SAP BusinessObjects Data Services - now is the time

虽然HANA提供了三种抽取数据的方式，但目前我所实施的项目中只用了LT与DS两种。

虽然hana 1.0 sp3 (revision20)以上的LT支持第三方数据库，但实际上是BUG多多。。。

虽然在SAP专家Joyce的帮助下，帮忙在LT服务器上做了不少增强开发，现在勉强能够抽取MSSQL的数据，但仍然是限制多多，目前不得不通过写一只程序将原MSSQL的表名强制转换成大写；表名长度不能超过16位（现在扩展为30位了，我们客户的居然有50多位。。汗。。。），而且LT的实时，说白了 就是一个监控JOB，每过大约2s跑一个抽数JOB，在MSSQL源中通过触发器将数据存到一个表（增删改三种操作，不支持trunck，不支持调整结构等）中。。

为此种种，咱MSSQL这部分就仍是先用data services了。。。  ds4到时可以通过RDS抽取数据源，真是方便

以下来自网络.....

In recent years SAP has released exiting new technologies for a wide variety of business scenarios. There is the much talked about In-Memory technology (SAP HANA) which enables real time SAP BI reporting. There is a complete set of products for data quality management and master data management. SAP has unlocked a great potential by enabling the use of social media comments in SAP BI reporting. What all these products have in common is that to a certain extend they are build on, or rely on, the application SAP BusinessObjects Data Services. Surprisingly enough, there seems to be quite a slow uptake on this product amongst organisations running SAP.

I understand not everyone gets excited about a piece of 'middleware' - an application which is not visible to end users. At the same time, I would expect people who are interested in infrastructure and system architecture to be interested Data Services. There are two good reasons why Data Services is relevant:

1. Data Services is an easy to use ETL tool, and can probably replace one or several tools in use in your SAP landscape.  It is now part of SAP's best practise architecture for Data Warehousing.
2. Data Services is a prerequisite for several new SAP technologies - and my expectation is that this will be more and more so.

My recommendation would be to get the infrastructure in order while you can. Implement Data Services in your current landscape so you are prepared when projects require it. In the meanwhile you might save a few bob as you might be able to phase out existing ETL tools. Data Services is the new standard and it is here to stay.