SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC): the future of data warehousing

The DWC is an end-to-end solution that covers all areas from data management to modelling and analysis. With DWC, both the business department and IT are provided with an environment in which they can carry out all their necessary activities such as transforming, modelling or visualising data. While BW applications are primarily aimed at IT staff, the DWC enables business users to independently create data models and connect sources. With DWC, on the other hand, the focus is primarily on the collaborative aspect in order to dissolve the limited data access between the business department and IT. On the one hand, the aim is to provide IT with an application in which it can manage its data and, on the other hand, to offer the department the possibility 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 changing or even deleting reports from other departments. In addition, the Spaces provide users with an overview of how much storage and computing resources are being consumed.

Unlike previous BW applications, the DWC takes a top-down approach to data modelling. 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. The business users no longer have to deal with technical terms, as all dimensions and key figures are described in natural language. and metrics are described in natural language. The business user does not need any knowledge of 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, but the department can do this independently and adapt it to its own needs. needs. Thus, the DWC is not only centrally located in IT, as is usual with a DW, but is also part of the department.

Since the DWC is a SaaS solution, it naturally also benefits from the advantages of a cloud solution. With the DWC, it is much easier to develop a prototype compared to the previous BW applications, as no setup or installation is necessary at the beginning. SAP takes over the 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.