Is SAP Correct that Customers Should Use HANA CDSs?

Executive Summary

  • SAP has told customers that they must use HANA CDSs.
  • How accurate is SAP on this topic?

Introduction

SAP has been communicating to customers that they should use HANA CDSs as a primary way to access SAP HANA data.  And that CDS views are the way SAP will go forward in the future, which are available through OData interface.

Our References for This Article

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Notice of Lack of Financial Bias: We have no financial ties to SAP or any other entity mentioned in this article.

  • This is published by a research entity, not some lowbrow entity that is part of the SAP ecosystem. 
  • Second, no one paid for this article to be written, and it is not pretending to inform you while being rigged to sell you software or consulting services. Unlike nearly every other article you will find from Google on this topic, it has had no input from any company's marketing or sales department. As you are reading this article, consider how rare this is. The vast majority of information on the Internet on SAP is provided by SAP, which is filled with false claims and sleazy consulting companies and SAP consultants who will tell any lie for personal benefit. Furthermore, SAP pays off all IT analysts -- who have the same concern for accuracy as SAP. Not one of these entities will disclose their pro-SAP financial bias to their readers. 

Our Analysis

  •  The OData interface is both problematic and not as flexible as SQL.
  • SAP should not be defining how you consume or view the data. SAP offers CDSs. Customers can use them or not use them depending upon whether they find they fit their needs.
  • Business logic cannot be published to the CDSs.

Conclusion

SAP has this way of presenting their options as if they are natural law. If the CDSs are good, a test will show this when compared to your alternative. The things that SAP is saying on this topic are adding up. We record false statements that are routinely made to customers. The idea inside of SAP is that customers have no real right to any truth. Anything is said that supports whatever SAP wants the customer to do.

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