Everywhere SAP partners are talking about the end of regular support for SAP Business Warehouse (BW) 7.5 in 2027 (possibly with extended support until 2030).
If you are to believe the SAP world, everyone now runs on HANA. The success stories about real-time analytics are being thrown around. But let’s be honest: for many companies, that reality is still a long way off.
Because what if your ECC system is still running on Oracle, SQL Server or DB2? Or what if your BW system is stuck on an outdated database? Then the standard advice for “modernization” often feels like an unachievable mission. After all, you have to deal with budgets, tight deadlines and mountains of existing business logic.
These are very valid questions. As soon as you have to deal with ECC systems that do not run on HANA, or with a BW system on an outdated database (such as Oracle or SQL Server), the situation changes from “modernize” to “remediate and migrate”.
How do you really modernize your analytics if you’re not fully on HANA yet? We dive into the reality of the “AnyDB” landscapes and see what is smart and feasible for your organization.
Of course, every IT landscape is unique, but in practice we often see the same bottlenecks recurring. To help you determine where you stand and what the best route is for you, I have listed the most common scenarios for you below.
Take a look at the situation you identify with and what the smartest next step is in your case.
1. The "Double Legacy" situation (ECC on AnyDB + BW < 7.5)
If both your source (ECC) and reporting layer (BW) are running on older databases, you don’t really have any room for “analytics modernization” in the traditional sense. Every hour you invest in optimizing an outdated BW system on an old database is a waste of money.
- The strategy: Stop investing in architecture. Your only goal should be a “Greenfield” or “Brownfield” migration to S/4HANA. Everything you will build in the present without S/4HANA, should be rebuild as soon as you have finished your S/4HANA transition.
- The advice: Don’t try to upgrade your BW or migrate to another database. Instead, focus on migrating to SAP Datasphere or SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) with a live connection to your (new) S/4HANA system once the migration has started.
You can make use of “good old” SAP Data Services to extract to Datasphere to bypass your current BW. If you would like to keep using your legacy BW, the options are limited. Open Hub, OData or File export should do to help you out.
If you have an ABAP based database like DB2, SLT could be your alternative, but also be aware of the restrictions like no business logic or time logic.
Think of your current BW as an “archive” that you need to phase out as soon as possible.
2. The "Hybrid Split" (ECC on HANA + BW on AnyDB)
This is a common scenario where you have the benefits of HANA in your source system (ECC), but your reporting (BW on e.g. Oracle/DB2) is still slowed down by the database of the BW system.
- The bottleneck: The migration of the data integration. You have a fast engine (HANA), but a data warehouse that cannot process the data fast enough (the BW system).
In scenario 2, take into account the situation of how the data is retrieved from the ECC to BW. If this is still the old-fashioned, but very solid methodology, SAPI (Service API, the “classic” extractors as we know them from ECC), then it is wise to switch to ODP (Operational Data Provisioning), the new standard.
The advantages:
- Decoupling and stability
- S4HANA readiness (CDS views use ODP)
- Future source for data integration such as SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud
- The strategy: “Bypass” the BW system whenever possible. Because your ECC is already running on HANA, you can pull the data directly from HANA for analytics.
- The advice:
- Data Virtualization: Look at SAP Datasphere. You can use Smart Data Access (SDA) or Smart Data Integration (SDI) to look directly at HANA in your ECC, without having to copy the data to your slow BW environment first.
- Direct connection: Use SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) for live reporting directly on your ECC’s HANA database, instead of waiting for the daily load jobs (ETL) of your old BW system. You can use the SAP Cloud Connector for a direct connection to the HANA database.
In scenario 2, take into account the situation of how the data is retrieved from the ECC to BW. If this is still the old-fashioned, but very solid methodology, SAPI (Service API, the “classic” extractors as we know them from ECC), then it is wise to switch to ODP (Operational Data Provisioning), the new standard.
The advantages:
- Decoupling and stability
- S4HANA readiness (CDS views use ODP)
- Future source for data integration such as SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud
In summary: What is the shortest route?
Scenario | Advice |
ECC (AnyDB) + BW (<7.5) | Not modernizing, migrating. Focus all your efforts on the transition to S/4HANA. Do not build new reports on the old Civil Code. |
ECC (HANA) + BW (AnyDB) | Bypasses. Use your ECC HANA as a source for direct analytics (via Datasphere/SAC). Slowly phase out your BW system. |
In short: In both cases, the message is to break the dependence on the outdated database layer in your BW system. Don’t try to fix what’s at the end of its life cycle; Look for the shortest way to exclude that old database layer between your data and your dashboards.
Are you in one of these two scenarios, or do you perhaps have a combination where one part of the organization is already over and another part is not?
Conclusion: Modernization is a choice, not a waiting game
The takeaway? Don’t let the “HANA-or-bust” mindset paralyze you. You don’t have to overhaul your entire landscape just to start modernizing. The real win comes from decoupling your old, rigid systems.
Stop investing in dead ends (like classic BW), turn on ODP as your “get out of jail free” card, and embrace cloud solutions that give you speed without the migration headache.
Modernization isn’t all-or-nothing; it’s about choosing where to break the chains. So, where are you going to take your first step?
If you want tailored advice and quality in-depth support to continue your organization’s data and analytics journey, do not hesitate to contact Expertum. Alternatively, feel free to read our other blogposts on SAP Business Data Cloud or download our SAP Datasphere White Paper here.