SAP Gateway originated in the need for mobile access to business data. Watch the video to understand what started this development.
The OData Provider SAP Gateway
Without a standard how to access business data in a mobile environment, development efforts were not transferable to other scenarios they were built for. Watch the video to see how OData took over this role and where SAP Gateway came into play.
OData Benefits
The most important point is that the OData service forms a kind of contract between the non-SAP side and the SAP side, helping to bring together developers on both sides.
Based on Representational State Transfer (REST), OData provides compelling benefits for SAP application development, which include the following:
Flexible Deployment of SAP Gateway
The tasks of SAP Gateway are split into a hub and back-end framework. This makes it possible to operate each framework in a separated system: A front-end server (FES) (also known as hub) and back-end server (BES). The systems communicate via RFC (Remote Function Call), which is the most efficient communication between ABAP systems. Such a deployment is called a hub deployment because of the FES acting as a hub for the BES(s).
Every Application Server (AS) ABAP since 7.40 provides both, the front-end and back-end framework, from scratch. So it is perfectly fine – and even recommended for SAP S/4HANA – to run both frameworks in the same system. Such a deployment is then called an embedded deployment.