SAP and Google Cloud are working together on a new open data initiative that will allow enterprise clients to pool information from different platforms. The move comes ahead of anticipated announcements about SAP’s plans to integrate generative AI into its products.
The companies say the new offering will enable customers to “build an end-to-end data cloud that brings data from across the enterprise landscape” using the SAP Datasphere data storage and analysis solution together with Google’s data cloud.
It will allow customers to view their entire data estates in real-time and maximize value from their Google Cloud and SAP software investments, a statement released today said.
SAP and Google Cloud launch open data partnership
The partnership will see greater integration between SAP’s Datasphere and Google Cloud’s BigQuery. The businesses say this will eliminate “common data silos from sources that span marketing, sales, finance and supply chain”. For example, “customers with wholesale business distribution models can now have full visibility into their products as they go through the sales pipeline and reach customers.”
Clients will be able to use Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence and machine learning services to train AI models using data from SAP and non-SAP systems, and utilise the analytics capabilities of the SAP Analytics Cloud solution in Google Cloud to assess financial and business outcomes while improving the accuracy of models.
The two companies have also pledged to explore “ways to combine SAP Datasphere with broader ESG data sets and insights powered by Google Cloud to accelerate sustainability journeys with actionable insights,” though further details of this have yet to be revealed.
“SAP and Google Cloud now offer an incredibly comprehensive and open data cloud, providing a foundation for the future of enterprise AI,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO at Google Cloud. “Few resources are as important to digital transformation as data. By deeply integrating SAP data and systems with our data cloud, customers will be able to utilise our analytics capabilities, as well as advanced AI tools and large language models to find new insights from their data.”
SAP prepares to integrate ChatGPT
SAP, Europe’s largest software company, is traditionally a vendor of on-premises IT solutions, but is in the midst of convincing its many customers to move to the cloud. It will hope partnerships with established cloud providers like Google, the third biggest player in the public cloud market, will help it forge a more compelling offering.
Moves towards opening up more data sources across multiple platforms come as SAP prepares to unveil how it will integrate OpenAI’s all-conquering ChatGPT chatbot into its systems. CEO Christian Klein told investors on the company’s earnings call last month that it will announce more details of its ChatGPT-driven applications at its Sapphire Conference, which begins in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday.
On today’s announcement, Klein said: “SAP and Google Cloud share a commitment to open data and our extended partnership will help break down barriers between data stored in disparate systems, databases, and environments. Our customers not only benefit from the business AI already built into our systems, but also from a unified data foundation.”
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