Harnessing the value of real-time business data

A decade has gone by since the start of the big data era and businesses still seek new ways to get the most value out of the data flowing through their organizations. Many have come to understand that simply collecting data in batches to analyze is not enough and that leveraging the data in real time can help accelerate digital transformations, create exceptional customer experiences, and deliver real-time analytics. With AI added to the mix, the ability to analyze data streams in real time for live insights, pattern detection, and intelligent chatbot conversation can become a game changer for any business.

Confluent and the business data fabric

SAP has partnered with Confluent, a leader and pioneer in enterprise data streaming, to strengthen SAP’s business data fabric with Confluent’s leading cloud-native data streaming platform. The business data fabric, with SAP Datasphere as its foundation, enables seamless and scalable access to mission-critical business data and delivers meaningful data to every data consumer with semantics and business logic intact. Together, SAP and Confluent will simplify the data experience and make it easier for customers to stream and connect business-ready SAP data to external data systems and applications in real time.

SAP Datasphere replication flows with Confluent

The first step in our integration with Confluent is the recent release of SAP Datasphere replication flows now supporting Confluent as a target via a Kafka connector. With this integration, customers can stream data from local SAP Datasphere tables or directly from SAP systems, like SAP S/4HANA CDS views, to Confluent to build real-time data pipelines and streaming applications. More information about this integration and our roadmap with Confluent can be found in this blog by SAP product management: SAP Datasphere Replication Flows Blog Series Part 3 – Integration with Kafka and Confluent.

We are also happy to announce, that we have expanded our partnership with Confluent, with Confluent Cloud becoming an SAP endorsed app* and available for on the SAP® Store. SAP endorsed app solutions are tested and premium certified by SAP with added security, in-depth testing and measurements against benchmark results, making Confluent Cloud a trusted solution for data streaming with SAP Datasphere.

Confluent, streaming SAP data wherever it needs to go

Built by the original creators of Apache Kafka^®, Confluent provides SAP customers with a cloud-native and complete data streaming platform available everywhere their SAP data needs to go. Together, with Confluent Cloud as an SAP endorsed app, we’re delivering new data streaming capabilities that provide a simple way to connect data from SAP solutions with any cloud or on-prem systems, in real time, while avoiding the costs and complexities of open source infrastructure management. With Confluent data streams now directly accessible from within SAP Datasphere, customers can:

• Build real-time applications with SAP data at a lower cost with fully managed data streams powered by Confluent’s Kora Engine, which reduces the total cost of ownership for Kafka by up to 60%.
• Stream SAP data anywhere it needs to go and merge with third-party sources in real time via 120+ pre-built connectors, including AWS Redshift, AWS S3, Databricks and Google Cloud BigQuery while processing that data with Confluent’s serverless Apache Flink®
• Maintain strict security, compliance, and governance standards along the way with enterprise-grade data streaming security controls and the industry’s only fully managed governance suite for Kafka.

Business today is conducted in real time and companies need their customer experiences and operations to reflect that. This need for a constant supply of real-time data from key business systems like SAP has cemented data streaming as a critical business technology, enabling the development of end-to-end real-time experiences customers expect. As a result, developers often turn to Apache Kafka®, the open source data streaming platform used by more than 80% of the Fortune 100. However, fully realizing value from Kafka is an expensive, multi-year journey requiring significant investment and risk. It takes many businesses 2+ years to scale Kafka for mission-critical use with $3-5M+ in ongoing platform development and operations costs, hundreds of thousands spent annually on underutilized and sub-optimal infrastructure, and substantial hidden costs by way of unplanned downtime and breaches.

Confluent Cloud eliminates the burdens and shortcomings of open source Kafka and ignites innovation with real-time data by giving teams a data streaming experience completely reimagined for the cloud with all the tools needed to implement new use cases quickly, securely, and reliably. Confluent’s fully managed data streaming platform is the central nervous system for modern enterprises, proven to save them $2.57M over a three year period with a 257% ROI when compared to self-managed Kafka deployments (Forrester TEI). This gives teams more time to focus on developing a full breadth of streaming use cases to move the business forward including real-time inventory management, personalized promotions, billing reconciliation, fleet management, and more.

Visit Confluent Cloud on the SAP® Store to get started.

Not yet a Confluent customer? Start your free trial of Confluent Cloud today. New signups receive $400 to spend during their first 30 days. No credit card required.

Join us and see it in action

Ready to jump in and see how SAP Datasphere and Confluent Cloud work together? Join Confluent and SAP on December 12th, 2023 for our demo webinar, “Build Real-time Customer Experiences with SAP Datasphere and Cloud-Native Apache Kafka®”.

*SAP Endorsed Apps are a category of solutions from SAP’s partner ecosystem to help customers become best-run, intelligent enterprises. Endorsed apps complement and extend SAP products and are meant to deliver value with desired outcomes – quickly, easily, and with support from SAP. The solutions are tested and premium certified by SAP with added security, in-depth testing and measurements against benchmark results.