In the previous blob posts of this mini-series I was showing you how you can easily and natively integrate between SAP and Big Data platforms using Datavard Glue as middleware and workbench to identify data, build ETL processes, and consume it on (for example) Data Lakes.
Glue is natively integrated into SAP’s Business Applications. It is built in ABAP – so the integration comes natural and Glue can use the SAP authorization concept, and the SAP TMS (Transport Management System).
- Authorizations: This makes Glue very safe to use: you can define roles and profiles which allow only the “right” user to access data, and it follows SAP best practices for software logistics where you develop on a development system, you test on a test system, and only when everything is working to your satisfaction you move on to the production system.
- SAP TMS: by leveraging the SAP Transport Management System for Big Data objects such as tables on Hadoop, data extractors, etc., Glue allows to use SAP as it was meant to be used. Development work takes place on a SAP Development system, testing takes place on a SAP QA system, and only after a successful test, Glue scenarios, data models and ETL data flows are transported to SAP production.
This has some advantages when comparing to classical ETL tools.
With a classic ETL tool, you would tap directly into the SAP system database. This may sound easy and straightforward but opens up a Pandora box of questions when it comes to security. Who can access all kinds of data? You may want to limit the access of users of an ETL tool to a list of tables, and to a subset of the data in these tables.
Because of the advanced – yet simple to implement – security features in Glue I like to compare the use of classical ETL tools vs. the use of Glue to this scenario: imagine that your SAP system is a house. Now, with a classical ETL tool, somebody would simply drill a tunnel into your basement, maybe enter your house while you’re not there, walk around your living room, check your music collection, and pick some things from your fridge. If, however, the access happens through Glue, then this person cannot simply break into your house. They’ve got to ring the door bell, and may only get access to the fridge and the music selection if you’re home and let them in.
On a technical level, with Glue you can restrict the access to tables to SAP modules, to SAP packages (formerly known as development classes), and even to a subset of data in these packages.
The security concept of Datavard Glue supports several levels of restrictions:
- Users with access to data need to have valid SAP logons
- Access to Glue ETL functionality can be restricted to transaction codes
- Data access can be restricted to SAP modules
- Data access can be restricted to SAP packages (development classes)
- Data access can be restricted to individual SAP tables
To achieve this, Glue uses some standard SAP authorization objects, similar as the SAP data browser (SE16) does. On top of this, Glue provides some Datavard specific authorization objects which you can simply use for your own roles and profiles. This way, you can simply restrict the access of Glue users, e.g. to a range of tables belonging to an SAP module. Even better: you don’t need to know these tables by heart, you can simply leverage the table assignment within the SAP system.
like it? share it!
#Blogtitle
Reducing the footprint of BW on HANA systems
When running a SAP Business Warehouse, one of the first-choices for integrating SAP with Big Data is NLS (Nearline Storage). NLS is a way to move data out of the primary database and store it in a more cost efficient, but slower ...
Data growth remains one of the top challenges of SAP systems administrators. Our experience in working with various SAP environments shows that even up to 40% of your system can be freed up by archiving or deleting temporary data. For the best results, follow our 5 Principles of Lean ...
Recent years have brought about an amazing uptick in international mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and companies going through major reorganizations or restructurings. But what often is a blessing for shareholders quickly turns into a nightmare for the SAP business applications. After all, major changes must be mirrored in the ...
In my last blog post I presented an overview of System Landscape Optimization (SLO) and how it supports business transformation. I walked through some of opportunities and potential benefits of using SAP LT (Landscape Transformation) including flexible golive dates, conserving the integrity of SAP data, and minimizing the impact of a ...
In my last post I discussed implementing divestiture scenarios in SAP landscapes using SLO (System Landscape Optimization) methods and tools. SLO is a tool based approach to implementing business transformation projects with unique features, including flexible go-live dates, preservation of the integrity of SAP data, and minimized impact from ...
In this fourth installment of my blog series about SLO (System Landscape Optimization), I will describe how to handle organizational changes using the Company Code Merge approach. So far, I’ve discussed the use and benefits of using SLO tools and methods for carve-outs and carve-ins when companies are involved in Divestitures or Mergers ...
In this blog post I will go further into how SLO can handle business transformation projects while minimizing impacts on ongoing business. In my previous posts, I focused on SLO’s tools for ensuring SAP data integrity and flexible go-live dates on Divestitures and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) during large-scale transformation projects.
Company code splits ...
How to customize Business Partner screens and fields on SAP S/4HANA
Due to the integration of Customer and Vendor SAP objects into one main object called Business Partner on S/4HANA, business partner is becoming unconditionally one of the most important objects across SAP. Each project, either green field (new implementation) ...
Customer/vendor integration basics
According to SAP, it is possible to move to SAP S/4HANA only having the customer/vendor integration (CVI) in place. To ensure a successful upgrade, all customers and vendors must be converted to a business partner, together with all contacts related to customers or vendors.This guide covers the ...
Fiscal year – the basics
In this article I would like to offer a deeper insight into Fiscal Year changes. Fiscal Year is a term which reflects accounting and budgeting period used by governments or companies. It is used as a base for preparing financial statements. As the name suggest, ...
SOFFCONT1 table grows quickly in SAP landscapes and often gets into the top 10 largest tables in the system (TIP: check the list of largest tables in DB02 transaction). This table belongs to SOC3 and contains SAP Business Workplace/SAPoffice Documents attachments. The size of SOFFCONT1 depends significantly on how ...
Different company codes, different fiscal years, one controlling area
What can you do if the business requires reporting and bookkeeping to have two or more different fiscal year variants under one Controlling area?
Imagine a situation when you need to do reporting on Company Codes with different fiscal year structures, while ...
Choosing a new NLS solution
As Informatica recently announced that they are discontinuing support for their ILM Nearline storage, many companies are looking for a suitable replacement. There are a lot of options to choose from – be it the in-house SAP IQ, traditional databases such as Oracle, MSSQL or ...
At Datavard, we work with the integration between SAP and Big Data platforms such as Hadoop. Data in SAP systems can’t compete with Big Data in terms of sheer data volume. In comparison to your average Hadoop cluster, SAP systems are rather small. However, in terms of both value ...
Business reporting without data coming from SAP systems is hardly possible. However, there are two kinds of professionals in the area of Business Reporting and Data Warehousing: those coming from an SAP background, and those who come from a technical or non-SAP background.
If you're coming equipped with an SAP ...
Replacing legacy systems with one central control system to cut costs
Datavard, a software company providing solutions and professional services for SAP data management, has recently started a project for a multinational chemical company (the Customer") based in the US. The Customer requested Datavard to decommission their legacy SAP systems ...
SLT and BODS do not always make things easier
In this blog post, I want to show how easy it can be to tap into ERP data from SAP, i.e. find the relevant data, read, filter, enrich and contextualize it, and finally store the data natively on HIVE for further ...
With Datavard Glue we have a strong solution for tight, native, integration of SAP systems and data lakes running on big data platforms. Many companies decide to run their Data Lake in the cloud – obviously this addresses the topic of scalability very well, while minimizing the work of ...
SAP data tends to be complicated and cryptic
SAP’s ERP data model consists of tens of thousands of database tables. Here is an example to illustrate the complexity of SAP systems: At Datavard, we’re happily running SAP’s S/4HANA to manage our business processes, and a last count on our production ...
SLT – a handy tool, but not all you need
With the SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server (SLT), SAP provides a handy tool to tap into SAP data and replicate it to HANA for fast analytics and data processing. This is a proven solution for simple and easy data access ...
Google Cloud Platform is gaining momentum
“Player 3 has entered the game!”. As the year is steadily moving towards its end, and the time for a year-recap is getting closer, this is what comes to my mind when reflecting on the bigger things which happened this year. Next to Azure ...
Petra Pirron, Managing Director at Datavard Software, marketing enthusiast, passionate team leader and a doting wife and mother of two talks about how female leaders can embrace their feminine side in their professional lives.
Petra, throughout your career you successfully managed both big and small teams. Starting this year, you ...
Having SAP based data within a data lake is very helpful when it comes to implementing scenarios such as fraud detection, churn reduction, or predictive maintenance. For example, you can identify equipment such as machinery or trucks which should be serviced through their maintenance history (stored in SAP, of ...
Managed Services: Expertise at the touch of a button
It’s a common scenario: You’ve engaged in a lengthy project to implement a new version of SAP BW, or your in-house expert has chosen to part ways with the company with no succession plan in place, or you have just migrated ...
Kellogg’s is splitting their production system
SCM and ERP carve-out with an upgrade in near zero downtime? Yes please! We finalized this complex project for Kellogg’s last year, and now we had a chance to talk about it at TechEd In Las Vegas. We’ve met on stage with Wee Sim, ...
Yes, we need cloud, but how to connect it with SAP?
Many companies today extend their infrastructure to the Cloud. Why? Cloud offers flexibility – whether you need to stretch it out a bit to accommodate more data, or scale it down, you can do it with one click. It ...
2019 brought a great recognition to our company – Datavard was awarded the Employer of the Year title by the Women in IT Awards for outstanding commitment to promoting gender parity. We met with Gregor Stoeckler (Datavard CEO), Petra Pirron (Managing Director) and Antonia Zeller (Head of HR) to ...
With the close of 2019 comes the start of a new decade. It is always a challenge to look into the future and try to understand what might be coming, what might fuel the next excited surge in development or interest, but let’s give it a shot. Here are ...
Expensive SQL statements – impact on the system
Expensive SQL statements are long running statements, often seen as the main cause of performance problems. On top of causing long running programs, they also negatively influence other transactions. Even one expensive SQL statement can cause various problems such as high CPU ...
At a glance: merging three SAP ERP systems
Infinera, a California-based global supplier of optical transmission equipment, acquired Coriant and faced a challenge of merging Coriant’s two SAP ERP systems into Infinera’s own SAP ERP system. Datavard was responsible for merging the master data and customizing data from the two source ...
Why does it make sense to stress your system and how is it done?
Stress tests are a powerful way of uncovering bottlenecks of your SAP system and avoiding potential serious issues. We typically run them at customers who are concerned about their current or future system availability and its ...
Google’s announcement opens another door
Recently, Google announced a new Cloud Acceleration Program for SAP customers. With the 3rd major player in the game, the market for cloud deployment within the SAP landscape gets more competitive. For companies who are looking into cloud solutions, this means more options and additional benefits. Whichever platform ...
What to do when SAP BW is reaching its limit?
What options do you have when you start running out of your BW system storage space? Let’s see how one of our customers faced this challenge.
Duerr, a global mechanical and plant engineering company from Germany, started to reach the threshold ...
SAP extends the S/4HANA migration deadline
While the announcement on the new S/4HANA deadline was not a huge surprise to most people, SAP have nonetheless raised some questions regarding their S/4HANA strategy and the maintenance of older R/3 ECC systems. But what exactly does this announcement mean?To understand that first let’s look ...
Along with the S/4HANA transformation, our customers struggle to decide which planning option should they choose. The right planning solution is both a technical and functional decision. It depends on where the source data is coming from, which features the customer needs and how much data is required to ...
Many existing SAP customers will be migrating from the “classic” cash management in SAP ERP to the new Cash Management in SAP S/4HANA (full scope).
This blog describes migration and data conversion activities for this process and building Liquidity Planner data and cash flow data in One Exposure from Operations.
However ...
Does an assistant and SAP consultant have anything in common? How can you steer your professional life and set new challenges? Datavard Consultant talks about her career choices and how working as an assistant helped her achieve her goals.
Lucia, you joined Datavard as an assistant. Many people still view ...
SAP will continue to support the product until 2027. So why is everyone making such a fuss about getting started with S/4HANA migration projects so quickly?
Well, there are several reasons that 7 years might not actually be as comfortably far in the future as you might imagine...
1. Time
SAP migrations ...
BW/4HANA – it’s not an upgrade, it’s a migration
Many customers have made the move to BW 7.5 on HANA and now find themselves standing before the somewhat daunting jump towards BW/4HANA.
This jump is not an upgrade, it is a migration. This means that among other things, certain objects which were abundantly used in previous versions of BW, are no longer ...
Decommissioning means taking archiving to the maximum – archiving a complete SAP system. This is a common scenario when talking about mergers and acquisitions, but also system upgrades and transformations, including migrations to S/4HANA. In this blog post we answer how to deal with legacy systems while keeping everyone ...
Two approaches to SAP business transformation
Business changes can create the requirement that a plant is assigned to a different company code. These can include changes in the legal structure for tax purposes, a reorganization for process improvement or the divestiture of a portion of the business that currently operates ...
Handling historical data during SAP transformation - you don’t have to choose between everything and nothing
Implementing Business Transformations such as M&A, divestitures, or technology “rejuvenation” such as S/4HANA migrations in SAP landscapes usually puts an interesting question in front of SAP architects and decision makers: how much history do ...
Going to the Cloud? Fasten your seatbelts first.
So, you’ve taken the plunge. After years of reading about and listening to all the Cloud hype, you’ve finally decided to move your cherished business critical on-premise systems to this mystical place where you have minimal costs with maximum flexibility – what ...
Event streaming between SAP and Azure – how others are doing it?
In the fast-paced IT world, SAP customers are looking into advantages of cloud solutions. Cloud offers agility and innovation, allowing businesses to run machine learning, AI, data mining and predictive analytics scenarios. To replicate SAP data into the ...
Transformation project testing building blocks
A good testing plan needs a few basic building blocks; otherwise, transformations can have unexpected issues at go-live. Testing best practices for transformations have building blocks to help avoid testing shortcomings around data, systems, processes, and people.
It is not glamorous, testing needs to focus on ...
We have seen companies with regional entities spread across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa desire to shift from a holding company mindset to an operating company approach. The CFO wanted all financial and controlling objects standardized globally. The number one object to harmonize was the chart ...
Datavard Partners with Accenture to Help Customers Run Complex SAP Transformation Scenarios
When Datavard and Accenture started to investigate a partnership in summer 2019, we had the confidence that we were a good business match. Datavard offers quality tools and expertise for running selective SAP migrations (S/4HANA, BW/4HANA) and system ...
SAP BW/4HANA: light, fast, open, agile - what's not to like?
SAP BW/4HANA comes with many benefits. It is lighter and faster than any other SAP BW version before it. It is easier to integrate it with other data sources, including third party applications and data stores in Hadoop or ...
Two divestiture scenarios: fixed vs. open-ended timeline
With the current business climate, many companies are anticipating or actively preparing to divest their business. In some cases, they already have a buyer and a finalized separation approach. The timeline for this scenario is usually fixed and physical separation milestones need to ...
Solving the data growth issue
One of the most important resources within a company is data. Having high-quality data helps organizations run efficiently, understand customer’s needs, and allow organizational leaders to make informed decisions. Companies are continually experiencing a year over year increase in data growth, resulting in database capacity ...
More guest speakers, more insightful sessions, more use cases
Following the success of our first “Datalicious Tour” digital event we decided to repeat it, with more guest speakers, more use cases and insightful sessions on data warehouse transformation. So again, we met in the studio in Mannheim, where we hosted ...
Why integrate your SAP data into your Data Lake?
Big Data scenarios are becoming increasingly interesting for many companies. However, data is still generated and stored in silos, especially when it comes to SAP. Breaking down these silos to achieve data integration is a top priority.
How can Datavard help you ...
Not just another digital event
After a great success of our recent digital event we decided to raise the bar even higher – we are launching a global virtual event for all SAP enthusiasts (and sceptics alike). We onboarded C-level experts in the area of S/4HANA transitions, cloud migrations and complex system transformations. Ladies ...
For a company involved in a merger or acquisition, one of the first steps after completing the transaction is to ensure common financial reporting standards. When the merged business units use different fiscal years, this is critical to be aligned.
Differences in fiscal year setup can take various forms. In ...
SAP System Transformation Challenges
This year everyone has experienced significant change due to the global pandemic, and along with that, organizations are undergoing new mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, major internal reorganizations, and restructurings. It is crucial during these organizational changes that leaders are focused on their SAP systems and keeping them ...
Choosing the right service for S/4HANA transition in near zero downtime
If your company has already decided on transitioning to S/4HANA with the near zero downtime approach, you might be looking now for the right tools to execute it. And this is not an easy choice!
When I started to collect ...
Routine testing and significant project go-lives
All SAP customers face routine testing needs. These range from smaller daily items to ‘big’ disruptive events. Along that continuum, the business involvement to validate the outcome varies as well. At one end of the spectrum, there are the daily testing events related to ...
Data detox for your SAP landscape
SAP Data Management. Boring? Not really! With tailored strategies for data lifecycle management, you can easily cut storage costs, boost system performance and save on manual work. Let's have a look at three ways to get your systems back in shape: housekeeping, archiving and ...
Data growth remains one of the top challenges of SAP systems administrators. Our experience in working with various SAP environments shows that even up to 25% of your system can be polluted with temporary data, that is automatically generated data that quickly loses its value. That’s why it is ...