SAP, on February 2, 2024, issued a notification called the SAP Note 3255746 by which it stopped organizations from using the ODP API for 3rd party applications. The inferences are straightforward; it will likely stop data ingestion from SAP to Databricks through Qlik Replicate, Azure Data Factory, or any other non-SAP data consumption tools.
So, what does this notification mean for you, and what are its implications? There is no need to hit the panic button right now. However, it is expected that in the future, ODP limitations will be incorporated into contracts made by SAP with its clients.
In this post, we will go through the effects theSAP Note 3255746 has on SAP clients, what are RFC modules, and its effect on businesses. We will also study how to get around the SAP Note 3255746 for SAP data extraction.
This write-up will be relevant for you if you need to extract data from ABAP sources using SAP RFC. It is because, as per the provisions of the Note, SAP will not allow the use of RFCs for data extraction except from SAP-internal applications. This clause is at the core of the SAP Note 3255746.
How Does the SAP Note 3255746 Affect The Functioning of Clients
Traditionally, the Remote Function Call (RFC) modules in the Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) Data Replication API have been used to extract or access SAP data from SAP ABAP sources. This activity is regardless of whether the sources are on-premises systems or cloud-based ones. Now, the SAP Note 3255746 bars SAP clients or other third-party applications from using the RFC modules.
In the Note, SAP has provided an in-depth explanation about the use of RFC modules. It states that RFC modules can be used in SAP internal applications only and that this provision may be modified at any time without notice. SAP also reserves the right to implement measures that limit and audit the unsanctioned use of RFC modules of the ODP Data Replication API.
SAP has also made it very clear about the use of the RFC modules in third-party applications or customer applications. SAP Note 3255746 warns that any issues that arise in this regard are the responsibility of the client, and SAP will have no part in either resolving them or providing the required support to do so.
What Does SAP Note 3255746 Mean For Businesses
Before diving into how the SAP Note 3255746 impacts the functioning of business, an understanding of RFC modules is necessary, as they are central to the Note.
RFC Modules
SAP RFCs (Remote Function Call) ensure easy and seamless interaction, exchange of information, and communication between client applications of different systems in the SAP ecosystem. They are effective for connections between SAP systems as well as non-SAP and SAP systems. Clients, with RFC, can enable and call a function to operate on a remote platform.
Currently, there are several types of RFCs in use, each with a specific purpose and property. There are 2 interfaces of RFC: the Non-SAP Program Calling Interface and the ABAP Program Calling Interface.
Effect of SAP Note 3255746
There has been a lot of debate about the impact of the SAP Note 3255746 on businesses. Will there be a lot of inconvenience due to the Note, and is the outlook grim for you? The quick answer is that it depends on several factors.
If your business uses the SAP RFC module to extract or replicate data within the ODP Data Replication API, you have reasons to be worried since any data that moves through SAP will be at risk. Hence, there is a possibility that the investments made in infrastructure for extracting SAP data might not be fully utilized due to a lack of support or permissions from SAP.
The worst-case scenario if you continue to use RFCs is SAP stopping operations or penalizing your organization. However, a bright point here is that major players in the IT segment, such as IBM and Microsoft, use SAP RFCs to gain access to SAP data. The same holds good for ETL and data replication companies such as Informatica, Qlik Replicate, Matillion, and more.
There are several possibilities for enforcing SAP Note 3255746.
# SAP Data Intelligence/Datasphere might become the exclusive medium for ingesting data from SAP ERP systems, and ingestion tools using ODP via OData will not be affected. The downside here is that these cannot handle data ingestion activities on a large scale.
# Data ingestion via SAP Extractors will be permitted, and ingestion from SAP BW through OpenHub will not be adversely impacted.
Additionally, you can allocate data from BI systems to non-SAP data marts, analytical applications, and other applications. However, you must ensure controlled distribution across multiple systems. It is Open Hub that decides the target to which data is to be transferred.
Can You Get Around SAP Note 3255746 For SAP Data Extraction
Given all the aspects discussed above, the question now is whether the SAP Note 3255746 signals the end of SAP data extraction. The answer is NO, since a specific SAP connector with SAP-certified and recommended mechanisms to extract SAP data from SAP sources can still be used.
The SAP connector can extract SAP data from SAP sources and deliver real-time data from SAP sources to multiple destinations, which include Snowflake, Redshift, Amazon S3, Azure Synapse, ADLS Gen2, Azure SQL Database, Google BigQuery, Postgres, Databricks, and SQL Server Change Data Capture.
When ingestion tools that use ODP via OData are used, the SAP Note 3255746 will not affect data extraction from SAP ERP systems. It is because the mechanisms of ODP for extracting, transferring, and loading data support several target applications, such as SAP BW, SAP BW/4HANA, SAP Data Services, and SAP HANA Smart Data Integration (SAP HANA SDI).
