The annual SAPphire event has just started, and we’re as anxious as any to see what the company and its partners have in store.  From early rumblings around the event, mobile is a huge area of importance regarding cloud convergence and the future of enterprise.  Business intelligence, which was an important topic for last year’s SAPphire conference, is also expected to be a key area of discussion in 2011.  We’ll be getting all the details from the event, as theCUBE will be live-streaming interviews and discussions for the 3-day conference, giving you the back-channel story to everything that’s going on.

One thing we’re really looking forward to is having both co-CEO’s on theCUBE today, discussing the topic of convergence with Jim Hagemann Snabe, and looking at Bill McDermontt’s ongoing plans for the company.  A particular area of interest is Snabe’s business vision stretching all the way to 2015, where mobility and analytics are reshaping the way we work.  The emerging era is affecting a number of industries, from healthcare to finance, with new business tactics and needs that SAP plans to address in the coming years.

Industry-wide, this also plays into some trends we’ve noted around big data and convergence, where mobility’s introduced some concerns around the difference between security and privacy.  They both have prominent placement in the cloud and mobility, but tend to take on different roles in the enterprise and consumer sectors, prompting varied discussions from industry leaders.  We hope to ask Snabe to talk about security and privacy in the enterprise, looking for his view on the areas of importance for SAP moving forward in this brave new world.

Some other interviews we’re looking forward to include SAP CMO Jonathan Becher, as well as partner and guest experiences around business intelligence and analytics.  These are topics of high interest to SiliconAngle, and SAP’s real-time platform is an important aspect of the company’s long-term strategy in enterprise services.

Already we’ve seen some pre-conference announcements around SAP’s real-time platform, developing its relations with Dell and Fujistu and their improved HANA platform support.  Check back for regular updates and developments from the SAPphire event as they happen, and see all our interviews on SiliconAngle.tv.

And speaking of the differences between security and privacy, here’s a great perspective from the CTO of RSA Sam Curry on our pioneering take on the web, and where it will go in the future.