12.6    Future Innovations

The current state of planning, which may be changed by SAP at any time, suggests some exciting new features, ranging from further openness to tighter integration to cloud offerings and availability of machine learning and predictive capabilities.

The SAP BW/4HANA vision aligns with the needs of modern data warehouse solutions that are no longer restricted to the boundaries of a corporation or specific types of data. A modern data warehouse solution should be data-driven. It should enable the establishment of common semantics and standardized data models regardless of data nature, transfer method, or origin. The resulting solution should be a consolidated information hub, in which integrated data can be seamlessly harmonized under logical models and made available for decision-making processes. Note that we didn’t mention required data persistency; the focus is on the logical integration of data sources instead of extraction and data storing per se. This new concept for a data warehouse solution is therefore referred to as the evolution to a logical data warehouse model.

The logical data warehouse concept is driving future innovations in SAP BW/4HANA. SAP’s goal is to provide features to support major data trends encompassing the expansion of big data lakes, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud-based solutions, machine learning, and predictive analysis.

In terms of integration with big data scenarios, the current SAP BW/4HANA roadmap indicates tighter coupling of processes with big data lakes. Features to be made available in 2018 and beyond include automation of complex big data flows with SAP BW/4HANA and SAP BW/4HANA analysis process with Spark/Hadoop-based execution.

In terms of IoT, SAP BW/4HANA’s new features will cater for enhancements of SAP HANA EIM, introducing delta and real-time streaming support for SAP HANA native tables as early as Q4 2017.

The product vision aims for innovations in 2019 and beyond, including machine learning-enabled features and integration with cloud offerings. In terms of machine-learning features, these should include self-monitoring capabilities such as system health prediction and artificial intelligence-based data warehouse administration. As for cloud offerings, the SAP BW/4HANA roadmap points to further seamless integration with SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba, and SAP Hybris.