects Explorer. So I thought I will post some of my learning’s from my previous projects in this blog series.

Let me start with BusinessObjects Explorer Deployment. 

Before you rush to install BusinessObjects Explorer, first understand different versions of BusinessObjects Explorer at a very high level.

“Explore your Business at the Speed of Thought”. Candidly, i think the tagline is just perfect for this tool.

BusinessObjects Explorer Standard Version: This version is for customers who want to leverage Universe and Excel Spreadsheet as their data source, and who don't need the high performance and scalability of in-memory analytics.

BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated Version: The name says it all, along with the features of standard version you can leverage the BWA (SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator) as the data source.

Note: BusinessObjects Explorer is an Add-on for BusinessObjects Enterprise platform.

Now let’s look at different deployment options:

Deployment without SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

Standard Hardware:

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 SP2

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Client tools XI3.1 SP2

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer XI 3.2

SAP BusinessObjects Integration kit for SAP Solutions SP2

     Data Sources: Universe and Excel Spreadsheets

Needless to say, you can leverage SAP and non SAP data sources as well via Universe.

Note: In this kind of deployment Index has to be created and stored as part of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer landscape. How ever keep in mind, you will not be able to handle huge amount of data if the index is created and stored as a part of BusinessObjects Explorer.

Now comes the interesting part….

Deployment with SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

You will be able to leverage the “Indexed Info Providers” from BWA (Info Cubes, Multi Providers…etc.), nothing can beat this 😉

Deployment Option 1: If the source system is SAP.

Deployment Option 2: If the customer is already using SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise on standard hardware and the source system is SAP.

Deployment Option 3: If the source system is Non-SAP.  (This deployment option allows you to leverage any data source.)

Deployment Option 1

Blade Hardware:

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer - AcceleratedVersion

SAP BusinessObjects Integration kit for SAP Solutions

If you are wondering what this "Blade Hardware" is?? Then i would recommend you to google it, there is great information about SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator on SDN which will give you clear picture about that.

Deployment Option 2

Standard Hardware:

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1

SAP BusinessObjects Integration kit for SAP Solutions

Blade Hardware:

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer – Accelerated Version

Deployment Option 3

Blade Hardware:

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer – Accelerated Version

SAP BusinessObjects Accelerator

 DataSources: Universe, Excel Spreadsheets and SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator (typically any Source System)

I know you must be asking yourself “Now, what is this BO Accelerator”??

It is just the combination of SAP BusinessObjects Data Services and SAP BusinessObjects Accelerator Index Designer (you can basically index any source system).

Now depending on your existing landscape, just go ahead and deploy the BusinessObjects Explorer. I hope this blog gave you a “Big Picture” view from 10000 feet about different deployment options.

If you have never experienced the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, then you should try this https://goexplore.ondemand.com/session/new...believe me you will love it.