From SAP BW to Business Data Cloud: Lift, Shift, Innovate

Many Swiss companies still run a BW system that was built ten or fifteen years ago. It works. It also holds a lot of business logic that nobody has documented, and the people who built it are slowly leaving. When SAP launched Business Data Cloud (BDC) in February 2025, the first question from BW customers was simple: what happens to our BW?

SAP has since made the answer concrete. It is a three-step path: lift, shift, innovate.

TL;DR: Lift your BW into the BW private cloud edition inside BDC (BW NetWeaver PCE is maintained to the end of 2030, BW/4HANA PCE beyond). Shift InfoProviders into data products with the Data Product Generator (BW 7.5 SPS24 on HANA or BW/4HANA 2021 SPS04 / 2023 required). Then build new analytics on data products in Datasphere and SAP Databricks. Check release, model inventory and contract before anything else.

If you are new to BDC, start with our plain-language explainer.

Step 1: Lift

The lift moves your existing BW into SAP BW private cloud edition, which is one of the BDC components. Your models, queries and process chains keep running. What changes is where BW runs and who operates the infrastructure.

The maintenance dates matter here:

• SAP BW NetWeaver private cloud edition: maintenance until the end of 2030.
• SAP BW/4HANA private cloud edition: maintenance beyond 2030.

For a BW 7.5 customer, this buys time. You do not have to rebuild everything before a support deadline. You can move into BDC first and modernise from there.

The lift alone delivers little new value to the business. It is a platform move. Do not sell it internally as more than that.

Step 2: Shift

The shift is where BW meets the data product idea. SAP’s Data Product Generator takes BW InfoProviders and publishes them as data products:

• InfoObjects
• aDSOs (advanced DataStore objects)
• CompositeProviders
• MultiProviders
• InfoCubes

The result lands as Delta tables in the Datasphere object store. From there, the data products can be shared with SAP Databricks, so data scientists work on the same governed data that your BW reports use. No extra extraction, no second copy maintained by hand.

The prerequisites are strict:

• SAP BW 7.5 SPS24 on HANA, or
• SAP BW/4HANA 2021 SPS04, or
• SAP BW/4HANA 2023.

If your BW runs on an older support package or on a non-HANA database, the upgrade comes first.

SAP also plans a Query Template Generator, aimed at moving BW query logic into the new world. Treat it as a stated plan until it ships.

Step 3: Innovate

Once BW data is available as data products, new work happens outside BW. You combine BW-derived data products with SAP-managed data products from S/4HANA or SuccessFactors, model in Datasphere, report and plan in SAP Analytics Cloud, and use SAP Databricks where machine learning is needed.

The point is not to move everything. Old BW reports that work and that nobody wants to change can keep running. New questions get answered on the new layer.

What to check first

Before you talk to SAP about timelines, collect four facts:

1. Release and database. Which BW release and support package are you on? HANA or not? This decides whether the shift is possible at all.
2. Model inventory. How many InfoProviders and queries are actually used? In most BW systems a large share is dead. Do not migrate what nobody opens.
3. Business owners. Which reports matter to which managers? These are your first candidates for the shift.
4. Contract. What do you pay for BW today, on which metric, and until when?

SAP offers BW customers assessments of their landscape. Ask for one, and bring your own inventory to compare against.

The “paying twice” question

This is the question we hear most from BW customers. You already pay maintenance for BW. BDC is a subscription. Do you pay both?

There is no general answer, because it depends on your contract and on what SAP offers in your deal. What we recommend:

• Ask SAP in writing how existing BW licences are credited or converted when you move to BW PCE inside BDC.
• Ask the same for any existing Datasphere or SAP Analytics Cloud subscriptions.
• Model the overlap period. During lift and shift, old and new may run in parallel. Know how long and at what cost.
• Involve your finance controller before you sign, not after the first invoice.

We covered the wider licensing trap in five mistakes when starting with BDC.

Without BW: the CX and S/4HANA Public Cloud route

Many of our clients never had BW. They run SAP Sales Cloud V2, Service Cloud V2 and S/4HANA Public Cloud. For them, lift and shift do not apply. They start at step 3.

• S/4HANA Public Cloud: SAP-managed data products cover finance and supply chain. Finance Intelligence has been generally available since October 2025.
• SAP Sales Cloud V2 and Service Cloud V2: we have not seen an SAP source that names specific data products for them. Revenue Intelligence, which targets sales, marketing and service data, was in restricted preview in SAP’s last public status we can cite. CX data reaches Datasphere through your own integration, for example event-driven via SAP Integration Suite, or replication.
• Swiss hosting: since early March 2026, BDC is available on Microsoft Azure in Switzerland (EU Access). For companies with data residency requirements under the nFADP, that removes one argument for waiting.

The advantage of starting without BW: no legacy models to carry. The disadvantage: no existing semantic layer either. You need to define your KPIs from scratch, which is a business task, not an IT task.

What this means for you

• BW 7.5 on HANA or BW/4HANA, current SPS: you can plan lift and shift now. Start with the inventory and the contract question.
• Older BW or non-HANA: plan the technical upgrade first. Without it, the Data Product Generator is out of reach.
• No BW, cloud CX and S/4HANA Public Cloud: skip to step 3. Pick one cross-system question, use data products where they exist and build the CX integration yourself.

In all three cases, the sequencing is the same: inventory, one use case, contract clarity, then platform work.

Next step

Spadoom connects Sales Cloud V2, Service Cloud V2 and S/4HANA Public Cloud data and works with SAP Datasphere. If you want to sort out where your company stands on this path, see our SAP Business Data Cloud page and book a short call.

FAQ

How long is SAP BW supported inside Business Data Cloud?

According to SAP, BW NetWeaver in the private cloud edition is maintained until the end of 2030. BW/4HANA private cloud edition is supported beyond 2030. That gives BW customers time to move models step by step instead of in one big bang.

What does the Data Product Generator do?

It turns existing BW InfoProviders (InfoObjects, aDSOs, CompositeProviders, MultiProviders and InfoCubes) into data products stored as Delta tables in the Datasphere object store. From there they can be shared with SAP Databricks without copying the data again.

Which BW release do I need for the Data Product Generator?

SAP names BW 7.5 SPS24 on HANA, BW/4HANA 2021 SPS04 or BW/4HANA 2023 as prerequisites. If you run an older release or BW on a non-HANA database, plan the upgrade before you plan the shift.

We run SAP Sales Cloud V2 and S/4HANA Public Cloud without BW. Is this path relevant?

Not the lift and shift part. You start directly with Datasphere and data products: Finance Intelligence has been generally available since October 2025, and CX data reaches Datasphere through your own integration while Revenue Intelligence is still in preview.