SAP’s open data pivot lowering barriers for data integration

SAP is repositioning from an ERP-centric application vendor to a governance and control layer for enterprise data and AI, anchored by Business Data Cloud (BDC) and reinforced through acquisitions spanning data access (Dremio), master data governance (Reltio), AI for structured enterprise data (Prior Labs), and enterprise architecture and adoption tooling (LeanIX and WalkMe). Together, these moves point to an architecture built on open table formats, semantic control, and embedded intelligence rather than proprietary application ownership. By enabling SAP to query data where it already resides, Dremio reduces the migration barrier that has historically gated adoption and gives SAP a credible path to support customers through the ECC-to-S/4HANA transition, now with end-of-support extended from 2027 to 2030. If executed successfully, the model reduces infrastructure duplication, lowers AI development costs, and accelerates time to value across supply chain planning and execution. This puts pressure on standalone vendors in data integration, master data management, and AI infrastructure as value consolidates inside platforms that own the system of record.