SAP HANA Basic Overview

1.1 SAP HANA Overview

SAP HANA, short for “High-Performance Analytic Appliance” is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database management system developed by SAP.

• Data now resides in main-memory (RAM) and no longer on a hard disk.
• It is a combination of hardware and software made to process massive real time data using In-Memory computing.
• It combines row-based, column-based database technology.
• It’s best suited for performing real-time analytics on massive data, and developing & deploying real-time applications.

An in-memory database means all the data is stored in the memory (RAM). No time wasted in loading the data from hard-disk to RAM or storing the data in hard-disk. Everything is stored inside memory for all the time, which gives quick access ability to the CPUs while processing data.

The speed advantages offered by this RAM storage system are further accelerated by the use of multi-core CPUs, and multiple CPUs per board, and multiple boards per server appliance.

SAP HANA is equipped with Multiengine Query Processing Environment which supports relational as well as graphical and text data within the same system. It provides features that support significant processing speed, handle huge data sizes and text mining capabilities.

Can we just increase the memory of the traditional database (like Oracle) to 1 TB and get similar performance?

NO. You might have performance gains due to more memory available for your current Oracle/Microsoft/Teradata database, but HANA is not just a database with bigger RAM. It is a combination of a lot of hardware and software technologies. The way data is stored and processed by the In-Memory data base is the true differentiator. Having that data available in RAM is just the icing on the cake.

Operating System Supported By SAP HANA:

Earlier SUSE Linux Enterprise Server x86-64 (SLES) 11 SP1 was the only Operating System supported by SAP HANA.
From SPS08, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is also supported.

SAP HANA is developed in C++ language.

Why SAP HANA is fast?

All data is in RAM. What happens when power goes down?

SAP HANA is an in-memory database which means all the data resides in RAM. But there is also a disc memory just for backup purpose.

In-memory computing is safe: The SAP HANA database holds the bulk of its data in memory for maximum performance, but still uses persistent storage to provide a fallback in case of failure.

After a power failure, the database can be restarted like any disk-based database and returns to its last consistent state by replaying the log since the last savepoint.

1.2 Top 10 Reasons Customers Choose SAP HANA

SAP HANA is one of the fastest growing products in SAP’s history and is viewed by the industry as a break through solution for in-memory databases. SAP HANA claims that it accelerates analytics and applications on a single, in-memory platform as well as combining databases, data processing, and application platform capabilities.
SAP HANA is a next-generation business platform which brings together

• • Business transactions
• • Advanced analytics
• • Social media
• • Mobile experience
• • Collaborative business
• • Design connections

You may be thinking, “So what?” or “How does this help my business?” or “How can SAP HANA help my company make more money?”
In this article, we will find out why customers should choose SAP HANA.

1. Speed:

“The speed SAP HANA enables is sudden and significant, and has the potential to transform entire business models.”

SAP HANA manages massive data volume at high speed. It delivers the “real” real-time enterprise solutions through the most advanced in-memory technology. SAP HANA provides a foundation on which building new generation applications and enabling customers to analyze large quantities of data virtually from any source would be in real time.

A live analysis by a consumer products company reveals how SAP HANA analyzes current point-of-sale data in real time—empowering this organization to review segmentation, merchandising, inventory management, and forecasting information at the speed of thought.

2. Real Time:

SAP HANA manages massive data volume at high speed. It delivers the “real” real-time enterprise solutions through the most advanced in-memory technology. SAP HANA provides a foundation on which building new generation applications and enabling customers to analyze large quantities of data virtually from any source would be in real time.

3. Any Data:

SAP HANA helps you to gain insights from structured and unstructured data.



SAP HANA integrates structured and unstructured data from internal and external sources, and can work on detailed data without aggregations.

Click here to know more about Structured and Unstructured data.

4. Any Source:

SAP HANA provides multiple ways to load your data from existing data sources into SAP HANA.
SAP HANA can be integrated into a wide range of enterprise environments, allowing it to handle data from Oracle databases, Microsoft SQL Server, and IBM DB2.

5. Insight – Unlock new insights with predictive, complex analysis:

Before SAP HANA, analytics meant:

• Preconfigured dashboards based on fixed business requirements.
• Huge effort and time to create new custom reports.
• Reactive views and an inability to define future expectations.

With SAP HANA, you can:

Quickly and easily create views to answer any business question – allowing you to formulate your actions based on deep insights



Receive quick reactions to newly articulated queries so you can innovate new processes and business models to outpace the competition.



Enable state-of-the-art, interactive analyses such as simulations and pattern recognition to create measurable, targeted actions.

6. Innovation – The ultimate platform for business innovation:

SAP HANA is an early innovator for in-memory computing. Its configurability, easy integration and revolutionary capabilities make it flexible enough for performing any business requires.

Some examples of this include:

Energy Management

Utility companies use SAP HANA to process and analyze vast amounts of data generated by smart meter technology improving customers’ energy efficiency and driving sustainability initiatives.

Real-time Transit Routing

SAP HANA is helping research firms to calculate optimal driving routes using real-time GPS data transmitted from thousands of taxis.

Software Piracy Detection and Prevention

Tech companies use SAP HANA to analyze large volumes of complex data to gain business insights into software piracy, develop preventive strategies and recover revenue.

7. Simplicity – Fewer layers, simpler landscape, lower cost:

Reduce or eliminate the data aggregation, indexing, mapping and exchange-transfer-load (ETL) needed in complex data warehouses and marts.

Incorporate prepackaged business logic, in-memory calculations and optimization for multicore 64-bit processors.

Spend less on real-time computing

8. Cloud:

Step up to one of the world’s most advanced clouds.

SAP HANA powers SAP’s next- generation enterprise cloud.

Fast:

A single-location stack removes latency – enabling real-time collaboration, processing, and planning.

Scalable:

A highly robust cloud service allows quick deployment of current and next generation applications, scaled to your business needs.

Secure:

We secure your data through the entire cloud solution with independently audited standards of data security and governance.

9. Cost:

SAP HANA reduces your total IT cost so you can increase spending on innovation.

10. Choice:

SAP HANA provides you choice at every layer to work with your preferred partners.

• Run on the hardware of your choice.
• Work with the software you prefer.

Collaboration with a number of partners means that SAP can complete the software stacks of our diverse customer base in configurations that make sense for their business.

Plus, a variety of different options means that you won’t be locked in by a single provider.