Understanding the SAP BI/BW Landscape: My Personal Take on the Architecture

When I first started working with SAP Business Intelligence (BI) and Business Warehouse (BW), the system landscape felt like a maze. But over time, I realized it’s a well-orchestrated structure designed to handle massive volumes of data — from extraction to reporting. Let me walk you through how I see the SAP BI/BW landscape today.

🏗️ The Layers That Make It Work

SAP BI/BW is built on a multi-layered architecture, each with a specific role in managing and transforming data:

• Persistent Staging Area (PSA): This is where raw data lands first after being pulled from source systems. It’s untouched and unfiltered — basically the “landing zone” before any transformation begins.

• Operational Data Store (ODS): Think of this as a real-time snapshot layer. It captures frequent updates and changes throughout the day. If something goes wrong in the data warehouse, ODS can act as a backup source.

• Data Warehouse Layer (DWH): This is the long-term storage zone. It holds historical data — sometimes spanning years — and keeps it at a granular level. No aggregation happens here; it’s all detailed records.

• Architected Data Mart Layer (Infocubes): This is where data gets summarized and structured for reporting. It’s optimized for analysis, with fact tables and dimension tables arranged in a star schema format.

🔄 Data Flow and Integration

SAP BW connects to various source systems, including:

• SAP ECC modules (FI, MM, SD, etc.)

• Non-SAP databases (Oracle, SQL Server)

• Flat files (Excel, CSV)

• Web services and APIs

Data flows from these sources into BW using ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes. Once inside BW, it’s cleaned, enriched with master data, and stored in InfoProviders for reporting.

🧰 Key Tools in the Landscape

• BI Administration Workbench: This is the control center for managing data models, transformations, and loading processes.

• Business Explorer (BEx): A suite of tools for building queries and reports. It supports both web-based and Excel-based analysis.

• SAP BW Accelerator / SAP HANA: These technologies boost query performance. If you’re on HANA, you don’t need the BW Accelerator — HANA handles it natively.

• SAP BusinessObjects Integration: For advanced reporting and dashboards, BW can integrate with tools like Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, and Lumira.

🌐 Open Architecture and Flexibility

One thing I love about SAP BW is its open architecture. You can:

• Pull data from external systems

• Broadcast BW data to downstream platforms

• Use third-party analytics tools via open interfaces like ODBO and XMLA

This flexibility makes BW a powerful hub for enterprise-wide analytics.