The Five Pillars of SAP BTP: Data, Development, Automation, Integration, and AI

SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is organised around five pillars: data and analytics, application development, automation, integration, and AI. Each one addresses a different technical need. Knowing what each pillar does and which services belong to it helps you scope a BTP project properly and avoid paying for capabilities you do not need yet. If you want the platform overview first, start with what SAP BTP is and why it matters.

TL;DR: SAP BTP groups its services into five pillars: data and analytics (SAP HANA Cloud, and SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud, now part of SAP Business Data Cloud), application development (SAP Build, SAP Business Application Studio, SAP CAP), automation (SAP Build Process Automation), integration (SAP Integration Suite, event mesh, Cloud Connector) and AI (SAP AI Core, Joule). Most companies start with integration, then add development and data as concrete needs appear.

Pillar 1: How does data and analytics work in BTP?

The data pillar covers storing, modelling and analysing business data across SAP and non-SAP systems. Since 2025 part of it is packaged differently: SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud are now components of SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), together with SAP BW and SAP Databricks (SAP Learning). We explain what that changes in SAP Business Data Cloud explained.

SAP HANA Cloud. In-memory database as a service, the same HANA technology that powers S/4HANA. Use cases: storing extension data, running complex queries, and serving as the persistence layer for CAP applications.

SAP Datasphere. Data integration, federation and semantic modelling. Datasphere creates a “business data fabric”: a layer that connects data from SAP, non-SAP and cloud sources, often without physically copying it. You define semantic models once, and analysts query across systems. The practical gain is less about speed than about avoiding stale copies in a separate warehouse.

SAP Analytics Cloud. Planning, BI and predictive analytics in one tool. It connects live to HANA Cloud and Datasphere for dashboards, reports and what-if scenarios, so reports can show current data rather than last night’s load.

These three work as a stack: HANA Cloud stores and processes, Datasphere integrates and models, Analytics Cloud visualises and plans.

Pillar 2: What application development tools does BTP offer?

The development pillar serves two audiences.

For business users: SAP Build. A low-code platform for creating apps, automations and workflows with little or no code: drag-and-drop UI builder, prebuilt components, direct connection to SAP data. Suitable for departmental apps, approval workflows and simple data-entry tools.

For developers: SAP Business Application Studio (BAS). A full IDE in the browser, based on Code-OSS. It supports SAP CAP, SAP Fiori development and general Node.js or Java development. This is where professional developers build production-grade extensions.

SAP CAP (the Cloud Application Programming Model) deserves special mention. It is a Node.js or Java framework with CDS (Core Data Services) for data modelling, built-in authentication, OData service generation and native connectivity to SAP services. CAP handles the plumbing, so developers can focus on business logic. We use CAP on Cloud Foundry for our Sales Cloud V2 extensions; the approach is described in extending SAP Sales Cloud V2 with custom Cloud Foundry apps. CAP applications deploy to Cloud Foundry or Kyma and are SAP’s recommended programming model for extending Sales Cloud V2, Service Cloud V2, S/4HANA and other SAP products.

Pillar 3: How does automation work on BTP?

The automation pillar combines workflow and robotic process automation.

SAP Build Process Automation. Workflow and RPA in one tool (SAP Help). You build multi-step approval workflows, automate repetitive tasks across systems, and create decision tables that route work based on business rules. It replaced SAP Workflow Management and SAP Intelligent RPA.

SAP Task Center. A unified inbox for approvals and tasks across SAP products, surfaced in SAP Build Work Zone. Instead of opening Sales Cloud, S/4HANA and SuccessFactors separately to approve something, users see their tasks in one list. A small thing on paper, but it removes a lot of daily friction.

What sets BTP automation apart from standalone RPA tools is its native connection to SAP business data. An automation that checks inventory in S/4HANA, creates a purchase order and notifies the buyer can use the connections BTP already provides instead of a custom integration.

Pillar 4: Why is integration the usual entry point?

Integration is the reason most companies adopt BTP in the first place. As soon as a second SAP cloud product or a non-SAP system enters the landscape, data has to flow between them, and that is where most BTP projects we see begin.

SAP Integration Suite. The core integration service. It includes:

• Cloud Integration: message-based integration (A2A and B2B), with prebuilt integration packages from the SAP Business Accelerator Hub
• API Management: publish, secure and monitor APIs across your landscape
• Integration Advisor: AI-assisted mapping for B2B message formats such as EDIFACT
• Open Connectors: prebuilt adapters for common non-SAP applications

SAP Event Mesh, or SAP Integration Suite, advanced event mesh for higher volumes. An event broker for event-driven architecture: when something happens in one system (order created, customer updated, case resolved), the broker distributes that event to every subscriber in near real time. This replaces batch-sync patterns that create stale data, and stale data in a CRM is dangerous because people trust it.

SAP Connectivity Service and Cloud Connector. The bridge between BTP and on-premise systems. Cloud Connector runs in your network and opens a secure tunnel to BTP, so no inbound firewall rules are needed. The Destination Service manages connection configurations centrally.

What this looks like in practice: for Meier Tobler we replaced an ageing SAP PI/PO landscape with a central Integration Suite hub that processes more than one million messages a month with real-time data synchronisation.

Pillar 5: What AI capabilities does BTP provide?

AI has become the pillar SAP pushes hardest: SAP reports that SAP Business AI was included in two thirds of its Q4 2025 cloud order entry (SAP News). At SAP Sapphire in May 2026, SAP announced the SAP Business AI Platform, which “unifies SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP Business AI into a single, governed environment” (SAP News). For BTP customers this means the AI pillar and the data pillar are converging.

SAP AI Core. Infrastructure for training, deploying and serving AI models, including the generative AI hub, which gives governed access to large language models from several providers. AI Core handles scaling, versioning and monitoring, and integrates with other BTP services through standard APIs.

SAP’s AI services. Ready-to-use services such as Document Information Extraction, which reads invoices and other business documents without you training your own model.

Joule. The AI assistant embedded across SAP applications. Joule answers questions, summarises data, drafts content and recommends actions within the context of your SAP data. At first glance it looks like one more chatbot; the difference is that it works on your actual business data and permissions, which makes it far more useful than a generic AI tool.

The quality of every AI feature depends on the data underneath, which is why the data pillar and the AI pillar belong together in any roadmap.

How to put the pillars together

Most companies actively use two or three pillars, not all five. A realistic sequence: integration first (connect ERP, CRM and external systems), then development (the extensions your processes need), then data and AI once there is a concrete question to answer. For companies that run S/4HANA Public Cloud and SAP CX side by side, this sequence is the core of the one-team approach for Cloud ERP and CRM. If you are comparing implementation partners, our overview of SAP BTP development partners in Switzerland lists what to look for, and our page as an SAP BTP partner in Switzerland shows how we scope a first project.

FAQ

Which BTP pillar should I start with?

Integration. Connecting SAP products to each other and to external systems is the first need in almost every SAP cloud project, so SAP Integration Suite is the usual entry point. Add data services when you need cross-system analytics, and development when you need custom extensions.

Do I need all five pillars?

No. Most companies actively use two or three. A typical project combining S/4HANA and SAP CX uses integration (connecting CRM and ERP) and development (extensions); data, automation and AI follow when a concrete use case demands them.

How do the pillars interact with each other?

They share one account model, one security and identity setup, and one administration cockpit. A CAP application can call Integration Suite flows, store data in SAP HANA Cloud and use models from SAP AI Core, all within the same BTP subaccount.

Is SAP Build a replacement for ABAP development?

No. SAP Build targets business users building simple apps and automations. ABAP development continues in the SAP BTP, ABAP environment for complex business logic, and SAP CAP (Node.js or Java) is SAP’s recommended programming model for new cloud-native extensions.

How does BTP pricing work across pillars?

Each service is licensed and metered separately, typically against cloud credits or a subscription. You do not pay for services you do not use, but some service plans carry minimum commitments that apply regardless of actual consumption, so check them before you activate.