SAP HANA smart data access (SDA) has played a pivotal role in data federation, serving as a cornerstone for positioning SAP HANA Cloud as a single gateway to all data. As highlighted in my previous blog, Taking Data Federation to the Next Level: Accessing Remote ABAP CDS View Entities in SAP HANA Cloud, SDA has also established itself as the core component for leveraging the full potential of data in the context of Clean Core.
Nevertheless, due to its limited protocol boundary to ODBC and REST, along with restrictions on running third-party drivers within the SAP HANA database of SAP HANA Cloud, the supported scope of remote sources has been limited in SAP HANA Cloud.
This limitation has been complemented by SAP HANA smart data integration (SDI) through its JDBC-based adapters, as it also supports data federation, even though SDI is primarily designed for real-time data replication. However, customers must deploy and operate Data Provisioning Agent (DPAgent) separately in an on-premise setup.
In this context, I’m pleased to announce that, starting with SAP HANA Cloud QRC 02/2025, SDA now supports Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Snowflake as two new remote sources via a new Data Access Agent. This new Data Access Agent expands data federation and provides broader coverage with JDBC-based adapters as an SAP-managed service.
In a nutshell, the new Data Access Agent was developed with the following three key characteristics.
Fully managed and secure: Like the SAP HANA database in SAP HANA Cloud, this new Data Access Agent can be provisioned and deprovisioned in SAP HANA Cloud Central or via the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI), but it operates separately. This separation helps ensure the SAP HANA database remains secure, as the Data Access Agent runs as a physically separate instance.Greater flexibility: While the natively available SDA adapters continue to be based on ODBC and REST, this new Data Access Agent supports JDBC-based adapters. These will allow leveraging not only existing SDI adapters but also new third-party driver-based adapters.Simplified operations: As this new Data Access Agent is managed by SAP in a cloud-native manner, the configuration and monitoring processes have become significantly more streamlined and user-friendly.
The good news is that support for remote sources to Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Snowflake is just the beginning. As described, since this new Data Access Agent introduces new possibilities for connecting to remote sources with different protocols, there are plans to support additional remote sources for data federation, including SharePoint in Microsoft 365, Google Sheets, and more.
However, please note that although this new Data Access Agent supports new JDBC-based adapters, it only supports data federation and snapshot replica toggling within the virtual table interface. That is, trigger-based real-time replication, like SDI, is not supported.
SAP HANA smart data access (SDA) has played a pivotal role in data federation, serving as a cornerstone for positioning SAP HANA Cloud as a single gateway to all data. As highlighted in my previous blog, Taking Data Federation to the Next Level: Accessing Remote ABAP CDS View Entities in SAP HANA Cloud, SDA has also established itself as the core component for leveraging the full potential of data in the context of Clean Core.Nevertheless, due to its limited protocol boundary to ODBC and REST, along with restrictions on running third-party drivers within the SAP HANA database of SAP HANA Cloud, the supported scope of remote sources has been limited in SAP HANA Cloud.This limitation has been complemented by SAP HANA smart data integration (SDI) through its JDBC-based adapters, as it also supports data federation, even though SDI is primarily designed for real-time data replication. However, customers must deploy and operate Data Provisioning Agent (DPAgent) separately in an on-premise setup.In this context, I’m pleased to announce that, starting with SAP HANA Cloud QRC 02/2025, SDA now supports Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Snowflake as two new remote sources via a new Data Access Agent. This new Data Access Agent expands data federation and provides broader coverage with JDBC-based adapters as an SAP-managed service.In a nutshell, the new Data Access Agent was developed with the following three key characteristics.Fully managed and secure: Like the SAP HANA database in SAP HANA Cloud, this new Data Access Agent can be provisioned and deprovisioned in SAP HANA Cloud Central or via the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI), but it operates separately. This separation helps ensure the SAP HANA database remains secure, as the Data Access Agent runs as a physically separate instance.Greater flexibility: While the natively available SDA adapters continue to be based on ODBC and REST, this new Data Access Agent supports JDBC-based adapters. These will allow leveraging not only existing SDI adapters but also new third-party driver-based adapters.Simplified operations: As this new Data Access Agent is managed by SAP in a cloud-native manner, the configuration and monitoring processes have become significantly more streamlined and user-friendly.The good news is that support for remote sources to Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Snowflake is just the beginning. As described, since this new Data Access Agent introduces new possibilities for connecting to remote sources with different protocols, there are plans to support additional remote sources for data federation, including SharePoint in Microsoft 365, Google Sheets, and more.However, please note that although this new Data Access Agent supports new JDBC-based adapters, it only supports data federation and snapshot replica toggling within the virtual table interface. That is, trigger-based real-time replication, like SDI, is not supported. Read More Technology Blog Posts by SAP articles
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