Databricks integration in SAP Business Data Cloud: Interview with M. Ingerfeld

In February 2025, SAP and Databricks finally announced tangible results from their 2-year-long strategic partnership: the Databricks flagship product will be available to customers as a component for pro-code data integration and ML/AI development processes in the new SAP Business Data Cloud. Even before this announcement, there were many arguments in favor of operating SAP and Databricks systems together. The official collaboration and integration of Databricks into the SAP product portfolio underscores these synergies while also opening up the possibility of many questions regarding actual implementation. We have spoken to SAP and Databricks to help you evaluate and define the right platform strategy for your organization. Read the exclusive interview with Matthias Ingerfeld, Technical General Manager DACH at Databricks, today.

Paradigm shift in the SAP cloud

SAP's big strategy for its data cloud has been known for a few weeks: under the banner of the Business Data Cloud, the Analytics Cloud, Datasphere and the proven Business Warehouse converge in a private cloud edition. For sophisticated data science with machine learning methods and the latest AI generations, the acquisition of Databricks means that users get their hands on a well-known, established software. SAP Databricks will be available to users in a slightly modified version of the innovative data lakehouse platform as a fully integrated system component alongside SAC and Datasphere. Central to the technical integration is a paradigm shift within SAP Datasphere towards the lakehouse architecture led by Databricks.

We have already recently published an assessment by Dr. Hagen Jander, Vice President of Data Warehouse Product Management & Strategy at SAP.

But how does Databricks view the new product and the specific operational collaboration with SAP? We put our partner Databricks in touch with Matthias Ingerfeld, who was happy to talk to us. Matthias is Technical General Manager for Central Europe (DACH region and Eastern Europe) and heads the Databricks pre-sales team. He and his team support customers in implementing Databricks' Data Intelligence Platform.

Data science without loss of context: Databricks in the Business Data Cloud

How do you gauge the strategic significance of this far-reaching integration of Databricks into the SAP Business Data Cloud?

The strategic partnership between SAP and Databricks and the integration of Databricks into BDC is of enormous importance for our customers. This partnership enables them to use their valuable business data from SAP applications directly and without loss of context to develop data science and AI applications natively on Databricks.

Delta Sharing, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog: Some technical terms have already been mentioned in the first press releases, but how exactly will Databricks be integrated into the SAP Cloud? How will you enable mutual access to data across system boundaries?

Databricks is a central component of the SAP Business Data Cloud. Data exchange with other BDC components is enabled by open standards. Both BDC and Databricks use Delta Lake – the leading open format for reliable and high-performance data storage in the cloud. Bidirectional data exchange is done via Delta Sharing, another Databricks open-source technology for secure and scalable data exchange across system and organizational boundaries.

Another important BDC component is the native Databricks Connector. This allows SAP data to be used on existing Databricks platforms without copying and, for example, combined with other data sets.

SAP Databricks will not include all of the familiar Databricks system components. For which scenarios should customers still consider a standalone Databricks environment?

Databricks in SAP BDC includes data science, SQL serverless and AI components. These enable the training of AI applications directly on SAP data, including business logic. In addition, this data can be accessed with common BI applications such as PowerBI and Tableau. Outside of SAP, Databricks offers additional components for data engineering, such as real-time data processing. This allows customers to process real-time telemetry data from their machines in non-SAP Databricks and enrich it with SAP data from BDC. Conversely, the processed and aggregated machine data can be accessed in SAP Databricks for reporting.

Databricks stands for openness: for open source code, open data formats and communication protocols, and interoperability across cloud and system boundaries. Will SAP Databricks allow free access to data as usual, especially to SAP data available via Delta Share, or will there be restrictions such as license terms?

A major advantage of this partnership for our customers is that SAP data can be processed in Databricks both within and outside of BDC at no additional cost. Governance through the Unity Catalog within Databricks ensures that this data can be processed in compliance with governance across cloud and system boundaries.

Do you still have items on your roadmap before SAP Databricks will be available to customers and is there already a time frame for when the launch can be expected?

Right now, everyone at SAP and Databricks is preparing for the highly anticipated launch. However, the technical preparations are largely complete and the first test customers have already had positive experiences with the new product. We still expect the first customers to get started as early as next month, in April 2025!

Watch the recording of our webinar:

"SAP Datasphere and the Databricks Lakehouse Approach"

BDC customers are traveling first-class

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Matthias and the Databricks team for these insights!

The implications for regular Databricks customers are remarkable: SAP Business Data Cloud will not only be able to share data products without replication with the integrated Databricks environment, but also with any standalone Databricks workspace. Databricks will thus be able to process SAP data outside the BDC – without loss of friction or meaning, and without incurring additional license costs or integrating third-party systems. Multi-cloud and cross-system data architectures will become possible, and high-performance access to SAP data will be achievable on a scale not previously possible. BDC becomes a gatekeeper technology for SAP customers who want to process their data in third-party systems.

A big question that is currently on the minds of many SAP customers is, of course, whether an independent Databricks is still worthwhile or whether the integrated SAP Databricks can meet all requirements. While our interview lacks very specific statements about the features missing from SAP Databricks, a tendency can be seen: Streaming and real-time data processing in particular is seen as the pinnacle of data processing challenges, where the SAP variant of Databricks offers only limited possibilities. Delta Live Tables, a simple and powerful tool for live data models and real-time BI, is therefore likely to be missing from SAP Databricks. We have summarized our interpretation of the differences in the following diagram:

SAP Databricks feature scope by our interpretation of currently available information:
light-grey boxes represent Databricks core features and components that are most likely not available in the SAP-flavoured workspace.

We are very excited about the official launch of the SAP Business Data Cloud in April. We see great potential in the technological developments that are entering the SAP system landscape in this way. SAP and Databricks complement each other very well in many areas and the deepened partnership also opens up new possibilities for experienced BI teams. One thing is clear though: with the introduction of BDC, SAP cloud customers will now travel first-class on an interconnected multi-vendor, multi-cloud speed train of data and AI while other SAP customers continue to wait outside the station.

Do you have questions about SAP Business Data Cloud, Databricks or the best possible way to meet your BI and AI requirements? Are you trying to build up the necessary know-how in your department or do you need support with a specific issue? We are happy to help. Get started today by requesting a non-binding consultation.