In the dynamic landscape of enterprise data management, SAP Business Data Graph emerges as a transformative solution, reshaping how organizations interact with and derive insights from their data and revolutionizing data management across the entire technical landscape.
From seamlessly connecting disparate data sources to enabling real-time collaboration and visualization, SAP Graph functionality represents a paradigm shift in how organizations leverage their own data to improve decision-making and drive better business outcomes.
This article will discuss the key components and features of SAP Business Data Graph, how it promotes a unified view of your SAP-managed business data, and where our team of expert SAP consultants can fit in your organization.
What is SAP Graph?
SAP Graph, or Business Data Graph, is a built-in API management capability within the SAP Integration Suite, enabling application developers and other key stakeholders to access business data in a semantically connected graph available across the entire suite of SAP products.
By extending traditional API management functionality within the SAP API Business Hub, Graph allows users to expose all critical business data in a comprehensive graph, reducing the complexity and cost of creating, maintaining, and reusing client applications and extensions.
The out-of-the-box SAP Graph Navigator provides a single connected view of the data managed in the SAP system and consolidates multiple data entities from other SAP systems, like SAP HANA, SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Sales Cloud, into a consolidated data model.
As a stateless multitenant service, the SAP Graph API service makes it easier for developers to accept navigation queries from SAP applications, separate and organize the queries, and access APIS of each actual data source.
The Challenge that SAP Data Graph Addresses
While SAP is a leading provider of enterprise-grade ERP software, organizations in today’s modern business landscape have more complex system guidelines and require maintenance for intricate on-premise, hybrid, and cloud-based landscapes.
SAP has updated its core ERP application suite to better align with modern enterprise requirements through acquisitions of SuccessFactors, Ariba, and Concur, cloud solutions that improve efficiency and reduce complexity, but users still need more.
With more customers maintaining their own technology stack, including overlapping data models, heterogeneous infrastructures, and different APIs, accessing SAP-managed data has become more complex, requiring users to jump through hoops of data federation, security protocols, master data requirements, and more.
Different SAP products require different APIs, security guidelines, and connection protocols, forcing users to know the data they need, which copy is required, where the data is located, and how to connect the data to each different customer system, all while simultaneously maintaining their existing SAP applications.
The Need for SAP Graph Functionality
SAP HANA Graph offers a new, consolidated API for SAP, directly addressing siloed API functionality and complex integration challenges by combining data models from disparate sources, like SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Sales Cloud, into a fully integrated data model.
SAP Business Data Graph functionality allows developers to create a unified graph comprising nodes of separate data entities and edges representing the relationships between those entities, facilitating better management for business objects like Customer, Supplier, General Ledger, Product, and more.
SAP Graph functionality resolves issues of complex system requirements and a lack of understanding between where data resides and where it needs to be by providing unified entities that offer the most common attributes of a business model to simplify data consumption across the entire landscape.
It also automatically connects the data entities to the corresponding system-specific business objects to give users a complete view of each business object. By abstracting the existing physical landscape and outlining the details of the complete product stack, SAP Graph offers a simplified view of SAP-managed data accessible through a single API, facilitating more efficient data management and enabling users to control their own SAP systems and APIs.
Key Features of SAP Business Data Graph
Here’s a closer look at a few critical features of SAP HANA Graph for business users:
Business Data Graphs
SAP Graph is a multitenant service, requiring system administrators and developers to use the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) to subscribe to SAP Graph and configure one or more business data graphs.
Each business data graph has unique credentials, business data graph identifiers, and various tokens that separate its functionality and data management resources from other graphical tools or features.
Graph Data Protocol
Built on open data (OData) protocols, SAP Graph offers predefined semantics and a standardized RESTful HTTP protocol to promote interoperability between SAP services and facilitate more effective management for all SAP-managed data sources and models.
In SAP Graph, multiple entities are defined in a connected Entity Data Model (EDM) that enables clients to inspect each entity, filter or search entity collections, and navigate between associated entities to adapt to the correct response format.
BTP Integration
SAP Business Technology Platform, available through multiple cloud infrastructure providers, establishes the critical aspects of a company’s technical landscape and addresses concerns associated with system connectivity, trust, user management, and other security requirements.
By leveraging the SAP BTP Cockpit, users can gain a central point of entry for all essential data sources, access associated accounts, and manage all user activities related to each data source or account.
Graph Configuration
The SAP Graph platform provides a single API for developers, offering one connection to critical business data through a connected graph of relevant business entities and data models.
Each business data graph is configured by discovering the associated landscape and connecting the related data entities available across the entire landscape.
Key Mapping
Key mapping functionality exists to simplify the merging and migration of different representations of the same data from API clients or extension applications by executing complex key transaction logic of their requests against the data in the business data graph.
This way, application developers can focus more on business requirements rather than data integration, removing the burden of managing and merging different API representations at the same time.
How Can We Help?
Whether you need help implementing new modules into your existing SAP landscape, additional support navigating support resources in the SAP HANA Academy, or just an extra hand leveraging SAP Graph functionality to develop and improve core SAP services, Surety Systems is here to help.
Our senior-level, US-based SAP consultant team has the knowledge, skills, and proven track record of handling your most critical project needs, motivating your internal teams to succeed, and facilitating better data management across your entire technical landscape.
Getting Started with Us
Interested in learning more about the SAP Graph Navigator or how our team of expert SAP consultants can help maximize the potential of your investments? Ready to get started on a project with us?
Contact us today for more information!
