SAP Datasphere (formerly SAP Data Warehouse Cloud): The Future of Data Warehousing

The SAP Datasphere (formerly DWC) is an end-to-end solution that covers all areas from data management to modeling and analysis. With the Datasphere, both business and IT are provided with an environment in which they can perform all their necessary activities such as transforming, modeling or visualizing data. While BW applications are primarily aimed at IT staff, the Datasphere empowers business users to independently create data models and connect sources. With the Datasphere, on the other hand, the focus is primarily on the collaborative aspect, in order to dissolve the restricted data access between the business department and IT. On the one hand, the goal is to provide IT with an application in which it can manage its data, and on the other hand, to offer the business the option of using this data and enriching it with its own local data. The business departments are provided with their own Spaces for this purpose, in which they can select their data independently and establish connections to other data sources. In this way, the business users can model and transform their data in the Spaces without running the risk of modifying or even deleting reports that do not belong to the same department. In addition, the Spaces provide users with an overview of how much storage and computing resources are being consumed.

Unlike previous BW applications, Datasphere takes atop-down approach to data modeling. Data models are built from the top (semantic layer) down (data layer). In the semantic layer, all business users speak the same language with regard to dimensions, key figures and metadata. Business users no longer have to deal with technical terms, since all dimensions and metrics are described in natural language. and metrics are described in natural language. The business user does not need to know anything about the underlying data models. The main purpose of the top-down approach is that IT no longer has to filter the business-relevant information for each department; instead, the department can do this independently and tailor it to its own needs. needs. Thus, the Datasphere is not only centrally located in IT, as is usual with a DW, but is also part of the business department.

Since Datasphere is a SaaS solution, it naturally also benefits from the advantages of a cloud solution. With Datasphere, it is much easier to develop a prototype compared to the previous BW applications, since no setup or installation is necessary at the beginning. SAP takes care of updates and maintenance at this point. In terms of elasticity, computing resources are also distributed in such a way that they adapt to the respective requirements and can be scaled up or down as needed.