Lifting SAP BW to SAP Business Data Cloud

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to lift existing SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA as is to the private cloud edition in SAP Business Data Cloud.

Lift SAP BW

Usage Scenario

There are three key steps to the SAP BW modernization path that integrates SAP BW into an SAP Business Data Cloud landscape:

  1. Lift SAP BW (or SAP BW/4HANA) to SAP Business Data Cloud.
  2. Shifting SAP BW (or SAP BW/4HANA) to SAP Business Data Cloud.
  3. Innovating SAP BW (or SAP BW/4HANA) in SAP Business Data Cloud

Let's first explore the lift step.

In SAP terminology, 'lift' refers to transitioning or migrating data, processes, or entire systems from one environment to another, typically from on-premise to the cloud. In the SAP BW modernization path, lift means lifting your existing SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA on-premises deployment to the private cloud component of SAP Business Data Cloud.

Let's explore the requirements of the SAP BW system to be lifted and the advantages of this lift.

SAP BW System Requirements

To lift your existing SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA on-premises deployment to the private cloud component of SAP Business Data Cloud, the following prerequisites apply:

  • SAP BW System: Your existing system must be on a compatible version:

    • SAP BW Netweaver 7.5 SPS 24+ or higher

    • SAP BW/4HANA 1.0, 2.0, 2021 or 2023

      Note

      The SAP BW Data Product Generator is supported for the releases SAP BW/4HANA 2023 SP0 or higher, SAP BW/4HANA 2021 SP4 or higher, and SAP BW in SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SP24 or higher.

  • Database: Your SAP BW system must be running on an SAP HANA database. If your SAP BW NetWeaver system is not running on an SAP HANA database, you will need to migrate to SAP BW powered by SAP HANA as a prerequisite before moving to the cloud.

The picture shows upgrade and migration paths from different SAP BW landscapes to “SAP BW, private cloud edition in SAP Business Data Cloud” (the target box on the right). Main starting points on the left: SAP BW NetWeaver 7.5+ and SAP BW/4HANA (versions 1.0, 2.0, 2021, 2023). Key steps/decisions depicted for BW NetWeaver systems: Branches for “Any DB” and “HANA DB”, If on Any DB, first upgrade the database to HANA, Ensure the system is on BW 7.5 on HANA, Decision “BW 7.5 SPS 24?”; if No, update to the latest SPS (shown as SPS 31) before moving on, From there, arrows lead to the SAP BW, private cloud edition target. Key steps/decisions depicted for BW/4HANA systems: Lines from BW/4HANA 1.0 and 2.0 go to “Upgrade to BW/4HANA 2023, For BW/4HANA 2021 there’s a decision “BW/4HANA 2021 SPS 04?”; if No, update to the latest SPS, For BW/4HANA 2023, update to the latest SPS (shown as SPS 11) , All compliant/updated paths feed into the same target: SAP BW, private cloud edition in SAP Business Data Cloud. Overall, the picture summarizes required upgrades (DB to HANA, BW 7.5 SPS level, BW/4HANA release/SPS) before migrating to SAP BW private cloud edition.

Converting the SAP BW NetWeaver system to SAP BW/4HANA is not required for the move to SAP Business Data Cloud.

However if you, starting from SAP BW 7.5 NetWeaver on-premise, want to move towards SAP BW/4HANA, private cloud edition, there are different paths:

  • Lift SAP BW 7.5 on-premise to the SAP BW 7.5, private cloud edition: You can then later perform a conversion to SAP BW/4HANA.

  • In-place conversion: First convert SAP BW 7.5 on-premise to SAP BW/4HANA on-premise and then lift SAP BW/4HANA on-premise to SAP BW/4HANA, private cloud edition.

  • Shell or remote conversion: Convert from SAP BW 7.5 on-premise to SAP BW/4HANA, private cloud edition.

  • Directly start with SAP BW/4HANA, private cloud edition: Use a greenfield or carve-out approach to directly start with SAP BW/4HANA, private cloud edition.

Advantages of Lifting SAP BW to SAP Business Data Cloud

Let’s have a look at the advantages of lifting SAP NetWeaver BW 7.5 to SAP Business Data Cloud:

  • Existing SAP NetWeaver BW 7.5 organizations now have the same innovation path as SAP BW/4HANA organizations: Before the introduction of SAP Business Data Cloud, existing SAP NetWeaver BW 7.5 organizations that wanted to modernize to a cloud environment needed an upgrade project. This is because all the SAP Datasphere hybrid innovations (e.g. SAP Datasphere, BW bridge and model transfer) required a full or partial conversion to SAP BW/4HANA.

  • Extra time to consider the role of SAP BW and SAP BW/4HANA going forward: After lifting to the private cloud, your SAP NetWeaver BW 7.5 mainstream maintenance is extended to 2030, instead of 2027.

  • Continue using the full range of SAP BW features: Continue using the full range of SAP BW features without changing or adapting objects.

Let's also consider common advantages of lifting for both existing SAP NetWeaver BW 7.5 and SAP BW/4HANA organizations:

  • Immediate exposure of valuable SAP BW data: You can gradually introduce new use cases without waiting for the modernization journey to be completed.

  • Gradually shift SAP BW use cases to SAP Datasphere: Organizations can gradually shift SAP BW use cases to SAP Datasphere and replace respective data flows with proven capabilities within SAP Datasphere.

  • Added value of SAP Business Data Cloud: Benefit from the added value of SAP Business Data Cloud with data products, intelligent applications, object store integration as well as SAP Databricks.

  • An SAP-managed environment: removing hardware maintenance and lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

  • The SAP Business Warehouse services in SAP Business Data Cloud fall under the same cloud contract as SAP Business Data Cloud, not under RISE: This simplifies the commercial transition to the public cloud services. Since it’s all in Capacity Units, organizations can downsize their SAP BW deployment without a change in their (RISE) contract, and they can re-allocate the freed-up Capacity Units to other SAP Business Data Cloud capacity services in self-service mode.

Let's Summarize What You've Learned

In this lesson you learned about the requirements of the SAP BW system to be lifted:

  • Ensure SAP BW is on NetWeaver 7.5 SPS 24+ or higher, running on SAP HANA database.
  • Migration to SAP BW powered by SAP HANA is required if not already on the SAP HANA database.
  • Converting the SAP BW NetWeaver system to SAP BW/4HANA is not required for the move to SAP Business Data Cloud.

You also learned about the advantages of this lift:

  • Cloud migration extends SAP BW 7.5 maintenance to 2030, offering more time for strategic planning.
  • Benefit from an SAP-managed environment, which reduces hardware maintenance and lowers Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
  • Gradually shift SAP BW use cases to SAP Datasphere and replace respective data flows with proven capabilities within SAP Datasphere.
  • Benefit from the added value of SAP Business Data Cloud with data products, intelligent applications, object store integration as well as SAP Databricks.

Learning

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