SAP Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) - Meaning, Types, and Use Cases

Data created for business purposes is known as operational data and covers configurational data, master data, transaction data, and any other data, to make the most of this data for further processing, data provisioning is done.

SAP offers a dedicated framework for this function, known as ODP (Operational Data Provisioning). Part of the SAP ABAP application, ODP can provide end-to-end support for workflows such as data extraction and replication.

Operational Data Provisioning – Meaning and Overview

ODP or Operational Data Provisioning is the technical infrastructure used widely to support two distinct applications in a way that data extraction and data analysis becomes a smooth task. The two used applications in ODP are Operational Analytics and data extraction and replication.

Operational Analytics is the application used for OLAP analysis implementation on application data. The analyses will only be done locally in the application system. The usage of Operational analytics demands BW configuration in the application system and can work without a pre-configured Data Warehouse. It also works without the BW system data duplication and makes direct data accessibility possible.

Data Extraction and Replication refers to the data offering to multiple external consumers like SAP BusinessObjects Data Services.

It’s a part of the SAP ABAP application system and plays a crucial role in the delta mechanism in these two application scenarios. When the delta procedure occurs, the ODP-provided data is automatically written in the delta queue with the help of an update process. Or else, it’s passed to the delta queue using the extractor interface.

Once this process is done, the targeted applications or ODQ/ODP customer comes into action to retrieve the delta data for further continuation.

ODP is functional in SAP BW/4HANA and SAP BW. It is also highly useful for providing data to other SAP services such as SAP Data Services or SAP HANA Smart Data Integration.

ODP Framework Advantages

ODP brings multiple advantages. The top one is the immediate and direct data delivery to multiple end-users at a time which accelerates the data analysis process. Such sort of data delivery is not possible with a traditional delta queue.

Its usages also permit the end-user to directly load the data into the BW InfoProviders and bypass the Persistent Staging Area or PSA layer.

When clubbed with delta queues, ODP takes over essential workflows like data service monitoring and saves a huge deal of time and effort.

Delta queue stores the operational data in a compressed form that makes data processing easier and quicker than before.

The requested or recommended data changes in a delta queue can be accessed by multiple target systems that increase the data reach.

Delta queue retains the data for a specific time and supports the data recovery as a backup is created. So, even if a cyber-attack happens on your operational data, you’ve got a recovery strategy in place.

Read the full article here - https://www.stridelysolutions.com/insights/blog/operational-data-provisioning-fully-explained/