Integration, Storage and Management of Data

Comprehensive, meaningful data analyses are only possible if the datasets are bundled into a business query and integrated. These datasets can have various formats and sources. The data warehouse is therefore the basis for a business intelligence solution.

Enterprise data is collected centrally in the Enterprise Data Warehouse of SAP NetWeaver BW. The data is usually extracted from different sources and loaded into SAP NetWeaver BW. SAP NetWeaver BW supports SAP and non-SAP sources. Technical cleanup steps are then performed, and business rules are applied in order to consolidate the data for evaluations. The consolidated data is stored in the Enterprise Data Warehouse. This entire process is called extraction, transformation and loading (ETL).

Data can be stored in different layers of the data warehouse architecture with different granularities, depending on your requirements.  The data flow describes the path taken by the data through the data warehouse layers until it is ready for evaluation.

Data administration in the Enterprise Data Warehouse includes controlling the processes that transfer the data to the Enterprise Data Warehouse and broadcast the data within the Enterprise Data Warehouse as well as convert strategies for optimal data retention and history keeping (limiting the data volume). This is also called Information Lifecycle Management.

With extraction to downstream systems, you can make the data consolidated in the Enterprise Data Warehouse available to further BW systems or further applications in your system landscape.

A metadata concept permits you to document the data in SAP NetWeaver BW using definitions or information in structured and unstructured form.

The Data Warehousing Workbench is the central work environment that provides the tools for performing tasks in the SAP NetWeaver BW Enterprise Data Warehouse.

Integration with SAP Enterprise Information Management broadens the scope of SAP NetWeaver BW in terms of downstream data distribution and transfer and in terms of metadata analysis.