SAP BDC Ecosystem: Integrating Heterogeneous Data Sources and Simplifying Complex Data Landscapes with SAP BDC.

SAP BDC (Business Data Cloud) integrates data from various sources, including SAP and non-SAP systems, into a centralized location. The system resides in SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) and uses in-built connectors to connect to sources. SAP Datasphere, a cloud-based data warehouse solution, is also available within SAP BDC. Data Products, such as ready-to-use data products, can be found in the SAP BDC Cockpit and used to integrate third-party data. SAP BDC eliminates the need to recreate business context lost during data extraction, enabling business stakeholders to make informed decisions with confidence.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, data is ubiquitous but often fragmented and difficult to manage. SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) addresses these challenges by integrating data from various sources, including SAP and non-SAP systems, into a centralized location. Residing on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), BDC leverages in-built connectors to facilitate seamless data integration. A key component within BDC is SAP Datasphere, a cloud-based data warehouse solution that provides a unified environment for data integration, modeling, transformation, and governance [1].

BDC offers several core components that contribute to its functionality. SAP Datasphere acts as the bedrock, providing a unified environment for data integration, modeling, transformation, and governance. It supports diverse storage options, including high-performance in-memory, cost-effective disk, and object storage, via SAP HANA Cloud and Data Lake. Additionally, SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) delivers advanced analytics, planning, and predictive capabilities, while SAP Databricks brings powerful AI/ML, data science, and big data engineering capabilities directly into the SAP ecosystem [1].

The BDC Cockpit serves as the central administrative console, enabling users to manage roles, configurations, and deployments. It also acts as the primary entry point for data analysts and data scientists to discover, activate, and monitor data products and intelligent applications. Data Products, such as ready-to-use datasets, are curated and governed, providing business stakeholders with actionable insights without recreating business context lost during data extraction [1].

SAP BDC's architecture is built on several key principles, including data gravity and zero-copy sharing. Data gravity ensures that data is processed where it resides, minimizing unnecessary movement and duplication. Zero-copy sharing allows datasets to be securely shared across different internal services and external platforms without physical replication, ensuring data freshness and reducing operational overhead [1].

Security is a paramount concern for BDC. The system employs a multi-layered isolation and security model, ensuring secure separation of customer environments and data. This model leverages SAP BTP subaccounts, SAP Analytics Cloud spaces, and HANA Cloud schema-level isolation, along with federated identity and fine-grained role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce strong boundaries across structured and unstructured data [1].

In conclusion, SAP Business Data Cloud provides a robust solution for unifying data from diverse sources, enabling business stakeholders to make informed decisions with confidence. By integrating data from SAP and non-SAP systems, and leveraging advanced analytics and AI capabilities, BDC offers a comprehensive platform for modernizing data management and governance.

References:
[1] https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-business-data-cloud-secure-by-design-and-intelligent-by-default/ba-p/14145367