Connections provide the communication between SAP Analytics Cloud and your data sources. Those data sources can be cloud-based or on-premise. A connection must be made to a specific data source, so if you have more than one data source, you will have more than one connection in SAP Analytics Cloud.
There are two types of connections – live and import.
Let's look at the differences between live connections and import connections for on-premise sources.
Currently, only SAP data sources/systems can be accessed via a live connection:
- SAP Cloud Platform
- SAP HANA and HANA Cloud
- SAP BW and BW/4HANA
- SAP Datasphere
- SAP S/4HANA and S/4HANA Cloud
- SAP Universe or WebI document
Import connections, however, can connect to many data sources/systems, even non-SAP such as Google Drive, SQL databases, OData Services, and more.
Your organization must decide which connection type to use, according to your own unique needs. As you evaluate which connection type to use, consider the following criteria:
- Functional needs
- Data privacy constraints
- Data volume constraints
It is also important to review the system requirements and technical prerequisites, and to check whether your landscape is compliant with what is supported for your version and connection type.
