Describing Integration Challenges

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe the integration challenges

Integration Challenges in Hybrid Landscapes

Integration becomes a key enabler for the digital transformation of organizations. Many customers nowadays are dealing with hybrid landscapes spanning both cloud and on-premise deployments distributed around the globe. The associated requirements not only challenge the enterprise architecture but also offer opportunities for simplification and savings. On this slide, we outline the growing integration demands that arise when dealing with various integration domains and types of scenarios encountered when heterogeneous components and systems need to be integrated

The figure Illustration of Integration Domains in Hybrid Environments illustrates the integration domains and types of scenarios encountered when heterogeneous components and systems need to be integrated.

The systems to be connected typically "speak" different communication protocols and store their data in different formats and structures. Customers are challenged to extend their integration architecture to address these new domains of integration to exploit the richness of opportunities these areas offer.

As cloud, mobile, and internet of Things (IoT) scenarios are added to customers landscapes, the scope of integration continuously increases. Customers are challenged to extend their integration architecture to address these new domains of integration to exploit the richness of opportunities these area offer.

The Vision of SAP for Integrating SAP Applications (Cloud-to-Cloud and Hybrid)

Introduction

The figure, Vision for Integrating SAP Applications, shows the vision of SAP for integrating the applications of SAP.

API Business Hub

The SAP Business Accelerator Hub is a web application hosted by SAP to discover, explore, and test SAP and partner APIs (application programming interfaces) that are required to build extensions or process integrations.

APIs in SAP solutions use various protocols, documentation, and access mechanisms. Application and integration developers must have a consistent overview of the APIs available in the relevant SAP systems (deployed on-premise and in the cloud). Testing APIs and building prototypes also involves organizing access to relevant systems and tenants for developers.

SAP Business Accelerator Hub addresses these challenges by offering a central catalog of APIs, along with an integrated test environment in the cloud for easy testing. SAP Business Accelerator Hub covers APIs from SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP BTP, SAP Hybris, and more.

SAP Business Accelerator Hub therefore simplifies the development process and reduces effort for:

  • Application developers when building extensions (for example, when building extensions to applications within the same Line of Business), mobile applications, or Web applications
  • Integration developers when developing process integrations to third-party systems (Application-to-Application [A2A] or Business-to-Business [B2B])

Our Salient Features

  • Simple API discovery and exploration

    SAP Business Accelerator Hub allows you to find and explore APIs and API packages (a group of APIs) from SAP (SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Hybris, SAP BTP, and more) and selected partners. You can navigate to individual APIs, their resources, and supported operations. The integrated comprehensive API documentation in accordance with the OpenAPI specification helps you quickly understand the behavior of the APIs.

    Note

    SAP S/4HANA On-Premise APIs are not available in SAP API Business Hub.

  • Collaboration

    You can collaborate with other community members by providing comments and ratings for APIs you have used and use comments and ratings provided by other members to help you select your APIs.

  • Sandbox API testing

    You can test-drive selected APIs, either by making calls using the integrated, cloud-based sandbox test environment or by using your application of choice.

  • Integration with SAP Web IDE

    You can consume APIs on the SAP Business Accelerator Hub directly on SAP Web IDE to develop SAP Fiori extension apps.

Benefits of Using the SAP API Business Hub

  • Simplification

    SAP Business Accelerator Hub is a one-stop catalog to find, learn about, and consume an ever increasing number of SAP and selected partner APIs from different areas. As the repository is hosted and operated by SAP, it is always up to date and easy to access.

  • Streamlined development

    SAP Business Accelerator Hub enables a streamlined development process by eliminating overhead and technical prerequisites by providing Web tooling and cloud-based services.

  • Reduced total cost of extension and development

    Improves productivity by offering a comprehensive and easy learning and testing environment for developers. Easy consumption of APIs to develop SAP Fiori extension apps is enabled via integration with SAP Web IDE.

You can access the SAP Business Accelerator Hub using the URL: https://api.sap.com/

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