SAP Cloud Integration is a cloud-based integration platform that enables businesses to connect and integrate various applications and systems. It supports the integration of on-premise and cloud applications, allowing data to flow seamlessly and hence connecting processes across different systems.
The official name is Cloud Integration, capability of SAP Integration Suite or in short simply Cloud Integration. However, SAP Cloud Integration is commonly used, for instance, in the SAP Help Portal, where you can find further documentation.
Cloud Integration was renamed in the past. Knowing the former names and commonly used abbreviations can be helpful when searching the internet for additional resources and tips. Former names were:
- SAP HANA Cloud Integration (HCI)
- SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI)
Runtime Environments
Cloud Integration runs on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and it is available for two different environments of BTP:
- Neo is the older environment that is phased out (find more details on that in the SAP Help Portal).
- Cloud Foundry (CF) is the newer environment, based on open-source technology, and can be run on the infrastructure of different providers.
Depending on the environment, the user interface looks slightly different and handling of credentials for inbound connections works differently. Apart from that, most tasks carried out during this course are applicable to both versions and differences are mentioned.
The following screenshot shows the Discover view of SAP Cloud Integration within the Neo environment on the left and the Cloud Foundry environment on the right for comparison:
As you can see, the WebUI looks very similar in both environments, and managing integration content works the same. Hence, we will not emphasize a particular environment for this course.
Cloud Integration consists of the following two main components that run as subscription services/applications on SAP BTP and are reachable under different hostnames:
The WebUI, sometimes also referred to as tenant management node, can be accessed with a browser and is used to organize, configure, create, and edit integration content.
- The runtime or worker node, where the integration content runs after it has been configured and deployed.
Note
Keep in mind that the WebUI and the runtime have different hostnames. This is especially important when setting up integrations from other systems to Cloud Integration. For that, you must use the runtime hostname, which can be easily obtained from a deployed integration flow. This will be shown later.WebUI
The WebUI allows you to manage integration content. As the name suggests, it can be accessed from a browser, platform-independent, without additional software installed. (In the early days, the Eclipse development environment was needed to carry out certain tasks. Nowadays, everything can be done using the browser.)
Depending on the SAP BTP environment, the start screen and the access URL look slightly different:
For the BTP Neo environment, the WebUI access URL usually looks like https://vXXXX-tmn.avt.YYY.hana.ondemand.com/itspaces
In the Neo environment, it is important to enter the URL including /itspaces at the end. Otherwise, you receive an error.
For the BTP Cloud Foundry environment, the WebUI access URL could look as follows:https://XXXXXXXX.integrationsuite.cfapps.YYYY.hana.ondemand.com/shell/home
These URLs are only samples for Cloud Integration tenants where the characters 'X' and 'Y' are placeholders for tenant names and data centers. If in doubt, you can navigate to the WebUI from the BTP cockpit. Search for the by navigating to Services → Instances and Subscriptions
The WebUI consists of the following three main areas also referred to as views or sections:
Discover
This view focuses on discovering and exploring existing integration content and artifacts. It allows users to search and browse through pre-built integration flows, adapters, and mappings available in the SAP Cloud Integration content catalog. This view helps users leverage existing integration assets and accelerators, reducing development efforts, and enabling faster integration.
Design
This view is the place where users can browse their integration packages, configure prepackaged integration content, or create new, custom integration content.
The Design area also provides a visual designer where users can edit integration flows, maintain message mappings, apply transformations, define routing rules to orchestrate the flow of data between different systems and applications, and much more.
Monitor / Operations
This view allows users to monitor and manage integration scenarios in real time. It provides visibility into the performance and health of integration flows, enabling users to track message processing, monitor error rates, and identify bottlenecks or issues. The Operations view also offers features like security material and keystore maintenance, or connectivity tests to help users administrate and troubleshoot integration scenarios.
