With the launch of SAP Datasphere, existing or prospective SAP Data Intelligence Cloud and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud customers will likely have some questions. What does this mean for me? Will my existing investments be protected and supported? How can I best take advantage of this new architecture over time while addressing my current use cases and business needs?
The first place to start is with existing SAP Data Warehouse Cloud customers. SAP Datasphere is the next generation of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. We’ve kept all the powerful capabilities of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and added newly available data integration, data cataloging, and semantic modeling features, and plan to deliver enhancements and new features as part of the product roadmap. With the release of SAP Datasphere, you are now automatically an SAP Datasphere customer! Nothing needs to be done to begin using SAP Datasphere; your existing capabilities will not be impacted, and you will be able to begin to take advantage of the enhanced SAP Datasphere capabilities as your needs allow. Commercially there will also be no impact for using existing features and your existing contracts will remain in place. There are also some new capabilities being introduced which will only be charged if you expand your usage to include them. More information on SAP Datasphere pricing can be found here.
The most important consideration for all SAP Data Intelligence Cloud customers is to look at the strategic direction and roadmap of SAP Datasphere. While the initial release of SAP Datasphere primarily targets SAP Data Warehouse Cloud customers, some SAP Data Intelligence Cloud features have already been added. New data ingestion capabilities facilitating data replication, automatically generate large numbers of pipelines without any manual build or configuration required, making it simple to replicate large numbers of tables automatically and continuously with minimal user effort or overhead. Other SAP Data Intelligence Cloud capabilities will be included into SAP Datasphere to eventually cover the major use cases that SAP Data Intelligence Cloud provides. The latest roadmap for SAP Datasphere can be found in the SAP Roadmap Explorer.
SAP has recently announced that mainstream maintenance of SAP Data Intelligence Cloud will continue through the timeframe specified in this SAP Note. Existing SAP Data Intelligence Cloud customers will be supported through this date. SAP is still supporting both solutions however with the strategic focus on SAP Datasphere the vision is that customers will transition workloads from SAP Data Intelligence Cloud to SAP Datasphere over time as the product evolves and as their needs and priorities allow.
Existing SAP Data Intelligence Cloud subscription customers will be able to renew their subscriptions through the end of the maintenance date as specified however no new SAP Data Intelligence Cloud subscriptions will be sold. Existing CPEA customers and those who purchase CPEA credits before July 1, 2024, will be able to use their CPEA credits for SAP Data Intelligence Cloud as per their CPEA contracts. From July 1, 2024, SAP Data Intelligence will be removed from new CPEA contracts. With SAP Datasphere allowing consumption of CPEA credits, if you currently use CPEA credits for SAP Data Intelligence Cloud, you will find shifting this usage will be particularly seamless – you can reallocate CPEA credits from SAP Data Intelligence Cloud to SAP Datasphere at any time. Additionally, a Free Tier version of SAP Datasphere is available, allowing you to begin to use its new capabilities quickly and easily.
What about SAP Data Intelligence on-prem customers? Mainstream maintenance will continue for the timeframe specified in this SAP Note and it will continue to be a viable solution for certain use cases. It is important to note that SAP’s innovation is focused on SAP Datasphere and as with SAP Data Intelligence Cloud, you should look to transition to SAP Datasphere over time.
In summary, all SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Data Intelligence Cloud customers should be excited by the release of SAP Datasphere, unifying these two solutions as a core part of SAP BTP. SAP Data Warehouse Cloud customers will immediately be able to use the expanded features and both SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Data Intelligence Cloud customers will benefit from the innovations planned for SAP Datasphere and the landscape simplification opportunities it will provide.
