| Status | Approved |
| Owner | |
| Stakeholders | |
| LeanIX Link | SAP Analytics Cloud - SyWay |
Introduction
SAP Analytics Cloud is a public Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product that redefines analytics in the cloud by providing all analytics capabilities (BI, Planning, Predictive) for all users in one product.
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to understand the architecture required to support the SyWay implementation.The SAP Analytics and Reporting Approach explains what will be implemented and the SAP Analytics and Reporting Standards details how it will be implemented.
This document explains the landscape and integration of the solution.
Scope & Objectives
SAC will primarily be used as a front-end presentation and planning tool. The main source of data will be Datasphere, though SAC supports reporting from other systems including SAP SaaS e.g. SuccessFactors, and Embedded Analytics from S/4. The capabilities used will be:
- Story telling and formatted reporting.
- Slice and dice via the data analyser.
- SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Excel.
Planning functions can be performed in stories or using the excel add-in. There will be a need to retract the plan data back into S/4 systems for reporting in S/4.
Certain SaaS applications have an embedded version of SAC that is not included in the scope of this document, e.g.
- SuccessFactors (used extensively as a single instance and security is natively controlled).
- Asset Performance Management (not to be used as 3 instances and offers no benefit to the enterprise version discussed here).
This implementation replaces the version of SAC being used by HR and BW as seen in LeanIX.
Application Architecture
Architectural Decisions and Requirements
The table below provides the details of the architectural decisions and the rationale upon which this decision was based:
| Architectural Decision | Description | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| SSL and SNC will be configured for SAC to encrypt web and RFC traffic | Based on SyWay implementation approach, all data in transit must be encrypted | Security is vital |
| Configure SSO for SAC | As part of SyWay project, a common authentication mechanism (e.g., SAML) will be adopted | For ease of access and unified user experience |
| Seamless planning | To enable seamless planning, Both DSP and SAC must be deployed in the same data centre and hosted by the same hyperscaler | SAP limitation and meeting Syensqo preferences |
| SAP Business Content (BCT) | Start by leveraging the SAP BCT to deliver reports with less effort | Faster implementation |
| Landscape | 3 tier landscape | SAC is a subscription model so we have to pay per instance |
Application Architecture Design
Customer Number | 3008440 |
|---|---|
Cloud Provider | MS Azure |
Cloud Region | Netherlands |
Service model | Software as a Service |
Licence | Subscription |
Deployment model | We are using the Public model |
Database | HANA Cloud |
Application Architecture Components
SAC is the presentation tool for SAP solutions as depicted below:
| SAC Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Story | Formatted reporting |
| Data Analyser | Self service (slice and dice) reporting tool |
| Excel | SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Excel |
| Planning | Planning functionality with the ability to retract plan data back into S/4 |
| Catalogue | Easy access to published stories |
Connections
SAP Analytics Cloud provides you the possibility to define live data connections to on-premise or clouds systems.
Data is “live”, meaning that when a user opens a story in SAP Analytics Cloud, changes made to the data in the source system are reflected immediately.
With live connection, data volume is processed in your back-end system. There is no theoretical limitation. Query is executed in back-end system. Query should limit volume returned to Web Browser by applying adequate input control or aggregation.
Some benefits of live data connection are:
- No data replication and prevents transfer of large data sets from source systems
- Automatically updated with current data – “live” data
- Create complex models and calculation in source systems and leverage them within SAC
- Sensitive data can stay in local network, behind your firewall
In case of live data connection, only metadata is stored in SAP Analytics Cloud. The browser is sending the queries direct to the back-end and any chart is rendered in base of queries results.
SAP Datasphere (DSP)
DSP is the cloud data warehouse used to extract transform and load data from SAP systems
SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere tenants can only be linked in a 1:1 relationship. One SAP Analytics Cloud tenant can be linked with only one Datasphere tenant.
Freeze stable connections/models/stories and Whitelist Applications to avoid the constant change of these crucial parameters.
We are not planning on importing any data directly from SAP systems into SAC, but rather via DSP. Represented as 1 in the diagram
Live Connection
With Live Connection, data securely remains in your back-end and queries are performed in your data source server. Result of query is sent back to your browser which renders your Dashboard.
Browser interacts directly or thru proxy with SAP Analytics Cloud, identity provider and all connected data sources. Then browser manages three types of communication tunnel:
- Get/Post requests from Browser to SAP Analytics Cloud are dedicated to metadata.
- Get/Post requests from Browser to Identity Provider are dedicated to SAML 2 Assertions.
- Get/Post/Options requests from Browser to Back-end data sources are dedicated to Data.
- Local (Cloud data sources) - represented as 2 in the diagram
All data stays within the SAP Cloud Platform. The data is not replicated to SAP Analytics Cloud. Modelling and model security is managed on the source system. Data connection between systems is secured within SAP Cloud Platform.
When using the SAC – Datasphere live connection, SAC currently has the following product limitations:
Analytics
- Custom Shapes for Geo Maps are not supported
- Version based variance features are not supported on SAP Datasphere data.
- Version Mapping is not supported for SAP Datasphere data.
- Blending is not supported.
- Linked Dimension is only supported for SAP Datasphere models from the same Space. It is not supported across Spaces.
- R-Visualizations are not supported.
- Comment Widgets are not supported
- Copy Widgets between stories is not supported
- Import Pages from Stories that contain Datasphere models is not supported
Planning
SAC Planning data can now be stored in Datasphere with seamless planning. However, seamless planning still requires the import of data into the SAC model and is not based on the SAP Datasphere live connection.
- Remote (On-premise data sources like S/4) - represented as 3 in the diagram
- With Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS), all data stays within the remote (customer) landscape. The data is not replicated to SAP Analytics Cloud. Modelling and model security is managed on the source system. ABAP connection
- With tunnel, the data is returned to SAC momentarily while being used (hence the solution for scheduling data to users that are not connected to the system at the time)
The capability exists but it is not envisaged that this type of connection will be required, as it connects to a single system.
We can route S/4 via remote tables in DSP and union the data before being analysed in SAC.
API connection
The PaPM connection can be used in the PaPM integration step of multi actions to connect SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Profitability and Performance Management. This connection allows you to initiate tasks remotely within the PaPM environment and continuously monitor PaPM processes that are currently running.
OData services through Cloud Connector
With seamless planning the data resides in DSP, but retraction only works from SAC to S/4, hence the data needs to be loaded into SAC first.
Potentially an option for retraction of plan data results from SAC back into S/4 (ACDOCP)
OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code with the values for your SAP Datasphere OAuth client ID
OAuth clients with a Technical User purpose cannot, at this time, consume data from assets that are protected by data access controls.
SAML2 flow
SAML 2 (Security Assertion Markup Language) is an Oasis standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between security domains. SAML 2.0 is an XML-based protocol that uses security tokens containing assertions to pass information about a principal (usually an end user) between an identity provider and a web service provider (SAP Analytics Cloud). SAML 2.0 enables web-based authentication and authorization scenarios including single sign-on (SSO)
With the provided Identity Provider (IdP) by SAP it is recommended to activate the SAML2/SSL Provider. To authenticate a user with SAC, the system uses assertion tickets based on Security Assertion Markup Language, version 2.0 (SAML2).
The use of HTTPS with valid SSL certificate is mandatory
SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Excel
With SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Excel, you can bring your SAP Analytics Cloud data into Microsoft Excel and continue your analysis there.
You can use SAP Analytics Cloud for Microsoft Excel with Excel for Web and Excel desktop on Windows and Mac.
In both cases an add-in is required to be installed. This is not the same as Analysis for Office.
Application Security
Authentication
End to end SSO is accomplished with SAML 2. In order, both SAP Analytics Cloud and on-premise data source has to be configured to trust the same identity provider, such as your SAP Cloud Identity or your Active Directory using ADFS (Active Directory Federation Services). This means that the data security implemented at the source data will always be respected for each request.
All communications between browser and SAP Analytics Cloud are always encrypted. The on-premise communications from your reverse proxy to back-end data sources should also be encrypted using TLS. All data and metadata persisted on SAP Analytics Cloud are also fully encrypted.
When custom Identity Provider is set, you have to map users between your Identity Provider and SAP Analytics Cloud. The login credential depends on the User Attribute you selected when you set Identity Provider. If you have selected custom SAML User the login credential should be the user Id of your account on your SAML Identity Provider.
If Email is selected, the login credential should be the email address of your account on your SAML Identity Provider. If User is selected, Login Credential is set to your SAP Analytics Cloud user name by default.
At the beginning, it is very important to have an alignment between Identity Provider and Service Provider (SAC) user list. You can manually enter user, but, mapping attribute is case sensitive.
Authorisation
To avoid duplication, see the Security Approach for Analytics
Communication Security
The same-origin policy is an important concept in the web application security model. Under the policy, a web browser permits scripts contained in a first web page to access data in a second web page, but only if both web pages have the same origin. It is a critical security mechanism for isolating potentially malicious documents.
In Live Connection, browser has to access Both SAP Analytics Cloud for metadata and back-end data sources (HANA, BW, S4/HANA or Universe). Then, SAP Analytics Cloud provides two ways to enable Cross Sharing Resources accessed by the same web page in Browser:
- Via CORS (recommended for ABAP stack): Cross-origin resource sharing is a mechanism that allows restricted resources on a web page to be requested from another domain outside the domain from which the first resource was served. A web page may freely embed cross-origin web page, images, stylesheets, scripts, iframes, and videos.
- Tunnel
Data Security
As we will store data in source systems such as DSP, there is no data to secure. Planning data will be in a dedicated folder.System Landscape
Development Environment
| Application | Primary Role | Hostname |
|---|---|---|
| SAP Analytics Cloud | Central Instance |
Quality Environment
The environment is planned to be provisioned by SAP on 1 August 2026. This document will be updated after this date.
Production Environment
The environment is planned to be provisioned by SAP on 1 January 2028. This document will be updated after this date.
Operation Architecture
Shared Responsibility Model
| Syensqo | Customization & Configuration | Customers must configure and customize the application per their business requirements |
| Management of identity and access | Customers must manage the complete identity lifecycle, including onboarding and offboarding users, creating and assigning roles, forming user groups, granting and restricting privilege access, and similar functions for their application | |
| Data Integrity Requirements | Customers must define proper data classification, storage, and deletion requirements. Although SAP will execute processes on data, defining data requirements is a big part of the customer’s responsibility. Protection for data at rest will be assigned by SAP based on the data classification | |
| Application Audit logs | Customers are responsible for capturing, monitoring, and analysing the application audit logs | |
| Application compliance | Customers are responsible for industry-specific certification and compliance for data used by or within the application. | |
| SAP | Deploying and configuring Resources | SAP is responsible for deploying and configuring VMs, databases, container images, and the VM operating system. |
| Securing VM and images | SAP is responsible for securing and patching operating systems and container images, as well as hardening configurable items on servers and databases | |
| Logical separation | SAP is responsible for logically segregating applications and data within various environments and between various tenants and customers | |
| Protecting data | SAP is responsible for implementing data protection, backup, and restoration, based on the data classification. The data retention policy is defined by customer but can be executed by SAP | |
| Monitoring and incident reporting | SAP logs all the security and infrastructure events. Logs will be aggregated in a system information and event management (SIEM) tool, and an alert will be generated based on the predetermined trigger. SAP will also monitor for incidents and will follow SAP’s incident response plan as and when needed. | |
| Audit and compliance | SAP is responsible for maintaining and providing certification and compliance for the application and related infrastructure. | |
| Change management | SAP is responsible for managing the maintenance window and other administrative tasks regarding change management | |
| Availability | SAP is responsible for deploying and maintaining the availability and meeting the SLA | |
| IaaS | SAP maintains responsibility for the IaaS that the hyperscaler provides on SAP’s behalf, and for ensuring each hyperscaler performs as per the contractual agreement | |
| Hyperscaler | Physical security | The hyperscaler is responsible for the physical data centre and the safety and security of people in the data centre. This includes the responsibility for background checks of the people who work in the data center and in connection with other hyperscaler- provided services |
| Resiliency | The hyperscaler is responsible for providing the capability of a resilient network and infrastructure across multiple regions and availability zones. | |
| Physical infrastructure | The hyperscaler is responsible for providing a secure network and infrastructure, including hypervisors | |
| Audit and compliance | The hyperscaler is responsible for IaaS compliance with industry standards. |
Additional SAP responsibilities
| Application security | Application security is the heart of the overall security strategy. Application development at SAP follows the secure development lifecycle. The process starts with planning and assessment, which includes a very important security measure: threat modelling. SAP uses the well-known STRIDE threat modelling technique from Microsoft. Developers follow the secure coding guidelines during the development process. The developed code is reviewed under the “Secure code review” step as a part of the process. Next, a static vulnerability scan is performed on any code developed in-house. Any vulnerability found during the review or scan is mitigated – or documented, if not mitigated – before the release. Software is next scanned for open source vulnerabilities, if any open source libraries or components are used. Dynamic application security testing is performed after software is fully developed and compiled. The last step in the application security is unit testing of the security-related functionality to address issues like invalid input parameters. Once the software is developed and the application is deployed in production, vulnerability scanning is performed at regular intervals and after each new release. Vulnerabilities found during the scanning are managed based on their Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) score. SAP does not report or disclose vulnerabilities, but a Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2) audit report lists any unmitigated vulnerabilities. The SOC 2 report can be obtained from SAP. |
| Data Security | The customer defines the data protection, retention, backup, and deletion requirements. SAP is responsible for making sure that tenant data is logically segregated. SAP also makes sure that data is segregated between nonproduction and production environments. Encryption As per the SAP security policy, data in transit and data at rest should always be encrypted. Any communication between the hyperscaler and client uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) with HTTPS. Data at rest is encrypted using disk encryption to prevent data exposure in case of a physical theft of the drive. Other encryption methods, such as volume, backup, or in-application encryption, are used based on the technical, functional, and business requirements of the application and customer. Encryption Key Management SAP does not utilize default keys provided by hyperscalers. SAP is responsible for creating, rotating, and deleting the encryption keys. SAP also manages access to the key. One of the “key” differences between an application hosted by SAP versus third-party hyperscalers is the key storage. When an SAP application is hosted by a third-party hyperscaler, the key is stored with the hyperscaler using the hardware security module (HSM) or other secret management storage that the hyperscaler provides. This key storage or HSM is always FIPS 140-2 compliant. Any access to this storage is logged and audited by SAP. The encryption key is always managed by SAP, regardless of where the key is stored. Retention, Deletion, and Backup Data retention with most SAP applications is automated and customer driven. Customers can create policies or rules in the application stating how long the data should be retained based on their requirements. Data will be deleted at the end of the retention period. Customers can also delete their data at any time they have access. Data backup and deletion processes and schedules are not impacted by the migration to hyperscaler. These processes remain unchanged. It is important to note that SAP and hyperscalers will maintain compliance with laws and requirements around personal data, such as EU access, the General Data Protection Regulation, and other industry and geographic regulations. |
| Infrastructure and Network Security | SAP creates virtual resources using cloud APIs and is responsible for everything between and including virtual resources and the application. SAP will deploy and manage everything from the virtual machine up. This means that SAP has responsibility for managing infrastructure, creating and managing various virtual private clouds, and creating and managing security groups and firewalls. SAP is also responsible for managing and patching the operating system and middleware. SAP will regularly scan the environment for operating system and middleware vulnerabilities. SAP will deploy patches to operating systems and middleware based on the vendors’ specifications. SAP’s architecture blueprint dictates that database servers and application servers are isolated from each other and from the public-facing Web server. DB server and application servers are hosted within a private subnet, while Web servers are in the public subnets behind the Web application firewall (WAF) and security groups. SAP’s strategy is to provide database clusters. High availability will not change as a result of migration to a hyperscaler. Hyperscalers are responsible for providing overall network and infrastructure protection against DDoS and network- or infrastructure-based attacks to the data centres, but it is SAP’s responsibility to provide anti-DDoS, IPS/IDS, WAF, and network monitoring of the resources created by SAP. It is SAP’s responsibility to perform regular penetration testing, and SAP will work with the hyperscaler for network penetration testing. The physical security of the data centres and vetting of the workforce who are working in and around data centres are responsibilities of the hyperscaler. |
| Logging, Monitoring, and Incident Response | The customer has full access to application and audit logs. SAP is responsible for collecting, storing, and analysing infrastructure and security logs. SAP manages the threat triggers and generates alerts from the logs. SAP does not share infrastructure and security logs with customers. SAP aggregates the logs into the SIEM tool and automates the process of analysing and generating alerts. Monitoring various logs and generating alerts when there is a deviation from the baseline is a very time-consuming but essential part of the security – and SAP handles that for you, so you can focus on your customers. The team of seasoned SAP professionals perform infrastructure monitoring, database monitoring, security incident management, secure admin access, regular backups, security scanning and remediation 24x7 to secure the environment for customers. Hyperscaler landscapes pose unique challenges, and SAP’s security incident response team works closely together with GCS multi-cloud security operations to continuously improve security incident response process and automation for SAP’s multi-cloud landscape. Although SAP does not notify customers of every incident, we will provide breach notification report and root cause analysis to customers for any incident that is classified as a personal data breach. |
| Identity and Access Management | The customer is responsible for identity and access management (IAM). SAP provides single sign-on and other IAM-related services as needed. SAP offers solutions that can manage the complete identity lifecycle, integrate on-premise and cloud solutions, work with multi-factor authentication, and simplify the access management process for you. The customer has complete control over who can access the data and to what extent. Most important, the customer has the ability to provide admin or privileged access to the application. This access should be granted only as needed and must be monitored. SAP has access to cloud accounts as well as privileged access to the application and SAP environment within the hyperscaler environment. SAP employees or partners do not have any access to customer’s data or information. |
| Connectivity to Cloud | Azure ExpressRoute allows you to extend your corporate or personal network into the Microsoft cloud over a private connection. Azure ExpressRoute provides Layer 3 connectivity between your site and Microsoft cloud. Azure ExpressRoute provides redundancy for the network connection as well as a guaranteed uptime SLA for connectivity. |
Transport Management
Cloud TMS is to be used in association with ActiveControlMaintenance Plan - Release Management
- Major functionality is bundled into Quarterly Release Cycle (QRC) updates. Feb, May, Aug and Nov.
- Recommended to review upcoming changes before they are released.
- Updates include new features, fixes, and security patches, and they’re applied automatically by SAP in the background.
No customer-side installation or downtime planning is needed.
Application Monitoring
SAP provide access to the system monitoring views in System/common/SAC content
Story | Model | Description |
|---|---|---|
Error Statistics and Analysis | SAC_STATISTICS_MDS_QUERY_PERF | BW Backend Application Performance |
Performance Statistics and Analysis | SAC_PERFOMANCE_E2E SAC_USER_FRIENDLY_PERF_ACTION | End-to-end Application Performance Basic End-to-end Application Performance |
ACTIVITY_LOG | Story and user by date Activity | |
Data Management Jobs Statistics and Analysis | DM_SCHEDULE | I guess acquired data in SAC |
Data Action Performance Statistics and Analysis | PLANNING_DATA_ACTIONS | Planning actions |
System Monitoring
Sizing
We expect to have 500 users with 100 performing planningHigh Availability
The standard default system availability for Datasphere for Public Cloud Services at SAP, which is 99.7%
Disaster Recovery
SAC has a DR approach where there is a full back-up done once a day. On top of this, there are log backups that are being done every 15 minutes. RPO is therefore 15 minutes. You can find this back in this SAP Note. You will also note that there is no guaranteed RTO for SAC.
Backup/Restore
SAC also does back-up of tenants every 15 minutes (RPO 15 minutes). There is also no guaranteed RTO for SAC but it is leveraging the SAP HANA Cloud service resiliency layer. You can find this back in this SAP Note as well.
Service Introduction
Skill required
SAP Analytics Cloud System Owner | SAP Analytics Cloud settings such as data source configuration, SAC SAML 2 settings, Users and roles management, Connection settings |
Data source expert | Connectivity layer and security (HANA, BW, Universe, S4/HANA…) |
Network expert | Proxy, firewall, DNS server, etc. |
Security expert | SAML 2, customer’s Identity Provider, SSL certificate, etc. |
Information system architecture expertise | General Architecture topics |
Application expert | SAP or non-SAP depending on your data sources: Connectivity, security, modelling |
Exceptions
Change log
Workflow history
| Title | Last Updated By | Updated | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| There are no pages at the moment. | ||||