SAP customers invest heavily in enterprise software and infrastructure with the expectation of both high performance and operational flexibility. However, SAP’s business strategy, licensing models, and ecosystem architecture have introduced new limitations, particularly when it comes to data access and interoperability.

In the previous installment of this series, we explored how SAP’s evolving policies constrain business agility by limiting data movement. In this installment, we turn to the practical considerations that SAP customers must weigh when navigating these constraints and how to do so without compromising compliance or performance.

First, it's essential to recognize that ERP data is extremely valuable when extracted and combined with other business-critical data sources like CRM data, unstructured data, database data, and more. But with the sheer number of data sources across an organization, data teams are handcuffed if they lack the technical capability to aggregate data from all of these sources, leaving teams unable to deliver meaningful insights, reporting, or progress on AI initiatives.

Second, while SAP’s support notes and policy language may appear rigid, customers often have more options than assumed. A thorough legal and technical review can reveal those options and enable a company to control and mobilize its own data.

Finally, regardless of where data resides — whether in SAP-hosted infrastructure or third-party data platforms — data ownership remains with the customer. Businesses and data teams should feel empowered to assert that right.

An overview of SAP ERP systems

SAP ECC (ERP Central Component) has long been the backbone of many enterprises, integrating enterprise capabilities across SAP's suite of applications. ECC is an end-of-life system that struggles to scale and interoperate with third-party tools, leaving customers afraid to even try to extract data at the risk of causing outages. ECC on SQL Server, Oracle, and HANA is supported until the end of 2027, with the option for support until 2033 in exchange for a commitment to migrate to RISE. Some of the data risks include:

• Complex data structures and customization: Proprietary data formats make extraction complex and expensive.
• Unsupported legacy technology: Older databases, platforms, or SAP middleware make integrations with modern tools unnecessarily challenging. 
• Cluster, text, and pool tables: Most replication tools do not support these SAP complex data types.
• Overloaded source systems: Especially in SAP legacy environments, systems are often maxed out, making administrators hesitant to add new extraction workloads without first removing existing ones.

SAP customers not running SAP ECC are likely on SAP S/4HANA, launched in 2015 as a next-generation ERP suite built exclusively for SAP’s HANA in-memory database. S/4HANA comes with its own data integration challenges, including:

• Licensing models: The release of S/4HANA reinforced the distinction between runtime and enterprise licenses. SAP only grants customers direct access to their database with an enterprise license, often several times the cost of a runtime license.
• Limited backward compatibility: ECC customizations may have to be reworked for S/4HANA, making migrations expensive and time-consuming.

SAP’s latest offering, SAP RISE, offers “business transformation-as-a-service.” It’s designed to accelerate digital transformation through a managed service for migrating to SAP S/4HANA on cloud infrastructure. RISE reduces customer control over their ERP environment with:

• Limited flexibility and cloud hosting restrictions: The entire environment (ERP, infrastructure, and technical services) is hosted by SAP, making it challenging to use third-party data extraction tools or to transition to another ERP system. RISE customers, in particular, do not have direct control over their cloud infrastructure and face limited connection options. Access to the database also requires an additional fee in the form of an enterprise license.
• Opaque pricing: SAP does not provide clear cost breakdowns for RISE, making it difficult for customers to compare costs with alternative solutions.

RISE shifts SAP from a software vendor to a cloud service provider, tightening its grip on customers  by controlling both the ERP software and its underlying infrastructure. Customers have fewer options and less control, especially as SAP’s changing rules and policies introduce uncertainty about what is permitted in terms of data integration and access, as seen in the increasingly restrictive updates to SAP note 2971304.

Regardless of your SAP ERP system, Fivetran is able to help your organization centralize data.

Fivetran: One platform moving the world’s data

Fivetran simplifies data replication from SAP and over 700 other sources, including databases (SQL Server, Postgres), SaaS applications (Salesforce, Google Ads), events, and files into data lakes and data warehouses like Snowflake, Databricks, Google Cloud Platform, S3, and more. Fivetran supports workloads and architectures comprising cloud, hybrid, and on-premises systems. Organizations can effortlessly move data to these modern data warehouses/data lakes, enabling advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI initiatives. 

SAP replication with Fivetran: How does it work?

Fivetran executes periodic data extraction via an SAP RFC (Remote Function Call) connection, which SAP has provided for third-party integrations for decades. This RFC interfaces with a Fivetran SAP Function Module component within the SAP NetWeaver application, known as Fivetran NetWeaver API. This component:

• Collects and processes changed data using change pointers in the SAP systems and triggers on tables, limiting additional overhead on SAP’s data backend
• Validates and compresses data for optimized transfer, optimizing the use of the available networking capacity

The NetWeaver API is available from Fivetran in the form of a downloadable SAP transport file. This transport functions like any other custom ABAP enhancement within SAP (requires SAP NetWeaver 7.5 or higher) and can be imported using SAP’s standard transport management system by application administrators. With this approach, Fivetran connects directly to the SAP application using standard methods built into NetWeaver. By working through the application layer, Fivetran lets the SAP system manage data access, authorization and process management.

Fivetran securely delivers SAP data to a data lake or data warehouse of a customer’s choice. It establishes a secure connection with SAP sources in several ways, including VPN, SSH, Private Link, and SAP SNC. For added flexibility, Fivetran’s hybrid deployment option seamlessly integrates SAP data while processing it entirely within a secure environment. 

In short, Fivetran’s SAP connector is designed to integrate data from SAP systems without relying on SAP middleware or creating unnecessary complexity. It remains a practical choice for businesses because it:

• Connects through SAP NetWeaver: Fivetran’s solution relies solely on SAP’s standard NetWeaver application layer for data extraction. This means the connector works with both enterprise and runtime HANA environments, including SAP systems deployed in RISE Private. For ECC customers, Fivetran connects via the standard RFC protocol; however, for ECC customers with an enterprise license, Fivetran can also connect directly to the underlying database (Oracle or SQL Server). Fivetran also has support for SAP OData, allowing for replication from SAP RISE Public and SAP GROW.
• Avoids reliance on the SAP ODP framework: An SAP note released in 2024 prohibited the use of ODP (operational data provisioning) through RFC. However, Fivetran’s solution does not use the ODP framework and is not impacted by SAP’s shift.
• Operates independently of SAP’s certification program: SAP policy prohibits certification of any ELT solution, recommending SAP Datasphere for ELT instead. Despite this policy, Fivetran’s approach remains fully compatible and allows customers to choose the solution that best fits their data integration needs. SAP customers can continue using Fivetran to integrate SAP data reliably and securely.
• Support for SAP data types & tables: Fivetran supports long text, transforming SAP dates, loading CDS Views, and SAP archiving support.
• Guarantees 99.9% uptime: Fivetran’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantees core services uptime and data deliverability with professional services and support. Our global team includes experts with SAP knowledge to help troubleshoot issues 24/7 and ensure smooth, reliable data integration.

Unlocking SAP data puts customers back in control while saving resources 

Fivetran’s fully managed data pipelines help businesses maintain complete control over their SAP and non-SAP data without being locked into SAP’s ecosystem. By unifying data from across the enterprise, organizations can build a best-in-class data architecture that supports advanced analytics, business process automation, and AI/ML initiatives. Fivetran also eliminates the need for costly workarounds caused by SAP’s extraction limits, enabling faster innovation through seamless integration of SAP data (such as finance and supply chain) with CRM, web, and third-party sources. This unlocks powerful use cases like predictive forecasting, real-time inventory optimization, and AI-driven customer insights.

An IDC study found that Fivetran customers achieved business value benefits worth an annual average of $1.5 million by:

• Significantly increasing the productivity of data teams by automating highly manual tasks such as building and maintaining pipelines, handling schema drift, and increasing access to high-quality data 
• Increasing organizational revenue opportunities by unlocking data to enable better customer service and more strategic planning

In fact, on average, surveyed Fivetran customers save over $175K per year in operational costs.

Take ownership of your SAP data with Fivetran

SAP customers are right to expect clarity, flexibility, and control when it comes to their data, and data teams need that flexibility and control to do their jobs effectively and deliver strong data outcomes. As SAP’s ecosystem becomes increasingly prescriptive, understanding the technical and contractual levers available is crucial to maintaining autonomy and driving value from ERP investments.

But don't just take our word for it. In the next part of our SAP series, we'll highlight how global organizations are using Fivetran to automate the extraction, replication, and centralization of their SAP data, unlocking real-time insights and accelerating innovation across their businesses.

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