Overview of SAP Analytics Cloud Connectivity & Modeling

In this blog, we will look at the architecture and modelling options available for business to make the most effective use of the analytic capabilities that SAP Analytics Cloud (formerly known as SAP BusinessObjects Cloud) has to provide.

SAP’s BusinessObjects Cloud * the platform is built on the HANA Cloud System. This offers you all the features available with SAP HANA and it is topped off with a predictive analytics system that has been developed from scratch.

SAP Analytics Cloud Architecture

This merges your analytic, planning, predictive and data integration all into one single platform. This allows you to enable your customers to embrace Business Intelligence the way it was meant to be without having to avoid multiple systems and displays to obtain what they desired.

As an example, if you require simple planning applications on top of your sales data, it would be tough to get it done when you have different systems to plan and view the data. This issue becomes acute when you need simple sales planning without needing to do disaggregations.

Also, because the platform is on the cloud, it becomes very easy to access the same saving time shed in VPN setups, etc. Business Objects Cloud * system can also be set up to integrate with your existing security to make sure that the data continues to be confidential.

The BusinessObjects Cloud * profile contains 3 different tiers, namely:

Core capacities: These deal with the basic building blocks of the HANA cloud platform and offer you data connectivity, integration, security and visualization all powered by HANA with a rich collection of APIs which helps in incorporating the same as applications into your existing BI landscape.

Analytic Capabilities: These are focused in the direction of analytics, dealing with data visualization, Basic Planning and predictive abilities which enables the users with the data they need real-time or staged. Also, the whole analytics experience has been revamped with the customer in mind which leads to fluid user experience with little training required.

Applications: All the analytic applications can be sewn together into a boardroom which provides you with several displays, multiple statistics access to your enterprise metrics. This permits a 30,000 feet view of the enterprise across multiple areas with the ability to drill down to the lowest level.

SAP Boardroom Solution for Executives

This allows you the option of having all your KPIs in one location with a boardroom like look and feel. The boardroom option supports several displays and you can do a dashboard that spans multiple screens and multiple KPIs. You can have drill downs for the KPIs and drill down to the most affordable degree of data available right there.

Let’s look at how SAP Analytics Cloud (previously called SAP BusinessObjects Cloud) * connects to your data sources and a couple of means to get there.

SAP Business Objects connectivity to data sources

Since BOC * is built on the SAP Cloud System, it uses real-time connectivity to your SAP HANA systems. You can run the queries on the source system directly without having to duplicate the data again on the SAP BusinessObjects Cloud * system. A high-level overview of the architecture is shown below.

If your data volumes are high then you can look at provisioning an instance of SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) to hold your data and also load data from your on-premise systems to SCP. BusinessObjects Cloud * will then access SCP real-time and run your analytics on the same.

Closing Notes

That’s all for today. If you’re interested to read more blogs on this topic, feel free to visit our website.

At ZaranTech, we also offer a wide range of self-paced, online SAP-related courses. Browse through our course pages for further information.

Happy learning!