When deploying SAP Profitability and Performance Management Cloud (SAP PaPM Cloud) with the Bring Your Own Database (BYOD) approach in SAP Business Data Cloud, one of the key architecture decisions is whether to use SAP Datasphere or a dedicated SAP HANA Cloud instance.

Both options are based on SAP HANA technology, but they are suited to different types of uses cases and workloads.

In practice,

• SAP Datasphere in BDC is the perfect fit for Seamless Planning and moderate data volume scenarios,
• while a dedicated SAP HANA Cloud instance in BDC is the best choice when PaPM workloads become larger or more resource intensive.

SAP PaPM Cloud with SAP Datasphere

SAP Datasphere is especially relevant when it is already part of the customer’s planning and data architecture.

A typical example is Seamless Planning, where SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Datasphere, and SAP PaPM Cloud are used together in an integrated scenario.

For these use cases, and for workloads in the range of a few million records, SAP Datasphere is the best BYOD option. Record count alone, however, does not determine the actual workload. Model complexity, joins, allocations, and parallel processing also play an important role.

Why Workload Size Matters

SAP Datasphere is a managed service and therefore applies workload management to protect the stability of the overall environment.

This is usually transparent to the application, but it becomes more relevant for PaPM scenarios that generate heavy database processing.

Large allocations, complex calculations, high data volumes, or several processes running in parallel can consume significant database resources. In these situations, workload limits can be reached and individual statements may be restricted or rejected by the workload management layer.

For smaller and moderate workloads, this is typically not an issue. For larger workload scenarios, however, it should be considered during the architecture design.

SAP PaPM Cloud with Dedicated SAP HANA Cloud

For high volume or compute intensive SAP PaPM Cloud workloads, we recommend using a dedicated SAP HANA Cloud instance in the BDC Formation as the BYOD option.

The main advantage is that the HANA Cloud instance is used exclusively for the high SAP PaPM Cloud workload. This gives more control over sizing and allows the database resources to be aligned with the expected processing requirements.

This is particularly relevant when the scenario involves large datasets, complex calculation chains, high concurrency, or intensive parallel processing.

The dedicated HANA Cloud instance can still be part of the overall SAP Business Data Cloud landscape. Customers can therefore keep the benefits of BDC (for instance to consume BDC Data Products in SAP PaPM Cloud) while using a database environment that is better suited to demanding SAP PaPM Cloud processing.

Architecture Guidance

Scenario	Recommended BYOD Option
Seamless Planning	SAP Datasphere
Moderate volume planning workloads	SAP Datasphere
High volume production processing	Dedicated SAP HANA Cloud
Resource intensive calculations	Dedicated SAP HANA Cloud
High concurrency or parallel processing	Dedicated SAP HANA Cloud

Conclusion

The decision should mainly be driven by the expected workload.

For integrated planning scenarios and moderate processing volumes, SAP Datasphere is a the best fit.

For larger and more resource intensive PaPM workloads, a dedicated SAP HANA Cloud instance is the recommended option.

Considering this early in the project helps avoid performance constraints later and gives customers a clearer path as their SAP PaPM Cloud models and data volumes grow. Until next time!

Source link