Is your business extracting data from ABAP sources using SAP REC? If yes, you will likely be impacted by the SAP Note 3255746. In the future, data extraction will not be allowed by SAP using RFCs except for SAP-internal applications. This is what the SAP Note 3255746is all about.
What is SAP Note 3255746
It was on February 2, 2024, that SAP issued a notification through SAP Note 3255746. It notified businesses that they henceforth could not use the ODP API for third-party applications. However, this notification does not stop businesses from ingesting data from SAP to Databricks through Qlik Replicate, Azure Data Factory, or any other non-SAP data consumption tools.
The effect of this Note will not be immediately felt. The clauses of SAP Note 3255746are not legally binding right now. The scenario, though, might change in the future when the ODP limitations will be incorporated in contracts drawn up by SAP with clients.
RFC Modules Explained
Before going into the various implications of the SAP Note 3255746, let us understand what RFC (Remote Function Call) is since it is central to the SAP Note.
SAP RFC ensures seamless interaction, communication, and exchange of information between client applications of various systems in the SAP environment. SAP RFC attributes are not only limited to SAP systems but also cover communication extensively between SAP and non-SAP systems. Customers can call or enable SAP functions to run remotely with RFC.
Presently, there are several types of RFCs, each with its unique property and purpose. There are two main interfaces of RFCs: the ABAP Program Calling Interface and the Non-SAP Program Calling Interface.
Impact of SAP Note 3255746 On Clients
Elaborating on the SAP Note 3255746, it stops SAP clients or other third-party applications from using RFCs (Remote Function Call) modules in ODP (Operational Data Provisioning) Data Replication API. Before the Note was introduced, this whole process had been traditionally carried out to access or extract SAP data from SAP ABAP sources. It was regardless of whether the platforms were on-premises or cloud-based systems.
In the Note, SAP has clearly laid down clarifications about the use of RFCs. SAP Note 3255746 states that RFC modules must be used only for internal applications of SAP, but this clause may be changed at any time without any prior intimation. The Note further clarifies that SAP reserves the right to implement measures that limit and audit the unlicensed use of RFC modules of the ODP Data Replication API.
It is also mentioned in the Note that clients will be responsible for any issues that might arise from using RFCs in third-party or customer applications. SAP will neither resolve any issue arising from this act nor will it provide the required support for doing so.
What Does SAP Note 3255746 Imply For Businesses
The critical question is, what does the SAP Note 3255746 have in store for businesses? Will they be under pressure and need to change technologies to carry on as usual? The answer is rather simple: the extent of adverse implications depends on the type of usage.
For businesses that replicate or extract data within the ODP Data Replication API using the SAP RFC module, any data that is implemented through SAP will be at risk. The outlook in this scenario is rather grim, and caution must be exercised. There is a possibility that investments made in infrastructure for SAP data extraction might go to waste due to a lack of support or necessary permissions from SAP for doing so.
What is worse is that SAP might stop operations and even impose a penalty on businesses for continuing to use RFCs.
However, any strict action from SAP is not easy to set in motion immediately, as majors like IBM and Microsoft use SAP RFCs to gain access to SAP data. The same is true for ETL and data replication companies such as Informatica, Qlik Replicate, Matillion, and more.
There are two situations that are likely to arise from SAP Note 3255746.
- Ingestion tools using ODP via OData will not be affected if SAP Data Intelligence/Datasphere becomes the exclusive medium for ingesting data from SAP ERP systems. The downside here is that these tools cannot handle data ingestion on a large scale.
- Data ingestion via SAP Extractors will be permitted, and hence, ingestion from SAP BW through OpenHub will not be adversely impacted.
You can allocate data from BI systems using the SAP Open Hub mechanism. Through controlled distribution across multiple systems, you can transfer data to non-SAP data marts, analytical applications, and other applications, with the target destination to be solely decided by Open Hub.
Can You Get Around SAP Note 3255746 for Data Extraction
Has the SAP Note 3255746 sounded the death knell for SAP data extraction? The answer is NO, as clients can use a particular SAP connector to extract SAP data from SAP sources and deliver real-time data from them to multiple destinations. These include Snowflake, Redshift, Amazon S3, Azure Synapse, ADLS Gen2, and more.
However, it must be ensured that the SAP connector used is SAP-certified with recommended mechanisms.
The SAP Note 3255746 does not affect data extraction from SAP ERP systems when ingestion tools that use ODP via OData are used. So, how does ODP function for SAP to accept it for data extraction?
The Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) framework for data distribution is an advanced technology for data consumption and provisioning. It supports data extraction and replication for several targets at a time while providing support to capture changes made to databases at the source. The positive aspect here is that the mechanisms of ODP for extracting, transferring, and loading data support several target applications.
In a nutshell, the situation arising from SAP Note 3255746 is fluid at best.
