If you’re new to the SAP world or are just now making the transition from on-premise to the cloud, you might find you’re facing a learning curve around the technologies and terminology. This blog is designed to give a brief, high-level overview of SAP Cloud Platform Integration Services (often abbreviated CPIS) that should provide a foundation for your advanced reading on the subject.
What is SAP Cloud Platform Integration Services (CPIS)?
SAP Cloud Platform Integration Services was previously named HANA Cloud Integration (HCI). It is middleware (integration software) that runs between two or more other applications. In this case, it is integration software that runs independently from other applications. It allows you to create a process that takes data from one system to another and also allows you to construct a process in a graphical format (i.e., a diagram with various components). To put it quite simply, CPIS allows you to securely integrate your cloud applications into your business landscape.
Who uses CPIS?
Customers that use CPIS generally fall into one or more of these categories:
- They are focused on cloud strategy
- They have the need for cloud-to-cloud integration
- They do not have SAP Process Integration or SAP Data Services on-premise
- They do not want to invest into an on-premise middleware or the costs associated with it, such as system setup, maintenance and operations
- They would like to take advantage of some of SAP’s packaged integrations (e.g., S/4HANA, Fieldglass, etc.) that are only available on CPIS and not on Boomi
- They prefer a subscription-based license model
How does CPIS work?
You will remember from the definition above that CPIS is integration software that runs between two or more applications and is designed to integrate cloud applications with other applications in your landscape. With that in mind, the commonly used diagram to describe CPIS makes much more sense.
To greatly simplify things, you can say that CPIS works in the following manner:
- One component fetches data from a source system
- Each component of the diagram performs an action on the message (data) to transform it
- Finally, a component sends the transformed message to another system
The middleware allows you to construct process flows and provides a library of components to make the transformation easier so you don’t have to do it with custom code. The data is retrieved from and sent to the source and target applications via connector components that utilise APIs that are published by the software providers.
If you have specific questions about how your company can use SAP Cloud Platform Integration Services or what it means for SAP SuccessFactors customers, please contact me. I will share more details about CPIS in a future blog.
