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18.2 SAP HANA Cloud Integration

1. Why HANA Cloud matters​

SAP HANA Cloud can act as:

  • an application database,
  • an analytical database,
  • a remote source,
  • a transformation runtime,
  • a staging layer,
  • an extension platform.

Datasphere and HANA Cloud are related but should not be treated as interchangeable products.

2. Architecture​

SAP Datasphere
      |
connection / remote access
      |
SAP HANA Cloud
      |
tables / views / application data

SAP HANA Cloud supports remote-source access and virtual tables through SAP HANA smart data access. Datasphere can also expose Open SQL schemas that external tools can access.

3. Boundary design​

Ask:

  • Is HANA Cloud the system of record?
  • Is it an application database?
  • Is it a temporary processing layer?
  • Is Datasphere the semantic owner?
  • Who operates each layer?

4. Federation​

Federated access can reduce copying, but query execution may cross the system boundary.

Therefore measure:

  • network transfer,
  • source execution,
  • join pushdown,
  • cardinality,
  • concurrency,
  • source workload.

5. Persistence​

Persist into Datasphere when the enterprise needs:

  • reusable local data,
  • predictable analytics,
  • controlled source load,
  • local transformations,
  • historical snapshots.

6. Open SQL relationship​

Datasphere provides Open SQL schemas with database users for external tools and applications. These schemas are an integration mechanism, not a replacement for every Datasphere ingestion capability.

7. Architect exercise​

A CAP application stores 2 billion business-event rows in HANA Cloud.

Design:

  • operational access,
  • analytical integration,
  • retention,
  • replication,
  • security,
  • failure handling.

Explain why every copy exists.