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 over the coming quarters and the goal is for SAP Datasphere to eventually cover all the major capabilities, target systems, and use cases that SAP Data Intelligence Cloud provides. The vision from SAP is that customers will be able to remain aligned with this roadmap and transition workloads from SAP Data Intelligence Cloud to SAP Datasphere over time as your use cases allow. SAP will also provide tools to assist you with making this transition. The latest roadmap for SAP Datasphere can be found in the SAP Roadmap Explorer.

Existing SAP Data Intelligence Cloud customers can continue to use SAP Data Intelligence Cloud in your landscape. With the first release of SAP Datasphere, the focus is on adding capabilities that are an evolution of features for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud customers and therefore it is not immediately a full replacement for SAP Data Intelligence Cloud. If you are a current customer of both SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Data Intelligence Cloud, considering that with the release, SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is now SAP Datasphere, you will automatically become an SAP Datasphere + SAP Data Intelligence Cloud customer.

Should you be worried about your existing investments in SAP Data Intelligence Cloud with the SAP Datasphere release? Will you be forced to move from SAP Data Intelligence Cloud before you are ready? The clear answer is no! SAP recognizes that many customers have made investments into SAP Data Intelligence Cloud and will still want to see innovation with that product. Rest assured, there is still a roadmap for SAP Data Intelligence Cloud as a standalone solution and SAP will continue to support both solutions in parallel. With the strategic focus changing to SAP Datasphere, it is hoped that the new capabilities and landscape simplification possibilities will bring you significant benefits, leading you to transition to SAP Datasphere over the coming years as your needs and priorities allow.

Commercially, you will be able to continue to use your SAP Data Intelligence Cloud subscriptions or consume CPEA credits for your SAP Data Intelligence Cloud usage. 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.

If you are currently considering an SAP Data Intelligence Cloud / SAP Datasphere purchase, the first consideration is to see if SAP Datasphere will meet your use case needs. If so, then your choice is clear – SAP Datasphere would be the only solution you need and you should head down that path. If not, an assessment should be done regarding whether a landscape of SAP Datasphere + SAP Data Intelligence Cloud or simply SAP Data Intelligence Cloud in isolation would be most appropriate for you, addressing both your current goals and long-term plans. While the end goal of all SAP Data Intelligence Cloud customers is to become a full SAP Datasphere user over time, this can be done at your pace matching your growing use cases to the roadmap of SAP Datasphere. 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? Nothing will change here either. Your SAP Data Intelligence on-prem existing support agreements will remain in place, and this will continue to be a viable solution for certain use cases. However, it is important to note that SAP’s innovation is focused on SAP Datasphere and SAP Data Intelligence Cloud for new capabilities and the code lines for SAP Data Intelligence on-prem and SAP Datasphere / SAP Data Intelligence Cloud will continue to diverge over time. Additionally, our existing on-prem data integration solutions and hybrid data management approach remains unchanged. Please refer to this statement of direction for more information.

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.