SAP Business Data Cloud

SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) is a fully managed SaaS platform that extends existing SAP technologies (e.g. Datasphere and Analytics Cloud) with new features in a unified environment. It ensures a unified data infrastructure in the sense of a business data fabric and, for the first time, brings together data warehouse and data lake approaches in a common lakehouse architecture. Unlike previous solutions, BDC relies on an open data ecosystem: Through close integration with SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Datasphere , and partner technologies, companies can flexibly use both SAP and non-SAP data. Standardized interfaces and APIs facilitate data access and allow existing IT landscapes to be modernized step by step. This creates a trustworthy "single source of truth" for all business data, providing departments with consistent information in the right context for informed decisions. 

SAP clarifies that existing SAP Datasphereand SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) investments are protected. These services remain central building blocks of the BDC strategy. Current users can continue to use their solutions without interruption and, over time, will have the option to seamlessly transition to the fully managed BDC. In other words, no immediate change is required—existing cloud data services will gradually be integrated into the Business Data Cloud without any loss of functionality.  

The BDC uses a zero-copyarchitecture for SAP data sources. Data from SAP S/4HANA is transferred in near real time via delta queues to the BDC's central object store. The key feature is that the source application itself provides this data, eliminating the need for additional replication – the information is immediately and consistently available in the BDC. Technologically, this is achieved using established mechanisms such as CDS views, tables, or extractors; however, the crucial factor is that the provisioning is harmonized and does not involve redundant copies. For classic on-premisespremisessystems, the tried-and-tested approach still applies: data is loaded via CDS views or extractors. The important thing here is clean coreprinciple – i.e., no modifications to the source system – is important in order to ensure future cloud compatibility. 

The SAP Business Data Cloud is designed as an open data ecosystem and includes strategic partner integrations with third-party providers such as Databricks and Snowflake. Standardized interfaces allow such external platforms to be seamlessly connected, meaning that data products can not only be used within the SAP world, but also made available in external tools via APIs. SAP is introducing BDC Connect : a bidirectional data exchange between the BDC and external data lake platforms without duplicating of data. Technically, this is based on Delta Sharing, a technology that enables secure, redundancy-free exchange of data objects across system boundaries. This makes it possible, for example, to use a data product created in Microsoft Fabric directly in the BDC – and vice versa. 

Deep integration with SAP Databricks is already part of the platform (a fully managed lakehouse environment within the BDC), and Snowflake's data and AI functions are also set to be integrated directly into the BDC in the future. This allows customers to integrate the optimal data framework without sacrificing central governance or semantic context. This openness in the BDC architecture enables hybrid scenarios and partner integration on an equal footing, so that SAP and third-party data can be used equally for analytics and AI.

The Business Data Cloud seamlessly integrates AI functions into the data platform. With "Joule" , SAP provides a generative AI co-pilot that automates cross-functional tasks, answers queries in natural language, and summarizes decision-relevant information based on business data. The integrated DatabricksLakehouse environment, companies can also use their own machinelearning models on their BDC data or use ready-made AI models from SAP's AI Core/AI Foundation . For example, companies can use their own generative AIapplications can be built directly on the trusted business data of the BDC and put to productive use. Through this close integration of data platform and AI tools, the BDC opens up completely new automation and analysis potential. At the same time, it creates a responsible environmentin which AI results remain traceable and relevant thanks to semantically enriched data. 

BDC is offered exclusively as a cloud service (SaaS), the licensing model is based on actual usage. Costs are calculated based on various factors, including the amount of data managed amount of data, the function modules used, and the number of connected data sources. SAP offers flexible options for this: from purely usage-based rates to enterprise subscriptions for more extensive environments. Specific pricing details can be obtained directly from SAP or are determined during individual contract negotiations. In practice, this means that existing cloud customers (such as those using SAP Datasphere) are likely to receive a customized BDC offering structure that fits their current scenario.