Top 6 Questions Answered About SAP BW/4HANA

SAP BW/4HANA represents a major evolution in SAP’s data warehousing strategy. Built natively for the in-memory power of SAP HANA, this BW environment is designed to deliver simplicity and a modern user experience, addressing many of the challenges legacy Business Warehouse (BW), customers have faced over the years.  

Whether you’re considering a migration, curious about deployment options or want to understand the technical improvements, it is important to understand this new solution and how it can aggregate to your digital strategy, currently or in the future. Let’s explore some of the most frequently asked questions about SAP BW/4HANA. 

1. What Is SAP BW/4HANA?

SAP BW/4HANA is an advanced data warehouse solution developed by SAP, designed to run exclusively on the SAP HANA in-memory database platform. Unlike its predecessor, SAP BW, which was compatible with various databases, BW/4HANA is fully optimized for HANA’s in-memory processing capabilities. This tight integration allows for real-time data ingestion and analytics.

BW/4HANA is built on a simplified data architecture that removes legacy objects and introduces HANA-native modeling techniques, enabling improved data lifecycle management and enhanced performance in reporting and analytics.  

2. What Is SAP Touting About SAP BW/4HANA?

Simplicity 

Over many years, SAP BW’s product has released many options and features, which has resulted in new customers wondering which options should be taken into consideration when embarking on a BW implementation journey. SAP has chosen to eliminate the unnecessary options and provide customers with more relevant choices to consider for their BW/4HANA implementations. BW/4HANA only offers building blocks that customers “should” be leveraging for the foreseeable future. 

One of the most compelling features of SAP BW/4HANA is its ability to recognize the types of data that reside in each table. With this, it can automatically determine which data needs to be in memory (hot) and which data can be stored on disk (warm). This type of automated intelligent data storage allows for more efficient use of an SAP customer’s hardware investment. 

Openness 

Pre-built, standardized templates called, “Building Blocks” are leveraged for building a data warehouse. BW/4HANA models and data can be exposed as native HANA views and accessed through standard SQL, which is a huge upside for customers. These views can then be consumed by various visualization tools such as BusinessObjects and Lumira. 
 

Modern UIs 

SAP has worked diligently to improve its UX across its various product lines and users are seeing the benefits. This trend continues in SAP BW/4HANA. BusinessObjects Cloud provides a modern UX for visualization, storytelling and data exploration. BW/4HANA can also be accessed by the digital boardroom. Finally, administrators should be excited because front ends are now accessed through HANA Studio and modern browsers. 

High Performance 

Top-notch performance has been the SAP mantra for HANA since day one. So, expect no exceptions with BW/4HANA. This is the only data warehousing solution that was built from the ground up with optimal performance in mind. Expect significantly improved performance for data loading, querying, analysis, and staging. 
 

3. Is SAP BW/4HANA Available On Premise?

Yes, SAP BW/4HANA supports both on-premise and cloud deployments, giving organizations the flexibility to choose the infrastructure that best aligns with their IT strategy and operational requirements. Initially launched with a “cloud-first” approach through platforms like SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEC) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), BW/4HANA is now fully available for on-premise deployment as well. SAP also offers a variety of managed cloud options to support hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

BW/4HANA provides real-time data access and processing through native HANA features such as Smart Data Integration (SDI) and Smart Data Access (SDA). This allows organizations to replicate or virtualize data from disparate systems, including legacy databases, third-party applications and cloud platforms to deliver a unified view of enterprise data. Whether deployed in the cloud or on-premise, BW/4HANA empowers users to generate actionable insights. 

4. Which Companies Does SAP Suggest Leverage This New Technology?

SAP currently has thousands of BW customers that haven’t yet made the move to HANA. There are also another thousand customers who have already made the move to HANA from whatever database they were using in the past. SAP has committed to providing a straightforward way to switch to new HANA-native data warehouse.  

This transition is particularly valuable for companies that are already heavily invested in SAP solutions but struggle with fragmented data and limited visibility. For example, one leading omnichannel retailer using SAP S/4HANA, SAP Commerce Cloud and SAP Cloud Platform was unable to consolidate insights across their various operations. After implementing SAP BW/4HANA, they significantly reduced overhead costs, boosted end-user productivity and gained the flexibility needed to scale their operations more efficiently. 

5. What is The Upgrade Path for SAP BW Customers?

The most efficient approach is to move to SAP BW 7.5 SP4 on HANA. This facilitates the conversion to the new object types and the activation of “HANA-only mode”, which prevents legacy objects from being created. This will be a single-step process for most customers. 

6. When Will NLS With HDFS Or Sybase IQ (SAP IQ) be available and can both be used at the same time?

Both SAP-provided NLS solutions (IQ and HDFS) are currently available. So far, it is only possible to use one or the other (not both simultaneously). Partner NLS solutions are not supported due to changes in the NLS interface. SAP plans on delivering a conversion tool for 3rd party NLS solutions in the future. 

SAP BW/4HANA is more than just a technical upgrade, it’s a strategic move toward a more agile data warehousing future. With its cloud-first approach and optimized performance, it opens the door for enterprises to better leverage their data in real-time. If you’re evaluating your path forward with SAP, understanding BW/4HANA is a critical step.  

Check out our webinar on S/4HANA Deployment to learn more about SAP’s broader digital transformation ecosystem.