Our Location
Index IT SAP St, Gayatri Nagar, Srinivasa Nagar,
Ameerpet, Hyderabad, Telangana - 500016
Phone: +91-8977802802
Email: indexit4sap@gmail.com
SAP BTP ABAP Cloud Training – Session 1 Overview | Complete Beginner Guide
As enterprises rapidly move towards cloud-based SAP landscapes, SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and ABAP Cloud have become essential skills for SAP professionals.
In this session, students were introduced to the core tools, platforms, and services required for SAP BTP ABAP development, along with clear guidance on account setup and an overview of the complete course roadmap.
This blog explains everything covered in Session 1 of SAP BTP ABAP Cloud training, making it highly useful for beginners as well as experienced SAP professionals who are planning to upskill and transition into cloud-based ABAP development.
What Is SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)?
SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is SAP’s unified cloud platform that enables organizations to build, extend, integrate, and innovate SAP applications in a secure and scalable manner.
Unlike traditional SAP systems such as SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA, SAP BTP does not act as a core business system. Instead, it works as a technology layer that supports side-by-side extensions, integrations, analytics, and artificial intelligence use cases.
This architecture allows SAP customers to follow the Clean Core principle, ensuring that core ERP systems remain upgrade-safe while all custom developments are handled on SAP BTP.
Because of this modern architecture, SAP BTP ABAP Cloud skills are now in high demand, especially for developers transitioning from classical ABAP to cloud-based development models.
SAP Business Accelerator Hub Explained
The SAP Business Accelerator Hub is a centralized online repository that provides developers with detailed technical information about SAP solutions. It is important to understand that this platform is not a development environment, but a reference hub used during design and development.
SAP BTP developers use the Business Accelerator Hub to explore standard SAP APIs, business objects, and integration content before starting real-time application development.
APIs Available in SAP Business Accelerator Hub
The hub provides access to a wide range of SAP standard APIs, including:
- REST APIs
- SOAP APIs
- OData v2 APIs
- OData v4 APIs
These APIs are commonly used to integrate SAP S/4HANA with SAP BTP ABAP applications, Fiori apps, and external systems.
Entities and Schemas
Developers can also explore entities and schemas to understand the structure of business data. For example, in the Business Partner API, entities such as email addresses expose fields like Address ID and Person Number, which are essential during real-time integrations.
Out-of-the-Box SAP Content
The SAP Business Accelerator Hub also lists standard SAP objects such as:
- CDS Views
- Business Events
- Integration Flows (iFlows)
This ready-made content helps developers follow SAP best practices and speeds up development in SAP BTP ABAP Cloud projects.
Additionally, the platform now includes Joule, SAP’s AI-powered copilot, which assists developers in discovering APIs and understanding technical artifacts more efficiently.
SAP Discovery Center Explained
The SAP Discovery Center is an essential platform for developers, architects, and project managers who want to explore and plan solutions on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
It helps users understand which SAP BTP services are required for specific business scenarios before subscribing to them, making it a critical tool during SAP BTP project planning.
SAP BTP Service Catalog
The SAP Discovery Center provides a comprehensive service catalog that currently lists nearly 84 SAP BTP services. These services are categorized into:
- Application Development
- Integration
- Data and Analytics
- Artificial Intelligence
This categorization helps learners and professionals quickly identify which services are relevant for SAP ABAP on BTP development.
Consumption-Based Commercial Model
One of the most important concepts introduced in this session was SAP’s shift from traditional licensing to a consumption-based pricing model.
In this model, organizations pay only for the SAP BTP services and users they actually consume, making SAP BTP a flexible and cost-effective cloud platform.
Service Details and Prerequisites
Each service page in the SAP Discovery Center provides detailed information such as:
- Regional availability
- Service providers
- Technical and subscription prerequisites
Understanding these details helps developers avoid configuration issues and ensures smooth setup during SAP BTP ABAP Cloud training and real-time projects.
For official service exploration, you can refer to the SAP Discovery Center here: https://discovery-center.cloud.sap
Key SAP BTP Services for ABAP Cloud Development
To start developing applications using ABAP Cloud on SAP BTP, developers must understand and subscribe to specific core services. During this session, the instructor highlighted the most important SAP BTP services required for ABAP development.
ABAP Environment (Steampunk)
The ABAP Environment is the primary service used in SAP ABAP on BTP training. It provides the runtime required to write, activate, and execute ABAP Cloud–compliant code.
This environment enforces modern ABAP standards and ensures that all developments follow Clean Core principles, making them upgrade-safe and future-ready.
SAP Cloud Transport Management
SAP Cloud Transport Management is a foundational service used to transport developments across different system landscapes such as:
- Development
- Quality
- Production
This service plays a crucial role in enterprise-grade SAP BTP ABAP Cloud projects.
Business Application Studio (BAS)
SAP Business Application Studio is a cloud-based development environment primarily used to build SAP Fiori and UI5 applications.
It integrates seamlessly with the ABAP Environment and is widely used in full-stack SAP BTP application development.
SAP Build
SAP Build is a low-code / no-code solution that enables users to create applications, workflows, and business sites using visual drag-and-drop tools.
This service is especially useful for rapid development and business-user-driven innovation on the SAP Business Technology Platform.
To gain hands-on experience with these services, enrolling in a structured SAP ABAP on BTP Training in Hyderabad helps learners understand real-time project scenarios and best practices.
Accessing S/4HANA Data from SAP BTP Using Custom Entities
A key architectural concept discussed in this session was how data is accessed when developing applications on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
Unlike traditional on-premise SAP systems, standard SAP S/4HANA tables such as VBAK and VBAP are not directly available in the SAP BTP layer.
This is because SAP BTP acts as a technology platform, while S/4HANA remains the core business system. Direct database access is intentionally restricted to ensure system stability, security, and upgrade safety.
Role of Custom Entities in SAP BTP
To fetch business data from S/4HANA into SAP BTP applications, developers use Custom Entities.
Custom Entities act as an abstraction layer that allows controlled and secure access to backend data using:
- OData services
- Released APIs
- Remote data access methods
This approach fully aligns with SAP’s Clean Core and extensibility guidelines, making custom developments future-proof and upgrade-safe.
Understanding Custom Entities is crucial for working with the RESTful ABAP Programming (RAP) model, which is extensively used in modern SAP BTP ABAP Cloud applications.
SAP BTP Trial Account Setup and Course Roadmap
To gain hands-on experience with SAP BTP ABAP Cloud development, students were guided through the process of setting up a SAP BTP Trial Account.
SAP BTP Trial Account Registration
Learners are required to register using SAP ID Services with a valid personal or business email ID.
During registration, the instructor emphasized the importance of accessing the SAP HANA Trial Cockpit instead of the enterprise cockpit, as this ensures proper access to ABAP and BTP trial services.
The trial account allows students to practice real-time scenarios and explore SAP BTP services without any initial investment.
SAP BTP ABAP Cloud Course Roadmap
The complete SAP BTP ABAP Cloud training program is structured into four well-defined modules to ensure a gradual and practical learning curve.
- Module 1: SAP BTP overview and trial account setup
- Module 2: Core Data Services (CDS) – joins, associations, cardinality, and annotations
- Module 3: RESTful ABAP Programming (RAP) model to build end-to-end SAP Fiori applications
- Module 4: Clean Core architecture and extensibility concepts
This structured roadmap ensures that learners gain both theoretical understanding and practical hands-on experience required for real-world projects.
If you are looking for professional guidance and real-time exposure, enrolling in a SAP ABAP on BTP Training in Hyderabad can help you build industry-ready skills with expert mentorship.