Don’t Let the SAP ODP Ban Shut Down Your SAP Data Integrations
SAP is a critical ecosystem that many businesses rely on for daily operations. Getting data out of SAP and into an external system, warehouse, or analytics platform is often critical for these organizations to keep their business processes running.
SAP’s recent update to SAP Note 3255746, no longer allows third-party access to the Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) framework, which most external integrations are built upon. For SAP customers, this change risks shutting down the data flows that are the lifeblood of their businesses. It also sets off alarm bells across third-party integrators who have to find a new way to extract SAP data for their current customers.
In this blog, we’ll dig into the specifics of SAP’s ODP ban, its impact on SAP customers, and how CData’s SAP connectivity remains unaffected. If your company has been affected by this ban, CData is here to help.
What is the SAP ODP ban?
SAP Note 3255746, first published in 2022, was updated with Version 4 in February 2024. The note outlines SAP decision to restrict third-party tools from using ODP. These recent restrictions signal a shift in SAP's connectivity strategy, increasing reliance on the SAP ecosystem and the risk of vendor lock-in.
What is the impact on SAP customers?
SAP's decision to limit ODP usage has left many organizations scrambling for alternatives. The ODP framework has been a popular method for data extraction, enabling real-time data access and seamless integration across various applications.
As mentioned, most third-party SAP connectivity solutions also embed the ODP API as part of their respective products. This change leaves SAP customers and third-party connectivity providers scrambling to find another way to connect.
While SAP OData provides the most readily available alternative, it’s best suited for transactional, real-time data and not built for bulk data extraction. This makes it insufficient for the high-volume data transfers which were formerly supported by ODP and are a core requirement of reporting and analytics use cases. Third-party providers that rebuild their solutions solely on SAP OData may be limited in their capabilities.
How does CData automate SAP data extraction despite the ban?
The SAP ODP Ban has no impact on current CData customers using our solutions for SAP data access and replication. This is because, unlike most third-party providers, CData does not rely on the ODP API for data extraction out of SAP.
Whereas other SAP replication tools make use of the ODP interface for data extraction, CData’s solutions have no ODP footprint. This is important because SAP’s ban requires other SAP replication tools to rebuild their connectivity from the ground up. However, CData’s connectivity was not built on ODP, offering robust capabilities that is fully compliant--now and in the future.
Our connectivity is built on a combination of two protocols: RFC APIs and OData Connectivity via the SAP Gateway. These protocols are leveraged according to which one the SAP system supports and the customer’s desired use case.
CData supports two main data extraction frameworks from SAP:
1. Direct access into the SAP database via the RFC interface
The Remote Function Call (RFC) interface directly connects to the SAP database, allowing users to execute remote function modules and access SAP data without intermediary layers. CData’s support for RFC enables organizations to interact directly with their SAP systems as SQL tables. These RFC calls are modeled by our query engine as virtual SQL tables, which can then be accessed live or replicated to any target database, data lake, or data warehouse your organization uses.
The list of RFCs used by the CData SAP ERP Drivers is as follows:
- DDIF_FIELDINFO_GET
- RFC_GET_FUNCTION_INTERFACE
- RFC_GET_STRUCTURE_DEFINITION
- RFC_GET_SYSTEM_INFO
- RFC_GET_UNICODE_STRUCTURE
- RFC_READ_TABLE
- SLDAG_CHECK_FOR_UNICODE
2. Connectivity through SAP OData Services via SAP Gateway
We do also connect to SAP OData Services for appropriate use cases. By leveraging the SAP Gateway, CData enables businesses to connect to SAP systems using standard RESTful requests, making it easier to retrieve and manipulate data. These OData services are modeled by our query engine as SQL tables, which can then be accessed live or replicated to any target database/data lake/data warehouse used by your organization.
Understanding SAP Gateway and its role in SAP OData services
The SAP Gateway is a key technology that facilitates the creation and consumption of OData services, enabling access to underlying SAP data and applications via a RESTful interface. By leveraging the SAP Gateway, developers can expose SAP business logic and data models as OData services, which can then be easily consumed by a variety of client applications, including web and mobile apps.
For SAP customers affected by the recent ODP ban, the SAP Gateway provides an alternative that allows them to maintain real-time data access and integration capabilities without interruption. This transition to OData services not only ensures continuity in data workflows but also enhances the interoperability of SAP data with external applications.
CData supports an integration with SAP Gateway, which allows our platform to consume these OData services and model them as relational tables what can be replicated to systems like Snowflake, Azure Data Lake, S3, SQL Server, and many more. This allows our customers to quickly automate data extraction from SAP without relying on ODP.
Learn more: Build an S3 Data Lake from SAP Data
Limitations of SAP integration and how CData addresses them
SAP data extraction often faces limitations, including dependency on specific frameworks like ODP and challenges in integrating with non-SAP applications. Additionally, customers experience performance issues when working with large-volume datasets through SAP OData Services.
As mentioned, CData addresses these issues by offering multiple connectivity options, including OData services and direct RFC access, which ensure tight integration and real-time data retrieval regardless of the underlying SAP architecture. By providing a user-friendly interface and robust support for various platforms, CData gives organizations the tools to overcome data extraction hurdles without relying on the vendor. CData’s connectivity expertise has been refined over decades of experience with SAP, and our extraction includes custom heuristics to overcome some of the limitations presented by SAP connectivity.
CData’s broader support for the SAP ecosystem
CData supports full data access and connectivity with the following SAP systems through the RFC interface via our SAP ERP Driver:
- SAP ECC
- S/4 HANA
- SAP ERP
- SAP Business Warehouse
- SAP R/3
CData also provides OData access to:
- SAP HANA Information Views
- Core Data Service (CDS) Views
This can be achieved through CData’s Netweaver Gateway Driver
In addition, CData supports connectivity into SAP Systems unaffected by the ODP Ban:
Check out the CData SAP Integration Guide for more detail.
In terms of data extraction, CData supports continuous and incremental replication from any of the above data objects as sources into any supported destination – this includes most commonly used databases, data warehouses, and data lake systems. CData also supports replication into SAP HANA as a destination.
CData SAP customer success story: Recordati
Italian pharmaceutical company Recordati maintains two chemical plants, seven manufacturing plants, a packaging and distribution center, plus R&D and primary care services operations across the globe.
Recordati adopted CData Sync to replicate SAP ERP, HANA, and Salesforce customer data into SQL Server. Adding this to CData SSIS enabled more complete insights into its broad business units and faster adjustments to meet changes in market demand.
Self-hosting Sync with an on-premises deployment met compliance needs to align with European data privacy laws and healthcare-specific requirements, providing secure control of all data movement. Sync also provided the flexibility to work with tools outside the SAP ecosystem, such as Power BI, while also pulling data into and out of SAP® Datasphere, providing scalability for future data initiatives.
Frequently asked questions
Does CData support live connectivity to SAP in addition to data replication?
Yes, CData supports both live data access and data movement from SAP.
What are the pros and cons of each SAP connectivity approach CData supports – RFC-based connectivity versus OData-based connectivity?
OData connectivity is not performant for larger data sets, whereas RFC is built to support faster data access into SAP. On the other hand, OData-based integrations are more interoperable with non-SAP systems and easier to consume. Your CData connectivity expert can advise you on the best approach for your specific environment.
Does CData support data access into SAP CDS views and/or HANA information views?
Yes, this data can be accessed and extracted via SAP OData Services.
Does CData merge deltas automatically and support CDC out of SAP Data?
Yes, CData integrates with the Change Data Header (CDHDR) and Change Data Items (CDPOS) system tables in SAP to retrieve change data. These changes are then merged with the target destination table on a scheduled basis.
What target databases does CData support replication to?
A full set of target systems for SAP Extraction can be found on our Supported Destinations page.
Does CData support schema change detection in SAP?
Yes, CData queries the DD02L system table in SAP to identify all the metadata about table names, table types, and other attributes that define the characteristics of tables in the SAP database. These SAP tables are then modeled by our query engine as SQL tables, which fully supports read access into the SAP data model. Schema changes in underlying SAP data are detected, and the corresponding change is made in the target table(s).
Explore CData connectivity solutions
CData offers a wide selection of products to solve your data connectivity needs. Choose from hundreds of connectors between any source and any app. Get started with free trials and tours.
