One data foundation for analytics, planning and AI.
SAP Business Data Cloud brings SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP BW and SAP HANA Cloud together as one managed service, with SAP Databricks built in. SAP delivers your business data as ready-made data products that keep their meaning, and you combine them with the rest of your data. This page explains how it works underneath, layer by layer, and how we help you decide what you need.
AI is only as good as the business context it gets.
A sales order number means little on its own. It becomes useful when it is linked to its customer, its deliveries, its invoices and the posting in your general ledger. Classic data platforms lose those links when they copy SAP tables, and teams spend months rebuilding them.
Business Data Cloud keeps them. SAP extracts the data from its applications, models it once, and delivers it as data products with the business meaning attached. Your reports, your planning, your data scientists and SAP's AI agents all work from that same governed foundation.
Turn data into outcomes
Reuse SAP's data products and ready-made applications across finance, supply chain and HR, instead of building each report from scratch.
Connect all your data
Combine SAP and non-SAP data, and share it with platforms such as Databricks, Snowflake and Google BigQuery without copying it.
Trustworthy AI
Joule and AI agents answer from governed, semantically rich data, so their answers are grounded in how your business actually runs.
| Question | The old way | With Business Data Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Who builds the data model? | Your team or a consultant, table by table. | SAP, as ready-made data products. |
| What happens at an upgrade? | Extracts and reports need checking and fixing. | SAP keeps its data products current. |
| How many copies of the data? | Several, often out of date. | Shared rather than copied where possible. |
| Non-SAP data? | Joined by hand in spreadsheets. | Combined with SAP data in one governed model. |
| Ready for AI? | Rarely: meaning is lost in the copy. | Yes: business context travels with the data. |
How a Business Data Cloud landscape is put together.
You don't install anything. SAP runs the service, and you assemble your landscape from a cockpit: which applications you use, and which source systems feed them. SAP calls that grouping a formation.
- Business Data Cloud cockpit: where you create formations, activate data products and monitor them.
- Sources: SAP Cloud ERP Public Edition connects with a certificate, no Cloud Connector needed. Other SAP cloud applications join the same way.
- Foundation services: run by SAP. They ingest, refine and enrich the data and store it in the data lake.
- Data products: the result, described and ready to share.
- Applications: SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Databricks and optionally SAP Snowflake use the data products. Intelligent applications install into Datasphere and Analytics Cloud.
- SAP BW: runs alongside and connects to Datasphere, but is not part of a formation.
Provisioned first
The control centre. Your administrator provisions it, then adds applications, connects sources and activates data products from here.
Apps plus sources
A formation links your Business Data Cloud applications to the SAP systems that feed them. Data products from those sources then become available to activate.
A certificate, not a connector
For SAP Cloud ERP Public Edition, trust is set up with a certificate exchange. No Cloud Connector, no on-premise components.
Bring them along
Already run SAP Datasphere or SAP Analytics Cloud? They can join Business Data Cloud without a migration. It's mostly a contract change.
From a table in SAP to a data product you can trust.
A data product is a curated, documented data set with an owner, a meaning and a defined way to access it. SAP builds its own data products from your SAP systems and keeps them current. Step through how one is made.
It starts with a CDS view
SAP's applications describe their data in CDS views: virtual data models that already know that a journal entry belongs to a company code and a ledger. These views are the source for SAP's data products, so the business meaning is there from the first step.
Federate or replicate?
Once a data product is installed in SAP Datasphere, you choose how each model reads it: query it where it lives, or take a local copy. Most landscapes use both.
- How
- Datasphere reads the data product where it lives. Nothing is copied.
- Fresh
- Always as current as the data product itself.
- Best for
- Exploring, lower volumes, and data you query occasionally.
- Watch
- Heavy, frequent queries can be slower and use more compute.
Governed from activation to use.
Data products are not free-for-all downloads. Activation loads the complete data set so every use case shares one version of it, and each team then requests access for a stated purpose.
Tip: data products carry personal-data tags. We check them before approval, so HR and customer data only reaches the spaces that should have it.
Ready-made analytics, built on data products.
SAP also delivers complete analytics for a business area, now also called intelligent content. Install one and Business Data Cloud activates the data products it needs, generates the models in Datasphere and deploys the dashboards in SAP Analytics Cloud, end to end.
Extending them: SAP's content is read-only, so you copy it and change the copy. SAP's later updates don't flow into copies, so we keep changes small and documented.
SAP releases intelligent applications by line of business and edition, and some, such as SAP Cloud ERP Intelligence, are aimed at the Private Edition today. We confirm what's available for your edition before it goes into a plan.
The knowledge core where your data model lives.
SAP Datasphere is where SAP and non-SAP data come together. Each team works in its own space, with its own storage, connections and users. We organise models in layers, so each step has one job and changes stay contained.
Inbound
Data as it arrives: installed data products, replicated or federated tables, files.
Harmonisation
Shared keys, currencies and master data. Data access controls are applied here.
Propagation
Reusable business views, combined across sources, ready for any consumer.
Reporting
Analytic models with measures and semantics for SAP Analytics Cloud and Excel.
Move data in
For SAP Cloud ERP, replication reads SAP's released extraction CDS views or uses the SQL service. Classic extractors and SLT don't apply to the cloud edition.
Shape it
Graphical or SQL transformations, loaded in full or as deltas, and grouped into task chains that run on a schedule.
Keep the meaning
Semantic types, associations and hierarchies tell every tool what an amount, a currency or a date really is.
Your own data products: a model you build in Datasphere can be published as a data product, for example a cleansed customer view, and shared with other teams or with Databricks like SAP's own.
Where people see, plan and ask.
SAP Analytics Cloud is the front end of Business Data Cloud: dashboards, planning and predictive analysis in one tool, on the same models your data team maintains.
Live connection
Reads SAP models in place, so figures are current and nothing is copied.
Imported data
Copies data into Analytics Cloud. Needed for planning and many non-SAP sources.
Budgets and forecasts
Versions, data actions and allocations, with the actuals coming straight from SAP.
AI built in
Ask questions in plain language, explain variances and run predictive scenarios.
| Region | Q1 | Q2 |
|---|---|---|
| Western | 412 | 440 |
| Central | 188 | 196 |
| Exports | 305 | 330 |
Share SAP data with the platforms you already use.
Business Data Cloud is open by design. Data products are stored in an open table format and shared with Delta Sharing, so data platforms can read them without copies or extraction jobs. Results can come back as data products too, which closes the loop.
- Share: an SAP data product is shared with zero copy to a data platform such as SAP Databricks, Snowflake or Google BigQuery.
- Combine: data scientists add external data such as weather or auction prices and train a forecast.
- Share back: the forecast returns as a custom data product.
- Use: Datasphere models it and SAP Analytics Cloud shows it next to your actuals.
| How you connect | What it means | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|
| SAP Databricks | Built into Business Data Cloud and run by SAP. | A data science workspace with nothing extra to contract. |
| SAP Snowflake | Snowflake offered by SAP as an extension of Business Data Cloud. | Teams that prefer Snowflake as their engine. |
| BDC Connect | Zero-copy sharing with your own Databricks, Snowflake or Google BigQuery. | Companies that already run one of these platforms. |
| Partner applications | Specialist tools for data governance, catalogues and machine learning. | Specific needs such as data lineage or automated ML. |
Answer four questions. Get an honest starting point.
Not every company needs Business Data Cloud on day one. SAP Cloud ERP already has strong real-time reporting built in. Pick your answers and see which pieces would fit.
Start with what SAP Cloud ERP includes.
Real-time embedded analytics cover day-to-day reporting for a single ERP. Revisit when you add systems, planning or AI.
- Embedded analytics in SAP Cloud ERPReal-time reports, KPIs and dashboards. Included.
- SAP Analytics CloudPlanning and management dashboards.
- Business Data Cloud with DatasphereData products and one model across systems.
- SAP DatabricksData science on SAP data, built in.
- BDC ConnectZero-copy sharing with your current platform.
- SAP BW alongsideKeep what works, move to data products step by step.
A first indication, not a recommendation. Business Data Cloud is licensed by capacity, and we size it against your data and use cases before anything is committed.
From contract to first dashboard.
A typical first setup, connecting SAP Cloud ERP Public Edition. SAP runs the platform, so the work is configuration, governance and modelling, not servers.
- 1Provision the cockpit AdminCapacity is assigned in SAP for Me once the contract starts, then the cockpit is provisioned.
- 2Add applications AdminDatasphere and Analytics Cloud are added, new or brought over from existing tenants.
- 3Connect SAP Cloud ERP BasisCertificate trust is set up and the formation created. SAP content then shows as available.
- 4Activate data products AdminStart with one area, usually finance, and check the data against SAP.
- 5Install and govern Data teamProducts are requested, approved and installed into spaces, with access rules.
- 6Model and report BusinessAnalytic models and the first stories, or an intelligent application switched on.
How we run it with you.
The questions management can't answer today, and the data each one needs.
Which components you need now, which can wait, and an estimate of capacity.
Data products, models and dashboards for the first area, checked against SAP.
Each next area reuses the same foundation, with governance and cost monitoring.
See it from SAP.
Videos from SAP’s official YouTube channel on SAP Business Data Cloud.
Published by SAP on its official YouTube channel.
© 2026 Mawkish Technologies. This guide, its diagrams and illustrations are protected by copyright. You’re welcome to learn from it and to quote it with credit and a link. Reproducing it, by hand or through AI, and publishing it as your own is not allowed. Read our copyright notice
Straight answers.
Does Business Data Cloud replace SAP Analytics Cloud or Datasphere?
No, it includes them. Business Data Cloud is the managed service that brings them together with data products, SAP Databricks and SAP HANA Cloud. If you already use Datasphere or Analytics Cloud, those tenants can join without a migration.
Do we need SAP Cloud Connector for SAP Cloud ERP Public Edition?
No. Public Edition connects with a certificate exchange. Other SAP deployments, such as on-premise systems, need the Cloud Connector.
Is our data copied?
SAP's data products are stored once in the Business Data Cloud data lake. From there they are shared, not copied, with Datasphere, SAP Databricks and partner platforms. You decide per model whether to take a local copy for performance.
Can we filter what gets activated?
Not at activation. A data product is activated in full so every use case shares one data set. You restrict access afterwards in Datasphere, by space and with data access controls.
Does it replace our SAP BW?
Not overnight. SAP BW can run alongside Business Data Cloud and connect to Datasphere, so you keep what works and move to data products at your own pace.
Which data products are available for SAP Cloud ERP Public Edition?
SAP adds data products with each release, and availability differs by edition. We check the current catalogue for your edition before we plan anything.
How is it licensed?
By capacity: you buy capacity units and the services consume them. Intelligent applications are added on top. We estimate capacity from your data volumes and use cases, and check it against your SAP contract.
We've just gone live on SAP Cloud ERP. Is it too early?
Usually, yes. Get comfortable with the built-in reporting first. Plan Business Data Cloud when you need to combine systems, plan, or use AI across your data.
Answer the questions your data can't today.
In one session we look at the questions your management wants answered, the systems that hold the data, and whether Business Data Cloud, SAP Analytics Cloud or SAP's built-in reporting is the right next step.
- Questions and sources mapped
- Architecture: what you need now, and later
- A first-area plan with effort and capacity
SAP, SAP Business Data Cloud, SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP BW and SAP Cloud ERP are trademarks of SAP SE. Databricks, Snowflake and Salesforce are trademarks of their owners. Screens shown are illustrations.
At Mawkish, the Galmere Compass is how we keep SAP Business Data Cloud work checked, owned and answered for, whoever does the build.