The News
CData Software has expanded its partnership with SAP to integrate enterprise-grade, embeddable data connectors directly into SAP Business Data Cloud. This collaboration enables real-time, self-service access to third-party data sources without replication or custom coding, improving time-to-insight for AI, analytics, and operational workloads.
To read more, visit the original press release here.
Analysis
The Shift Toward Open, AI-Ready Data Architectures
The application development market is experiencing a rapid pivot toward open, AI-ready data infrastructure. As enterprises prioritize AI-driven decision-making and real-time analytics, they face growing pressure to break down data silos and accelerate access to disparate data sources. According to industry research, over 65% of enterprises report that poor data integration hampers AI adoption. We have found that developers and data engineers increasingly demand simplified, API-driven access to cloud and on-premises data sources to power AI pipelines, real-time dashboards, and operational workflows. This market evolution is driving investments in low-code and embeddable data connectivity solutions like those from CData.
How This Announcement Impacts Application Development
CData’s integration with SAP Business Data Cloud gives developers direct, SQL-based connectivity to hundreds of third-party data sources, from cloud warehouses to SaaS apps and legacy systems. This could mean reduced time spent on building custom connectors, less reliance on brittle ETL workflows, and faster deployment of AI and analytics projects. The ability to embed connectivity into the SAP data ecosystem may help application teams streamline data access layers without sacrificing performance or security.
Previous Developer Challenges with Data Access
Historically, developers building on SAP platforms faced significant hurdles in connecting to non-SAP data sources. This often required manual API integrations, data replication strategies, or complex ETL pipelines, resulting in slow time-to-insight and increased technical debt. These barriers not only slowed down application delivery but also limited the effectiveness of AI and analytics workloads that rely on up-to-date, diverse data inputs.
How Developers Will Address These Challenges Moving Forward
The expanded CData-SAP partnership could represent a broader shift towards embedded, real-time data integration as a foundational capability for modern application development. Developers could now leverage CData’s connectors directly within SAP Business Data Cloud to securely query external data without needing to build and maintain custom pipelines. This may accelerate AI model training, reporting workflows, and decision automation initiatives while ensuring compliance with enterprise security standards. As enterprises race to operationalize AI, tools that deliver fast, reliable, and scalable data connectivity may become central to developer toolchains.
Looking Ahead
The data integration market is expected to grow significantly over the next two years, with industry findings forecasting that by 2026, 75% of data integration processes will involve embedded and self-service connectivity layers. CData’s growing presence seems to position it well to capitalize on this demand. For developers, this partnership with SAP could reflect an industry-wide movement toward simplified, real-time access to diverse data sets, a critical enabler for the next generation of AI-powered enterprise applications.
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