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Last updated on by adarshnarayanhegde

Agent2Agent (A2A) Interoperability in Enterprise AI

Enterprise users often face complex tasks that depend on data and actions distributed across various systems, applications, and organizational boundaries. AI-powered assistants (agents) offer a promising new interface to access and act on this business context. However, without a common foundation for collaboration, these agents remain confined to their respective ecosystems, limiting their effectiveness. The Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol introduces a shared framework that allows agents to interoperate securely and intelligently across platforms. This document provides an enriched overview of how the A2A protocol can be applied within the SAP business landscape to enable scalable, trusted, and interoperable multi-agent collaboration.

Architecture​

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Flow​

SAP adopts the A2A protocol to standardize inter-agent communications, fostering a collaborative agent ecosystem powered by the A2A protocol. This protocol facilitates secure, trusted, and interoperable interactions between AI agents operating across enterprise landscapes and hyperscaler environments.

Key Components:​

  1. Business Agent Foundation
    At the core of the architecture is SAP’s Business Agent Foundation, which enables the creation and orchestration of intelligent agents integrated with SAP’s business systems and processes. It supports both SAP and non-SAP agents through a unified catalog and registration system. When interacting with third-party agents, the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol facilitates secure, standardized communication, enabling seamless collaboration and task execution across organizational and vendor boundaries.

  2. Agent Catalog
    The Agent Catalog aggregates agent metadata using Open Resource Discovery (ORD) and provides a curated directory of both internal and external agents. Internal agents developed and managed within SAP’s ecosystem can register and expose their capabilities. External agents from trusted third-party catalogs (e.g., hosted on hyperscalers) are securely federated into the SAP environment.

  3. Multi-Agent Collaboration
    The A2A protocol facilitates direct and dynamic communication among SAP agents, Google Cloud agents, and Microsoft Azure agents, enabling them to collaborate on complex tasks in distributed, multi-cloud environments. This interoperability ensures agents can discover each other, exchange intents, and delegate responsibilities while preserving context, trust boundaries, and security policies.

  4. A2A Connector
    The A2A Connector bridges SAP’s internal agent framework with external agent runtimes, enabling seamless cross-network invocation of agents. It allows SAP agents to orchestrate external capabilities or delegate sub-tasks to agents operating in environments like Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure, facilitating smooth collaboration across platforms.

A2A @ SAP​

As enterprise AI matures, agents are increasingly used to automate business scenarios. However, most remain restricted to the platforms or vendors that created them. This isolation limits their ability to execute business processes that span multiple environments, leading to disconnected workflows, redundant implementations, and missed opportunities for end-to-end automation.

To fully unlock the potential of AI in the enterprise, organizations need a secure and standardized mechanism for agents to discover, communicate with, and collaborate across technical and organizational boundaries. SAP supports this vision through its adoption of the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol, a vendor-neutral mechanism enabling agents to communicate, share context, and coordinate tasks across ecosystems. With A2A, SAP agents and third-party agents can work together as part of a distributed and coordinated agent landscape, enabling more intelligent, responsive, and business-aware operations. This approach ensures interoperability while facilitating seamless coordination and context sharing across agent ecosystems.

Value Proposition​

Business Value​

  • Interoperability
    Enterprises typically operate across diverse systems, SAP and non-SAP, cloud and on-premise. By enabling agents to speak a common protocol, the A2A approach allows these agents to coordinate seamlessly across technology stacks, unlocking end-to-end process automation.

  • Productivity Boost
    When agents interoperate behind the scenes, business users experience fewer manual handovers and context switches between systems. For example, a finance agent can collaborate with a procurement agent without user intervention, surfacing consolidated insights or triggering follow-up actions automatically.

  • Scalable AI Integration
    Instead of building monolithic agents with tightly coupled logic, enterprises can distribute functionality across specialized agents that interoperate through A2A. This decoupling makes it easier to scale, maintain, and incrementally upgrade the AI landscape.

Technical Value​

  • Protocol Standardization
    Using open specifications such as Open Resource Discovery (ORD) and shared trust frameworks minimizes the need for point-to-point custom integrations. This reduces development time and enhances interoperability with partner ecosystems.

  • Plug-and-Play Agents
    Agents can advertise their capabilities and discover others using standard metadata and registration flows. This self-service onboarding reduces IT overhead and makes it easier to evolve the agent ecosystem dynamically.

  • Security and Governance
    Communication between agents is governed by enterprise-grade identity, access, and trust models. This ensures that agents only act within their defined scopes and on behalf of authorized users, maintaining compliance and data integrity.

Resources​