SAP AI open ecosystem: connecting non-SAP tools without losing control

As of 2026-11-06

Edited by Cédric Mary · How this page is made

Looking for a SAP AI consultant? Cédric Mary, SAP AI & Analytics Architect & Team Lead, takes SAP Business AI, Joule and Business Data Cloud missions.

Why it matters now

Interoperability was the third largest theme at SAP TechEd 2026: 126 of the 531 audience questions mentioned MCP, APIs, third-party platforms or hyperscalers, and 154 of the 956 knowledge units did. The questions were specific: can the knowledge graph be reached from Microsoft Copilot or an external agent platform through the gateway; can Fabric data products feed an SAP agent; when does BDC Connect for Fabric arrive; why does a model consumed through SAP cost more than from the hyperscaler directly; is SAP hosting frontier models or routing to the provider.

The weeks after TechEd answered some of it in public. An SAP Community post of 4 November 2026 describes an MCP server for Datasphere that accesses data as the logged-in user with principal propagation; another of the same day describes provisioning BDC Connect for Google BigQuery; a 5 November trade report summarised SAP's promise to open data flows in both directions. Partnership history anchors the Databricks path: announced 13 February 2025, with a migration envelope funded by Databricks rather than SAP.

Our readers search for exactly this. Between 6 October and 3 November 2026, the query comparing Datasphere with Databricks placed this site at position 5 and earned a click; the query comparing a visualisation tool with SAC placed at position 5 on 66 impressions. The comparison is the buying question.

Decision guide by situation

Your enterprise standardised on Microsoft 365 Copilot — Joule and Copilot have a bidirectional integration; for process execution inside SAP, Joule remains the actor, and the gateway is where identity is checked. Decide which assistant owns which task before users decide for you.

Your analytics and ML run on Databricks — BDC Connect for Databricks is the mature path, and SAP Databricks runs inside Business Data Cloud for SAP-managed data; a TechEd question on when SAP Databricks gets full enterprise functionality got no date.

You are a Fabric or Snowflake shop — BDC Connect patterns exist for both; verify availability and the commercial model, which differs between partner platforms. Do not plan Fabric data products feeding SAP agents directly; they pass through BDC Connect.

Your agent platform is not SAP's — Register agents in the AI Agent Hub, route through the agent gateway with MCP or A2A, and decide where the single audit log lives.

You want a specific frontier model — The generative AI hub exposes partner models under SAP's commercial terms; the price difference against buying from the provider directly was raised at TechEd and is part of the decision, not a footnote.

Options compared

SAP-side agent, non-SAP data via BDC Connect — Control: SAP's authorization and metering · Maturity: Databricks highest · Watch: capacity units for data products.

Non-SAP agent reaching SAP via the agent gateway — Control: split, gateway policy · Maturity: SAP's dated sources differ, listed below · Watch: identity federation, dual logging.

Non-SAP agent reaching Datasphere via a community MCP server — Control: user identity if propagation is configured · Maturity: new, November 2026 · Watch: production hardening, no official SAP MCP server for Business Data Cloud in our verified catalogue as of 18 October 2026.

Copilot and Joule side by side — Control: both vendors · Maturity: available · Watch: task ownership, double licensing of the same user.

Direct model access from the hyperscaler, outside SAP — Control: yours · Maturity: high · Watch: no SAP grounding or authorization, cheaper per token, more work per answer.

What shipped and what is announced

Available: BDC Connect — Databricks Enterprise (generally available); BDC Connect — Google BigQuery (generally available); Greenfield Solution Extension for Snowflake (generally available); SAP Databricks (SAP-managed embedded) (generally available).

Announced, not available: SAP Enterprise AI Gateway (GA planned for Q1 2027); SAP Knowledge Graph on customer data (GA planned for Q1 2027); Dremio-based lakehouse in SAP Business Data Cloud (GA planned for Q1 2027); SAP Databricks expansion in SAP Business Data Cloud (announced, no availability date); BDC Connect — AWS (GA planned for H2 2026). A date here is a plan, not a commitment.

Slipped or unconfirmed: Agent gateway for third-party agents (A2A) (SAP sources differ: not yet GA (SAP Architecture Center, 26 October 2026), phased (SAP Innovation News Guide, 27 October 2026), GA (SAP News, 28 October 2026)); BDC Connect — Microsoft Fabric (slipped); Brownfield Solution Extension for Snowflake (unconfirmed (target Q4 2026)).

Outside the SAP status registry: MCP servers for Datasphere and Business Data Cloud: community projects, MIT-licensed, not SAP products (SAP Community post, 4 Nov 2026); Knowledge graph from Copilot: today only through Joule Studio, a pro-code path (jl CLI) for custom agents is on the roadmap, no date (SAP TechEd 2026 session Q&A, DA100V).

Pitfalls

Two audit logs, one incident. Decide the system of record for agent calls before the first cross-platform agent.

Buying the same user twice. A user with Copilot, Joule Work and a Databricks assistant costs three licences and reads three answers.

Treating a community MCP server as an SAP product in a proposal. It is open source and useful; its support is yours.

Planning on Fabric or BigQuery data products with the Databricks maturity in mind. Verify each connector separately.

Ignoring the model markup. Grounding and authorization are what SAP's price buys; if you do not use them, the hyperscaler is cheaper.

What to do Monday morning

Draw the agent map: which assistants your users already have, from which vendor, and which tasks each owns today by habit.

List every non-SAP data platform in use and the BDC Connect status for each, with the commercial model.

If an external agent must reach SAP, prototype through the agent gateway with identity propagation and one shared log.

Ask procurement for the per-model price in the generative AI hub against the provider's list price, and write the difference into the business case.

Read our concept on MCP versus A2A hop by hop, and the module on BDC Connect multi-platform, linked below.

What we cannot assert

SAP has not published the relationship between the agent gateway and the Enterprise AI Gateway, nor a date for the pro-code path that would let Copilot reach the knowledge graph. The model price multiple raised at TechEd is a participant's figure, not SAP's; we do not reproduce it as fact. BDC Connect for Microsoft Fabric was announced in November 2025 with general availability planned for Q3 2026 and a restricted public preview; we could not confirm from a primary source that it has reached general availability.

Frequently asked

Is there an official SAP MCP server for Business Data Cloud?

Not in our verified catalogue as of 18 October 2026. Two community servers exist for Datasphere and Business Data Cloud; a November 2026 SAP Community post describes a Datasphere server with principal propagation.

Can Microsoft Copilot use the SAP knowledge graph?

Asked at TechEd 2026; SAP's answer (DA100V) was that today the agentic experience with the knowledge graph is only available through Joule Studio, with a pro-code path (jl CLI) on the roadmap to let custom agents such as Copilot or Claude reach it. Joule and Copilot are integrated for hand-offs; broader graph access for external agents sits in the extension plan (GA planned for Q1 2027).

Which BDC Connect is most mature?

Databricks, by partnership date and by what SAP presented. BDC Connect for Snowflake has been generally available since 4 May 2026 and for Google BigQuery since 28 July 2026; BDC Connect for Microsoft Fabric is in restricted public preview with general availability planned by SAP for Q3 2026 and not confirmed shipped. Verify the commercial model for each.

Why do models cost more through SAP than from the provider?

Because SAP prices grounding, authorization and contract terms into the unit; a TechEd question cited a multiple. If you do not need those, buy directly.

Engage the editor

This guide is written by Cédric Mary, SAP AI & Analytics Architect & Team Lead. 27 years of SAP — Datasphere, Business Data Cloud, SAC Planning, Joule. Freelance or permanent · Hybrid / remote · Anywhere in EMEA.

Profile and contact

What this page is built on

• Agent Communication in SAP — MCP vs A2A, Hop by Hop
• MCP for SAP — Adoption & Integration Strategy
• Joule and Microsoft 365 Copilot — bidirectional integration
• BDC Connect for Databricks
• BDC Connect for Microsoft Fabric
• Databricks-in-BDC Lakehouse Pattern
• SAP TechEd in 2026: SAP Tells Developers You Can Build the Autonomous Enterprise (SAP News, 28 October 2026)
• Agent Gateway and third-party agents, reference architecture (SAP Architecture Center, last updated 26 October 2026)
• SAP and Google Cloud launch BDC Connect for BigQuery (Google Cloud, 28 July 2026)
• SAP BDC Zerocopy Connector, general availability (Snowflake release notes, 4 May 2026)

External sources

• SAP TechEd in 2026: SAP Tells Developers You Can Build the Autonomous Enterprise (SAP News, 28 October 2026)
• Agent Gateway and third-party agents, reference architecture (SAP Architecture Center, last updated 26 October 2026)
• SAP and Google Cloud launch BDC Connect for BigQuery (Google Cloud, 28 July 2026)
• SAP BDC Zerocopy Connector, general availability (Snowflake release notes, 4 May 2026)
• A2A Protocol — Specification (version 1.0)
• A2A Protocol — Agent Discovery (/.well-known/agent-card.json)

Read next

• Agent Communication in SAP — MCP vs A2A, Hop by Hop
• Joule and Microsoft 365 Copilot — bidirectional integration
• BDC Connect: Multi-Platform
• MCP & A2A for SAP Systems
• SAP Business Data Cloud MCP: what exists for SAP BDC

The other eleven challenges