Ben Hofmans, HANA Cloud Integration product owner, more specifically for Data Services provided this ASUG webcast. As background you can read richard.hirsch’s blog and comments What if HANA Cloud Integration was already productive and nobody knew (or cared)
Another blog is SAP HANA Cloud Integration, First Thoughts by p.dewit
HANA Cloud Integration is an on demand version of Data Services. The usual disclaimer applies – things discussed below are subject to change. Please note these are my notes and I am not a subject matter expert in this area.
Figure 1: Source
Figure 1 shows that there different kinds of clouds
Integration is important in all cloud types
On the left of Figure 1 is the Managed Cloud where SAP provides hosted version of software - HANA Enterprise Cloud is an example – you get a HANA box – it is not in your network, you don’t acquire hardware or maintain. It is by SAP in the managed cloud.
In the middle blue box – LOB applications – SuccessFactors, ByDesign, Sales & Operations Planning, Travel on Demand – you don’t have access to HANA database but the UI’s to connect to cloud applications.
Third area is Marketplace – launched at SAPPHIRE – you buy SAP applications – mainly Amazon and other partner clouds provided later
There are many clouds. Integration is an important service, says Ben.
Figure 2: Source: SAP
LOB (“line of business) users is on the left and the right is IT with their requirements – for integration between on premise and in cloud
LOB users want a single source of truth and master data synchronization – one master system for employees, customers .
LOB needs more real-time business process integration
IT's main concern is data security.
Figure 3: Source: SAP
On premise in the cloud and on premise systems and third party solutions
SAP HANA Cloud integration includes process integration and data integration
NetWeaver PI & Data Serivces for data integration - the Cloud brings these two together, with real time process integration.
It has pre-packaged integration flows from SAP system on premise, with a place to share content
SAP HANA Cloud Integration (Data Services)
The same development team who works on premise works on the cloud offering.
This is Data Services in SAP HANA Cloud, which is a new solution, new architecture, for multi-tenant cloud environment
Figure 4: Source: SAP
SOP is Sales & Operations Planning and since last December is live and GA
It can move data from on premise (ERP APO) and load to HANA hosted in cloud – where SOP planning is built.
SOP enables organizations to align supply & demand in real-time
Figure 5: Source: SAP
The SuccessFactors application is used to manage employee performance
For business execution use BizX
You can get data from on premise or the other way around, as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 6: Source: SAP
You can access SAP HANA box and SAP HANA marketplace, with your HANA database, data services
You can use this to extract data from on-premise (Business Suite, or data bases) and load to Hana database
Figure 7: Source: SAP
Figure 7 shows Data Services on Demand, available today. It provides a role based user interface
Data Services extractors that work for on premise also work for Cloud, said Ben.
Figure 8: Source: SAP
Figure 8 shows that there is a lightweight installation inside – where to install, which user to install
The agent packages and sends through https to the cloud
You do not need to open firewall - the request is from on premise to the cloud
Figure 9: Source: SAP
Ben said you do not need a hard core development. It offers an HTML5 interface as shown in Figure 9.
You can drag and drop to model data flows from on premise to the cloud or the other way
During this webcast, Ben provided a demo of integration.ondemand.com
Figure 10: Source: SAP
Later this year they plan to offer a license not tied to an SAP cloud application
Limited ETL – only focused on what cloud applications needed (this does not include unstructured)
Figure 11: Source: SAP
Ben said Figure 11 was presented at SAPPHIRE.
SAP Lumira is the new BI on demand solution – need to load to cloud – Hana cloud will play a role for delta loads
Subset of Question & Answer
Q: Is "Data Services On Demand" only applicable when loading data onto the SAP cloud, or could be used to load data onto an on premise SAP system ?
A: For the moment, the Cloud needs to be one end of it. It can load into the on premise system.
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Q: Does this provide integration for SAP BW and SF Workforce Analytics?
A: Workforce Analytics is in pilot. Not GA yet.
A: Currently it is not available yet for SAP BW
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Q: SAP Cloud for Travel - we are very close to purchasing Travel On Demand - should we ask our SAP sales person about whether HCI would be the way to integrate with on-premise ERP? I assume it would be included in ToD pricing?
A: Definitely worth enquiring.
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Q: How is performance of the data loading ensured?
A: There are 3 parts that influence performance: (1) extraction, (2) data transfer to the cloud and (3) inserts in the HANA target database.
The onPremise agent is based on the SAP Data Services engine, so has a long history of optimizing extraction from various sources through native protocols (RFC, business content extractors and ABAP generation, as well as native database access for non-SAP systems).
For the data transfer to the cloud, the onPremise agent will compress the data before sending it to the cloud. This is also the part of the overall loading time where bandwidth between the customer’s network and the cloud plays a major role.
Once the data is received by the HCI server component, a dedicated HANA loader will take care of high performance inserts/updates in the HANA database in the cloud.
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Q: In which country is the cloud data stored?
A: SAP has Data Centers across the world.
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Q: I assume Hana Cloud Integration can schedule tasks, can one task call another task? Resulting in the triggering of Tasks, based on other task completion.
A: Yes, HCI can schedule tasks.
Scheduling is currently time-based only, it is not possible to set dependencies between tasks, or launch one task from another task.
Special thanks to ina.mutschelknaus for setting up this ASUG webcast and Ben Hofmans for providing it.
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