SAP Platforms for Data Management

Data management with SAP NetWeaver

The first holistic attempt to develop an orchestrated platform for an SAP ERP system was made by former SAP Chief Technology Officer Shai Agassi with NetWeaver and the Exchange Infrastructure component. The experiment was partially successful because CSV files were still being used to exchange data in some areas.

However, SAP NetWeaver was a promising approach to creating a stable and comprehensive middleware for current and future ERP systems. The SAP Business Technology Platform is the successor to SAP NetWeaver. Of course, BTP is now much more comprehensive and powerful. the SAP community can find out what SAP BTP for ECC 6.0 and S/4 can do at the second Steampunk and BTP Summit on March 5 and 6 in Heidelberg, Germany. Register now for this two-day knowledge event and expand your own IT platform knowledge!

SAP Data Hub and Datasphere

SAP recognized early on that even in a 3-tier client/server model (whether on-prem or in the cloud), there are always heterogeneous data silos. The existence of disparate data sources and the need for orchestration drove the development of SAP Data Hub. The concept was good, but the performance was subterranean!

The principle of Data Hub can be explained in very simple terms: rather than importing all the data from a source, a requesting party creates a precise wish list. This wish list is transmitted to the data source (server), which then begins to process the data and prepare it for delivery. Only the relevant and requested data is then sent through the service. What seems very efficient at first glance was a disaster in real ERP life. Many servers (data sources) collapsed under the load of many requests and the necessary data preparation.

SAP Datasphere is a direct successor to Data Hub and tries to better orchestrate the workload between the data source and the data sink. However, the use of Datasphere in the SAP community seems to be low at the moment, so there are no reliable statements about its success or failure.

SAP BTP can do almost anything

SAP BTP is the opposite of specialized data platforms like Boomi, Data Hub, or Datasphere. There is hardly any ERP middleware topic that the Business Technology Platform does not master. You can get an overview of its capabilities at the Steampunk and BTP Summit on March 5 and 6 in Heidelberg, Germany.Organized by E3 Magazine, the two-day event will provide SAP customers with the platform knowledge they need: register now!

BTP is the right basis for ERP Abap modifications (Steampunk) as well as for AI applications and ERP Clean Core. However, because the licensing model is still complex and orchestrating the many BTP functions such as AI, Joule, Steampunk, etc. still presents a challenge, E3 Magazine has organized the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2025 to better inform SAP partners and users.

SAP versus steampunk

Steampunk stands for transparency, agility, and the future. Typical images of this genre show gears, magnifying glasses, steam boilers, and mechanical machines as they are—no hiding, disguising, or obfuscating! SAP technology is often hidden behind buzzwords, licenses, and clouds. We shed light on the Abap, BTP and Clean Core scene. Steampunk was an internal Abap development project at SAP and is now an E3 education and transparency initiative. Register now for the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2025 on March 5 and 6 in Heidelberg, Germany. This is the meeting place of the SAP community!