SAP HANA Cloud has emerged as a cornerstone of modern enterprise application development, enabling organizations to build intelligent, scalable and cloud-native applications. When combined with SAP Business Application Studio (BAS) and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), it creates a powerful development ecosystem that accelerates innovation while maintaining enterprise-grade governance and security.
HANA Cloud Development on Business Application Studio with BTP allows developers to design, develop, deploy and manage data-driven applications using advanced tools, open standards and SAP’s proven digital core. This article by Multisoft Systems provides a comprehensive guide to understanding how HANA Cloud, BAS and BTP work together, the architecture involved, development workflows, best practices and real-world use cases.
Understanding SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)
SAP Business Technology Platform is SAP’s unified platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that brings together database and data management, application development, analytics, integration and artificial intelligence in a single environment. BTP enables organizations to:
- Extend SAP S/4HANA and other SAP solutions
- Build side-by-side applications
- Integrate SAP and non-SAP systems
- Innovate without disrupting core business processes
At the heart of BTP lies SAP HANA Cloud, which serves as the foundation for data storage, processing and advanced analytics.
What Is SAP HANA Cloud?
SAP HANA Cloud is a fully managed cloud database as a service designed to power modern, data-driven enterprise applications. Built on the proven SAP HANA in-memory engine, it combines high-speed transactional processing with advanced analytical capabilities in a single platform. Unlike traditional databases, SAP HANA Cloud supports multi-model data processing, allowing organizations to work with relational, graph, spatial, JSON and time-series data seamlessly. As part of SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP HANA Cloud enables businesses to build, extend and integrate applications without managing underlying infrastructure. It offers elastic scalability, meaning compute and storage resources can be adjusted on demand based on workload requirements. This consumption-based model helps organizations control costs while maintaining performance.
SAP HANA Cloud also includes built-in tools for data integration, machine learning and security. Features such as real-time replication, workload isolation, role-based access control and enterprise-grade compliance make it suitable for mission-critical applications. Overall, SAP HANA Cloud online training provides a future-ready foundation for intelligent applications, real-time analytics and digital innovation across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. It supports innovation, agility and resilience for evolving global business demands worldwide.
Key Capabilities of SAP HANA Cloud
- In-memory and disk-based data processing
- Multi-model support including relational, graph, spatial and JSON
- Built-in machine learning libraries
- Elastic scalability with consumption-based pricing
- Strong security and compliance standards
HANA Cloud removes infrastructure complexity, allowing developers to focus on building intelligent business applications.
Introduction to SAP Business Application Studio (BAS)
SAP Business Application Studio (BAS) is a modern, cloud-based integrated development environment designed to simplify and accelerate application development on SAP Business Technology Platform. Built on open-source technologies and inspired by Visual Studio Code, BAS provides developers with a powerful browser-based workspace that eliminates the need for complex local system setups. It is optimized specifically for developing SAP applications including SAP Fiori, SAPUI5, SAP HANA Cloud native applications and solutions built using the SAP Cloud Application Programming Model. By offering preconfigured development environments known as dev spaces, BAS allows developers to start coding immediately with all required runtimes, frameworks and extensions already installed. These dev spaces are tailored for specific development scenarios, ensuring consistency and productivity across teams. SAP Business Application Studio also integrates seamlessly with core BTP services such as authentication, destinations, connectivity and SAP HANA Cloud, enabling end-to-end development from design to deployment within a single environment.
Version control is deeply embedded through Git integration, supporting collaborative development and CI/CD workflows. BAS supports multiple programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, Java and CDS, making it suitable for full-stack enterprise application development. Its tight integration with SAP ecosystems ensures best practices, security standards and scalability are built into every application. As organizations move toward cloud-native and side-by-side extension strategies, SAP Business Application Studio plays a critical role by providing a standardized, secure and future-ready development experience. It empowers developers to innovate faster, reduce operational complexity and deliver high-quality business applications aligned with modern enterprise requirements.
Why Use Business Application Studio for HANA Cloud Development?
- Cloud-based IDE eliminates local installation and configuration issues
- Preconfigured dev spaces optimized for HANA Cloud and CAP development
- Seamless integration with SAP BTP services and HANA Cloud instances
- Faster project setup with ready-to-use tools, runtimes and extensions
- Native support for CDS, SQLScript, Node.js and Java development
- Built-in Git integration for version control and team collaboration
- Secure access management aligned with enterprise security standards
- Simplified deployment to Cloud Foundry and other BTP runtimes
- Consistent development environment across distributed teams
- Improved productivity through browser-based development and automation
Architecture Overview: HANA Cloud, BAS and BTP
The architecture combining SAP HANA Cloud, SAP Business Application Studio and SAP Business Technology Platform is designed to support scalable, secure and cloud-native enterprise application development. SAP BTP acts as the foundational platform that hosts all services, runtimes and tools required to build, deploy and manage applications. Within BTP, SAP HANA Cloud certification serves as the core data layer, providing high-performance in-memory processing, advanced analytics and multi-model data capabilities for both transactional and analytical workloads. SAP Business Application Studio operates as the development layer, offering a cloud-based integrated development environment where developers design application logic, data models and user interfaces without managing local infrastructure. Applications developed in BAS are typically deployed to BTP runtimes such as Cloud Foundry or Kyma, where they run independently from core SAP systems, following a side-by-side extension approach. Secure connectivity between BAS, HANA Cloud and deployed applications is managed through BTP services including destinations, service bindings and identity authentication.
SAP Identity Authentication Service ensures consistent user authentication and role-based access control across the landscape. Data flows seamlessly from SAP and non-SAP source systems into HANA Cloud through integration and data provisioning services available on BTP. This layered architecture promotes loose coupling, scalability and resilience, allowing each component to evolve independently. By separating development, data and runtime layers while maintaining tight integration, the HANA Cloud, BAS and BTP architecture enables organizations to innovate rapidly, maintain enterprise-grade security and adapt efficiently to changing business requirements.
Setting Up the Development Environment
Step 1: SAP BTP Account and Subaccount
To start, you need an SAP BTP global account and a configured subaccount with:
- Cloud Foundry environment enabled
- Entitlements for SAP HANA Cloud and BAS
Step 2: Create a HANA Cloud Instance
From the BTP Cockpit:
- Provision a SAP HANA Cloud instance
- Define memory and storage requirements
- Configure administrator credentials
Step 3: Launch Business Application Studio
- Open BAS from the BTP Cockpit
- Create a new dev space for HANA Native or CAP development
- Select required extensions and tools
Once the dev space is ready, you can begin development immediately.
Development Approaches for HANA Cloud on BAS
HANA Cloud development on SAP Business Application Studio primarily follows two well-established approaches, each suited to different application needs and architectural goals. These approaches allow organizations to choose between database-centric development and service-oriented application development while leveraging the full capabilities of SAP BTP training.
1. SAP HANA Native Development
This approach focuses on building applications that are tightly coupled with SAP HANA Cloud’s advanced database features. Developers create database artifacts such as tables, views, calculation views, procedures and functions directly within HANA Cloud using HDI containers. Business logic is often pushed down to the database layer using SQLScript and CDS for maximum performance. HANA Native development is ideal for data-intensive scenarios where real-time analytics, complex calculations and high-performance data processing are critical. BAS provides dedicated dev spaces with built-in HANA tools that simplify modeling, deployment and testing of database artifacts in a cloud environment.
2. SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP)
CAP is SAP’s recommended approach for building enterprise-grade, cloud-native applications. It emphasizes a service-based architecture using open standards such as CDS, OData and REST APIs. Developers define data models, business logic and services in a structured way, while SAP HANA Cloud acts as the persistence layer. CAP supports both Node.js and Java, enabling flexibility in technology choice. This approach is best suited for side-by-side extensions, full-stack applications and scalable business services that integrate SAP and non-SAP systems. BAS accelerates CAP development through templates, code generators and seamless deployment to BTP runtimes.
Together, these development approaches provide flexibility, performance and long-term scalability for modern SAP HANA Cloud applications.
Working with SAP HANA Cloud from BAS
Working with SAP HANA Cloud from SAP Business Application Studio provides developers with a seamless and efficient environment for designing, managing and consuming cloud-based data services. BAS offers native tooling and extensions that allow direct interaction with HANA Cloud instances through secure service bindings and HDI containers. Developers can design data models using Core Data Services and SQLScript, create database artifacts such as tables, views and calculation views and deploy them directly to HANA Cloud without leaving the development environment. BAS also simplifies database exploration, data preview and debugging, enabling faster validation of data models and logic. Integration with SAP BTP services ensures secure connectivity, role-based access control and authentication are handled consistently across development and runtime environments.
Additionally, developers can leverage HANA Cloud features such as real-time data processing, multi-model data support and built-in machine learning capabilities while developing applications using CAP or native HANA approaches. This tight integration reduces development complexity, improves productivity and allows teams to build high-performance, scalable and secure enterprise applications that fully utilize the power of SAP HANA Cloud.
Future of HANA Cloud Development on BTP
SAP continues to invest heavily in HANA Cloud, BAS and BTP. Future enhancements include:
- Deeper AI and machine learning integration
- Enhanced developer automation
- Improved multi-cloud support
- Tighter integration with SAP Joule and AI services
This makes the platform future-proof and aligned with intelligent enterprise strategies.
Conclusion
HANA Cloud Development on Business Application Studio with SAP BTP represents a modern, powerful and flexible approach to enterprise application development. By combining HANA Cloud’s in-memory performance, BAS’s cloud-native development experience and BTP’s comprehensive services, organizations can innovate faster while maintaining enterprise-grade stability and security.
Whether you are building extensions for SAP S/4HANA, developing standalone cloud applications or enabling advanced analytics, this integrated ecosystem provides everything needed to succeed in today’s digital landscape. Mastering this development model is a strategic investment for developers and enterprises alike. Enroll in Multisoft Systems now!