SAP Extends Data Hub, Cloud Platform Capabilities

SAP is using its TechEd conference in Las Vegas this week to debut new capabilities in its SAP Data Hub data orchestration software and SAP Cloud Platform platform-as-a-service system.

The giant software company also unveiled new services that help businesses integrate multiple blockchain infrastructures.

SAP managers, in interviews with CRN, said the newly upgraded products provide SAP partners with expanded opportunities to develop applications and solutions that incorporate the SAP products. The new SAP Data Hub version 2.3, for example, offers a range of new data integration and connectivity capabilities.

[Related: SAP Reports 30 Percent Cloud Software Sales Growth In Q2]

"Every connector exposes a new data environment, and that's a great opportunity for value-added resellers and systems integrators," said Amit Satoor, SAP senior director of product and solution marketing.

SAP Data Hub, version 2.3, includes a new common connectivity framework that provides an underlying infrastructure for expanding the native connectivity and integration functions to structured data sources and operational data stores such as relational databases, cloud storage systems like Amazon's S3, and applications such as SAP S/4HANA.

The new Data Hub has a fully containerized architecture, allowing it to be more easily deployed on any managed cloud service, private cloud or on-premise platform that supports the Kubernetes container orchestration system. A new metadata explorer tool makes it easier to govern and manage metadata assets that are spread across diverse systems and disparate sources.

The 2.3 release sports a new "launchpad" user interface that provides a single point of access for user-facing applications, including system monitoring and management tools, connection management software and SAP Vora tools. And all existing data modeling capabilities are now unified into a single interface called the Data Hub modeler.

SAP also announced that it has worked with Cisco to jointly develop and test hybrid cloud software, the Cisco Container Platform for SAP Data Hub, that makes it easier to deploy production-grade Data Hub systems on-premise and in the cloud regardless of the underlying container complexity.

On the cloud front, SAP has added new cloud-native development, deployment and lifecycle management capabilities to the SAP Cloud Platform, the company's enterprise Platform-as-a-Service offering for building, integrating and extending cloud applications. The new functionality is designed to help partners and customers accelerate the delivery of new application functionality, said Dan Lahl, product marketing vice president at SAP, in the CRN interview.

The SAP Cloud Platform, for example, now supports SAP's own ABAP development environment, making it possible for software programmers with ABAP skills to develop ABAP applications and extensions that run in the cloud. Lahl noted that there is a huge base of ABAP developers among SAP solution provider, ISV and system integrator partners who will benefit from the ABAP support.

And SAP is developing cloud services based on Kubernetes, Knative and Kubeless. They include SAP Cloud Platform Enterprise Messaging service, now generally available, and SAP Cloud Platform Backend service and SAP Cloud Platform Functions service, the latter two now in beta.

OEM and ISV partners will likewise benefit from a new Kubernetes as a service running on SAP Cloud Platform, slated to become available next year, making it possible to run containerized business application workloads in a Kubernetes environment in the cloud. That will allow ISV partners to more quickly deploy their applications on container clusters within SAP environments, Lahl said.

SAP is a player in the blockchain technology space with its SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service. This week SAP debuted new network extensibility services that help customers integrate different blockchain infrastructure systems. The services, according to the company, will support the interplay between SAP-provisioned nodes and those residing on premise or in different clouds, and linking blockchain enabled SAP applications and business processes with externally operated nodes and networks.

The vendor has also formed two new groups within its SAP Blockchain Consortium program, one for the pharmaceuticals and life sciences industries and the other for agribusiness, consumer products and retail.

Under the program SAP brings SAP partners, customers and other relevant players to identify blockchain use cases for specific industries and identify areas for possible cross-industry collaboration. They enable solution provider partners to work with SAP and SAP customers to define new blockchain processes with vertical industries and assisting them with industry-specific blockchain implementation projects, said Gil Perez, SAP senior vice president of products and innovations and head of digital customer initiatives.