Thursday, October 17, 2020

Data Connectivity - Better Time to Value

Will your Analytics platform connect to the same data sources that your BI platform does? If so, then utilizing a Universe connector is a convenient option that may be a valid consideration. However, planning for Hybrid is planning for the future, and you need to consider the future role of your BI platform. If the role of your BI platform will be diminished as the role of your Analytics platform is augmented, then you may be creating a long-term problem by implementing a short-term solution.

If there is future potential for your current BI platform to be scaled back significantly or even decommissioned, then using a Universe connector for development efforts now will create a system dependency challenge for down the road. Changing data connectivity and data modelling methods at that time, and the associated retrofitting within existing report content, will then be a much larger and more expensive undertaking. Also, if you proceed with using a Universe connector, you may also have to revisit your BI platform's sizing, because it will now be processing data requests and queries for two BI/Analytics platforms.

Also, once you have built a library of stories in SAP Analytics Cloud / SAP S/4HANA based on your Universe connector, there is no migration path to a different connector in the future. If you choose a new connector in the future, such as SAP HANA or APOS Live Data Gateway, you will have to rebuild all of your stories completely in order to phase out the Universe connector.

If you plan to use Cloud-based newer data platforms such as the so-called hyperscalers -- Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft Azure -- then you need to investigate a data connectivity solution that can grow with your Analytics platform. APOS Live Data Gateway is such a solution: it allows your SAP Analytics Cloud platform to connect to well over 150 different data sources, including the aforementioned hyperscalers. But that's only half the story. APOS Live Data Gateway can also transform data from these data sources to be consumed by many other data platforms, such as SAP Datasphere.

At a recent ASUGForward event, APOS customer W.R. Grace described how they implemented APOS Live Data Gateway as an integral part of their data architecture:

ASUGForward - W.R. Grace - SAP Analytics Cloud & Google BigQuery