SAP has acquired data integration and analytics provider Dremio to advance its Business Data Cloud platform, aiming to unify SAP and non-SAP data under the Apache Iceberg open table format. This move signals SAP's push to improve enterprise data analytics, reduce fragmentation, and bolster AI capabilities with a modern lakehouse architecture.
- Dremio acquisition strengthens SAP's Business Data Cloud with Apache Iceberg.
- Focus on eliminating data silos and improving AI agent-building capabilities.
- SAP aims for a serverless, elastic lakehouse platform with unified data access.
What happened
SAP has acquired Dremio, an analytics and data integration provider known for its Apache Iceberg-based lakehouse platform. This acquisition supports SAP's strategy to enhance its Business Data Cloud and HANA Cloud offerings by incorporating advanced lakehouse technology that unifies SAP and non-SAP data sources. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Dremio was valued at $2 billion in a previous funding round in 2022.
Historically, SAP leveraged Databricks for integration and analytics support, notably using Databricks' Delta Lake format. By acquiring Dremio, SAP is doubling down on the Apache Iceberg format—a rival open table format that originated at Netflix—aiming to simplify data access and reduce the need for data movement or conversion in enterprise analytics.
Why it matters
The adoption of Apache Iceberg as the foundational technology for SAP's Business Data Cloud represents a major shift towards open table formats that enable more flexible and efficient data analytics. By embracing Iceberg, SAP intends to eliminate data fragmentation challenges that enterprises face when managing large volumes of diverse data in silos across SAP and third-party platforms.
This acquisition also highlights the growing importance of lakehouse architectures in powering machine learning and AI agent development at scale. SAP's serverless and elastic approach with Dremio's lakehouse platform is designed to optimize analytics economics—removing fixed provisioning limits and enabling seamless scalability for complex enterprise data environments.
What to watch next
Going forward, the market will look to see how SAP integrates Dremio’s technology into its existing data ecosystem and whether this accelerates adoption of Apache Iceberg within enterprise analytics. Observers will also gauge how this move affects SAP’s relationship with Databricks, given the shift from Delta Lake to Iceberg-centered capabilities.
Additionally, the development of SAP's open catalog based on Apache Polaris and the Iceberg REST Catalog API warrants close attention. This catalog aims to provide a unified discovery and semantic layer for managing data access, lineage, and relationships, which could become a key differentiator in SAP’s data analytics and AI platform strategy.