SAP, Google Cloud partnership to focus on open data and AI for enterprises
SAP and Google Cloud have announced an extensive expansion of their partnership, introducing a comprehensive open data offering designed to simplify data landscapes and unleash the power of business data.
The offering enables customers to build an end-to-end data cloud that brings data from across the enterprise landscape using the SAP Datasphere solution together with Google's data cloud, so businesses can view their entire data estates in real time and maximise value from their Google Cloud and SAP software investments.
Data is the cornerstone of digital transformation and AI development. Organisations spend significant resources building complex data integrations, custom analytics engines, and generative AI and natural language processing (NLP) models before they start to realise value from their data investments. Data originating from SAP systems, in particular, is among organisations' most valuable assets and can contain critical information on supply chains, financial forecasting, human resources records, omnichannel retail and more. SAP Datasphere combines this mission-critical data with data from across the enterprise landscape, regardless of its origin. Being able to combine SAP software data and non-SAP data on Google Cloud from virtually any other data source, means organisations can dramatically accelerate their digital transformation with a fully defined data foundation that retains complete business context.
"Bringing together SAP systems and data with Google's data cloud introduces entirely new opportunities for enterprises to derive more value from their full data footprints," says Christian Klein, CEO and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.
"SAP and Google Cloud share a commitment to open data and our extended partnership will help break down barriers between data stored in disparate systems, databases and environments. Our customers not only benefit from the business AI already built into our systems, but also from a unified data foundation," he says.
"SAP and Google Cloud now offer an incredibly comprehensive and open data cloud, providing a foundation for the future of enterprise AI," adds Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud.
"Few resources are as important to digital transformation as data. By deeply integrating SAP software data and systems with our data cloud, customers will be able to utilise our analytics capabilities as well as advanced AI tools and large language models to find new insights from their data."
SAP and Google Cloud's new open data offering complements the RISE with SAP solution and will enable customers to:
Access business-critical data in real-time
The integration between SAP Datasphere and Google Cloud BigQuery allows customers to access their most critical data in real time without data duplication. This joint offering can unify data from SAP software systems, such as SAP S/4HANA and SAP HANA Cloud, providing organisations with a comprehensive view of their most important data on Google data cloud.
Simplify data landscapes
SAP and Google Cloud co-engineered powerful data replication and federation technologies, which allow businesses to integrate SAP software data with BigQuery environments and leverage SAP and Google Cloud$B!G(Bs leading data analytics capabilities. Now, customers can federate queries across SAP Datasphere and BigQuery to blend data from SAP and non-SAP software. This eliminates common data silos from sources that span marketing, sales, finance, supply chain and more. For example, customers with wholesale business distribution models can now have full visibility into their products as they go through the sales pipeline and reach customers.
Create trusted insights with Google Cloud's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models
Businesses will be able to use Google's AI and ML services to train models on data from SAP and non-SAP systems.
Perform advanced analysis
Organisations can utilise the analytics capabilities of the SAP Analytics Cloud solution in Google Cloud to analyse financial and business outcomes while improving the accuracy of models. With a simple integration to data in BigQuery with SAP Datasphere, customers can plan with a single, comprehensive view of their businesses.
Utilise joint solutions for sustainability
SAP and Google Cloud are exploring ways to combine SAP Datasphere with broader ESG data sets and insights powered by Google Cloud to accelerate sustainability journeys with actionable insights.
Use SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) on Google Cloud globally
SAP will advance its multi-cloud offerings by expanding regional support of SAP BTP and SAP HANA Cloud on Google Cloud, which includes support for SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere. SAP and Google Cloud intend to launch SAP BTP in five new regions this year, building to a total of eight regions supported by 2025.
The companies also plan to partner on joint go-to-market initiatives for enterprises' largest data projects, enabling customers to adopt data products from both SAP and Google Cloud.
