SAP BusinessObjects Architecture

Architecture is key for all Business Intelligence applications.

BI applications tend to sit in the middle of operational applications like ERP and CRM-systems, data warehouses and applications to support the other business processes like PLM, MDM, etc.

This means a lot of interfaces to be set up and managed. The way you architect this and the choices you make highly matter.

The above is even more true for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence. Amongst others, due to the fact 2 mature technologies were brought together and are being integrated. Virtually all components in an architecture from infrastructure to security setup are present in both SAP and BusinessObjects. As an example, let’s take at a look at the components that make up a Security Architecture:

Login into an application - Authentication

  1. Reusing user administration from a third-party tool (e.g. Windows Active Directory or LDAP)
  2. Integrating the user administration from SAP BW
  3. Embedded in the SAP BusinessObjects Platform (Enterprise Authentication)

     
Data security

BI Tools can fetch data from several data stores. Whether it's a data warehouse, or an operational system, some data marts (e.g. aDSO) will most likely have security rules defined on data. (e.g. user X belongs to group Y and can only see part of the data of data set Z). With BusinessObjects deployed on top of this security on data can be seamless inherited in SAP BusinessObjects.
  
Network security

In any BI architecture a client server or web-based data is going over a network. As an example, these are a couple of topics to be addressed when deploying the Platform:

  1. Companies Security Standards
  2. Use of SSL
  3. Use of Proxies
     

Security BusinessObjects Enterprise suite has an extensive arsenal of security features, that can be used to ensure the correct security & data access rules.

element61 has proven experience in general aspects of BI architecture and specific, applied knowledge for a combined SAP BusinessObjects architecture.

 

Consult us to define together an appropriate architecture for your own environment.