SAP BTP Overview

SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is SAP's cloud platform for building applications, running integrations, analyzing data, and automating processes. It is the foundation on which SAP Integration Suite, SAP Analytics Cloud, and dozens of other SAP cloud services run. When you use SAP Integration Suite to build iFlows, you are running on BTP whether you know it or not.

Think of BTP as the cloud infrastructure layer that SAP manages for you. Instead of buying servers, installing software, and maintaining infrastructure, you access BTP through a subscription and immediately have access to databases, integration tools, analytics engines, AI services, and development environments — all managed and updated by SAP.

BTP Pillars

SAP describes BTP around four pillars, each covering a different type of technology work:

Database and Data Management

Cloud databases, data warehousing, and data management services. SAP HANA Cloud runs here — the cloud version of SAP's in-memory database. Data Integration and Intelligence services help move, clean, and govern enterprise data across systems.

Analytics

SAP Analytics Cloud runs on BTP, providing business intelligence, planning, and predictive analytics. Embedded analytics in S/4HANA also uses BTP infrastructure for rendering reports and dashboards.

Application Development and Integration

This is where SAP Integration Suite lives. BTP provides the runtime for iFlows, API Management, Event Mesh, and all the integration capabilities covered throughout this course. BTP also provides development tools: SAP Business Application Studio (a cloud-based IDE) and the CAP (Cloud Application Programming) model for building custom applications.

Intelligent Technologies

AI, machine learning, and robotic process automation services. Document extraction (AI reads PDF invoices), translation, image recognition, and business process automation all live here.

BTP Account Structure

Understanding the BTP account hierarchy is essential for setting up integration landscapes correctly:

GLOBAL ACCOUNT
│  (Your company's top-level BTP contract)
│
├── SUBACCOUNT: Development
│     Region: EU10 (Frankfurt)
│     Services: Integration Suite DEV
│     SAP Cloud Connector: Connected to SAP DEV
│
├── SUBACCOUNT: Quality Assurance
│     Region: EU10 (Frankfurt)
│     Services: Integration Suite QA
│     SAP Cloud Connector: Connected to SAP QA
│
└── SUBACCOUNT: Production
      Region: EU10 (Frankfurt)
      Services: Integration Suite PROD
      SAP Cloud Connector: Connected to SAP PROD

Global Account

The top-level container for your entire BTP usage. Created when you sign an SAP BTP contract. Your global account has a defined amount of capacity (memory, compute, storage) distributed across all subaccounts. One global account per company is the standard setup.

Subaccount

An isolated environment within your global account. Subaccounts are the unit of environment separation — your development, QA, and production environments are separate subaccounts. Security, services, and configurations in one subaccount do not affect other subaccounts.

Space (in Cloud Foundry)

Some BTP services run in a Cloud Foundry environment, which adds a Space level inside a subaccount. Spaces group applications and services by team or project within the same subaccount. For pure Integration Suite use, you primarily work at the subaccount level and do not need to manage spaces directly.

BTP Regions

BTP runs in data centers worldwide. You choose a region when creating a subaccount. Common regions:

• EU10 – Frankfurt, Germany (AWS)
• EU20 – Netherlands (Azure)
• US10 – Virginia, USA (AWS)
• US20 – Colorado, USA (Azure)
• AP10 – Australia (AWS)
• AP21 – Singapore (Azure)

Choose a region close to your primary users and SAP systems to minimize latency. Data residency regulations may restrict which regions you can use — verify compliance requirements before choosing a region, especially for EU data protection laws.

BTP Services

BTP provides services through a Service Marketplace. You browse available services, subscribe to the ones you need, and configure them within your subaccount. Services relevant to integration include:

• SAP Integration Suite – The main integration platform (CPI, API Management, Event Mesh, Open Connectors)
• SAP Connectivity Service – Enables the Cloud Connector tunnel to on-premise systems
• SAP Authorization and Trust Management – User and role management, OAuth integration
• SAP Credential Store – Secure storage for credentials outside of Integration Suite
• SAP Alert Notification Service – Multi-channel alerting (email, Slack, OpsGenie)
• SAP Event Mesh – When used standalone outside Integration Suite

BTP Cockpit: The Management Interface

The BTP Cockpit is the web-based management interface for your BTP account. Access it at cockpit.btp.cloud.sap. From here you:

• Create and manage subaccounts
• Subscribe to services from the Service Marketplace
• Manage users and role assignments
• View the Cloud Connector connections
• Monitor resource consumption and costs
• Configure trust to identity providers (Azure AD, SAP IAS, Okta)

BTP and SAP Integration Suite: The Relationship

SAP Integration Suite is a service that runs on BTP. You subscribe to it, BTP provisions the tenant, and you access Integration Suite through its own home page URL. All the iFlows, API proxies, and event subscriptions you build in Integration Suite actually run as managed services inside your BTP subaccount. The BTP infrastructure — compute, storage, networking — is completely managed by SAP, leaving you to focus on integration logic rather than infrastructure operations.