Learn SAP CPI Integration Suite

Overview

SAP Cloud Platform Integration is a robust cloud-based integration platform that seamlessly integrates cloud applications with other SAP or non-SAP cloud or on-premises applications. In other words, it supports integration between different applications, which can be called A2A, with business partners, which is also called B2B, and with public authorities, also known as B2G. One of the fundamental aspects of cloud-based applications is security. There is a strong focus on safety in CPI, such as data isolation, multitenancy, message, payload-level encryption, signing, and certificate-based authentication. With CPI's enterprise license, you also get the intelligent design-time solution, the Integration Advisor, for creating and maintaining your integration content.

CPI offers a rich set of pre-packaged integration content to integrate SAP and non-SAP applications to accelerate your integration projects. You can search, discover, experience, and consume the suitable predefined integration packages from SAP and selected partners. SAP Cloud Platform Integration is limited to cloud-based integrations and supports hybrid integration scenarios where you have a mix of cloud and on-premises applications.

Apart from integrating processes, which is its core strength.

• It also supports data integration, mobile integration, and IoT use cases.
• It provides a rich set of connectivity options that focus on non-SAP integration.

There are a lot of in-built technical adapters and function adapters that you can use in your integration scenario. Another vital aspect is most of the design-time and monitoring operations you can do in Web tooling, like creating integration flows, configuring them, deploying them, monitoring your security artifacts, etc. All of them are exposed via remote OData APIs. And you can easily leverage these APIs to build your app on top of the Cloud Platform Integration.

SAP Integration Suite

SAP's intelligent suite strategy is the Intelligent Enterprise suite strategy; the cornerstone of this strategy is integration. SAP Integration Suite connects and contextualizes processes and data while enabling new content-rich applications to be assembled faster with less dependence on IT. Pre-built integration packs along with existing investments can be composed to deliver new outcomes with less involvement by integration experts.

Capabilities

• Cloud Integration
• API Management
• Open Connectors
• Integration Advisor
• Trading Partner Management
• Integration Assessment
• Migration Assessment

Orchestration Capabilities

Now let us look at the flexible pipeline steps in SAP Cloud Platform Integration. There are more than 40 independent and reusable process steps that you can use in your integration flow, for example, message mapping, which is a step that allows you to create a mapping between your source and target message format.

You can use a router, which enables you to route the message across different routes based on a particular condition. The splitter allows you to split the messages. And during the message processing, if you want to transform the message formats, it is possible using the message converters like CSV to XML, JSON to XML, EDI to XML, and vice versa. There are also a few security-related steps, like encrypter, decrypter, signer, verify, and so on, which you can use to add a layer of security at the message level.

Connectivity in SAP Cloud Platform Integration

Now coming to the connectivity options available in CPI, youcan see a list of in-built technical adapters like HTTP, SOAP, OData, and soon, and active adapters like SuccessFactors, Ariba, Facebook, Twitter, and soon that are available in CPI. Some of the latest additions are the ProcessDirect adapter, enabling you to communicate with other integration flowsdeployed in your tenant without passing through the load balancer. Another newenhancement is the JDBC adapter, which allows connectivity to databases, andthe AS4 adapter for B2G connectivity.

CPI also offers an Adapter Development Kit, using which youcan build your custom adapter for other connectivity needs. And if you are anSAP partner and want to make adapters, you can also use the ADK and then get it certified by SAP.

SAP CPI Architecture

A platform for cloud-based integration called SAP CPI (Cloud Platform Integration) makes it easier to integrate cloud applications with other on-premises or cloud-based ones. It has a number of features for creating, deploying, and maintaining integration processes and is based on the Apache Camel integration framework.

The SAP CPI architecture consists of the following components:

• Integration Engine: The Integration Engine is the main building block of SAP CPI. It is in charge of message processing and routing them to the proper adapters.
• Message Broker: Between the Integration Engine and the adapters, communications must be stored and routed through the Message Broker.
• Adapter: The Adapters are in charge of interacting with external systems. They can be used to connect to cloud-based systems, SAP systems, and systems that aren't SAP.
• Runtime Environment: Running the SAP CPI components is the responsibility of the runtime environment. It offers a running environment for the Integration Engine, Message Broker, and Adapters.
• Management Console: The SAP CPI architecture is managed using the Management Console, a web-based interface. It can be used to set up the architecture, configure the components, and diagnose issues.

The Detailed architecture of SAP CPI is also shown in the following image.

SAP CPI Framework

SAP CPI Framework include the following points:

• Apache camel is the integration framework for SAP CPI.
• Camel is the open-source java framework network.
• Camel is based on the Enterprise Integration pattern.
• For more details on Apache Camel -:https://camel.apache.org