Scenario
A company is evaluating:
- BDC for enterprise analytics, semantic modeling, and cross-domain reporting
- HANA Cloud for database, data processing, and in-memory applications
Question: What is the difference?
🔹 1️⃣ Purpose
| SAP BDC | SAP HANA Cloud |
|---|---|
| Cloud-native data warehouse / semantic layer | Cloud-native database / data platform |
| Focus on business semantics, harmonized KPIs, analytics-ready models | Focus on OLTP/OLAP processing, real-time transactions, in-memory computations |
| Analytical & AI-ready | Database engine for applications & analytics |
🔹 2️⃣ Layer in Architecture
| Layer | BDC | HANA Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Source Systems | S/4, ECC, SuccessFactors | Any transactional system |
| Data Replication | Delta / SLT / ODP / APIs | Direct table replication, SDA, SDI |
| Data Foundation | Managed, optimized for analytics | Raw storage, in-memory tables, views |
| Semantic Layer | Harmonized KPIs, business models | Optional, database-level modeling |
| Consumption | SAC dashboards, APIs, AI | Applications, analytics, ML |
🔹 3️⃣ Modeling & Transformation
| BDC | HANA Cloud |
|---|---|
| Technical + Business Models | Database tables & views, custom modeling |
| Cloud-native ETL & transformation | SQL-based transformations, procedural logic |
| Pre-built harmonized KPIs | Requires custom KPI definitions |
🔹 4️⃣ Use Cases
BDC
- Enterprise BI
- Cross-domain reporting
- Predictive analytics & AI
- Semantic-driven dashboards
HANA Cloud
- Real-time operational apps
- Complex OLAP / OLTP queries
- Embedded analytics for apps
- Advanced calculation views
🔹 5️⃣ Key Differentiator
BDC = analytics-first, semantic-driven, enterprise-wide platform
HANA Cloud = database-first, in-memory computation engine
In practice:
- BDC can leverage HANA Cloud as its underlying engine for performance
- HANA Cloud alone requires IT to build semantic/business layer
🎯 Interview-Ready 30-Second Answer
SAP Business Data Cloud is a cloud-native, analytics-first platform providing harmonized KPIs, semantic models, and enterprise-wide reporting. SAP HANA Cloud is a cloud-native database engine for real-time OLTP/OLAP and in-memory computation. BDC focuses on business consumption and analytics, while HANA Cloud focuses on data processing and storage. BDC can use HANA Cloud underneath, but HANA Cloud alone requires custom modeling for business semantics.