What is Sap HANA?

                    What is Sap HANA?

SAP HANA is the latest, in-memory database, and platform which can be deployed on-premises or cloud. SAP HANA is a combination of hardware and software, which integrates different components like SAP HANA Database, SAP SLT (System Landscape Transformation) Replication server, SAP HANA Direct Extractor connection, and Sybase replication.

HANA has unprecedented adoption by the SAP customers. SAP HANA is capable of processing a large amount of real time data in a short time period.

SAP HANA Database & Platform

1. SAP HANA Database – SAP HANA Database is a hybrid in–memory database. SAP HANA Database is the heart of SAP in-memory technology. In SAP HANA, Database table are of two types –

• Row Store
• Column Store

2. SAP HANA Platform – SAP HANA Platform is a development platform with an in-memory data store which allows the customers to analyze a large volume of data in real time. SAP HANA Platform works as a development platform, which provides infrastructure and tools for building a high-performance application based on SAP HANA Extended Application Services (SAP HANA XS).

SAP HANA Edition

There are different types of SAP HANA edition, some of them as below-

• SAP HANA Platform Edition – It provides Core database technology. It Integrate SAP component like SAP HANA database, SAP HANA Studio and SAP HANA clients. It is for customers who want to use ETL-based replication and already have a license for SAP Business Objects Data Services.
• SAP HANA Enterprise Edition – It contains data provisioning (SLT, BODS, DXC) component including core database technology. It is for customers who want to use either trigger-based replication or ETL-based replication and do not have all of the necessary license for SAP Business Objects Data Services.
• SAP HANA Extended Edition – It contains data provisioning (Sybase) features more than Platform and Enterprises edition. It is for customers who want to use the full potential of all available replication scenarios including log-based replication.

The following diagram shows difference between all editions –

Why to choose SAP HANA?

SAP HANA is a next-generation in-memory business platform. It accelerates analytics and application on a single and in-memory platform.

Mentioned below are the few reasons why to choose SAP HANA –

• Real Time – SAP HANA Provides Real-Time Data Provisioning and Realtime Reporting.
• Speed – SAP HANA provide high speeds processing on massive data due to In-Memory Technology.
• Any Data/Source- SAP HANA can access various data source including Structured and Un-Structured data from SAP or Non-SAP data source.
• Cloud- SAP HANA database and application can be deployed to the Cloud environment.
• Simplicity – SAP HANA reduce efforts behind ETL process, Data Aggregation, Indexing, and Mapping.
• Cost – SAP claims that SAP HANA Software can reduce Total IT cost of a company.
• Choice Option – SAP HANA is supported by different hardware vendor and Software provider, so based on the requirement, the user can choose the best option.

SAP HANA In-Memory Strategy

SAP HANA has many processes running on the SUSE Linux Server. SUSE Linux server manages the reservation of memory to all process.

When SAP HANA starts up, Linux OS reserves memory for the program code, program stack, and static data. OS can dynamically reserve additional data memory upon request from the SAP HANA Server.

SAP HANA create a memory pool for managing and tracking the consumption of memory. The memory pool is used to store all the in-memory data and system tables, thread stack, temporary computations and all other data structure required for managing the database.

When more memory is required for table growth or temporary computations, the SAP HANA memorymanager obtains this from the pool.

For an overview, check out the Memory Overview feature of the SAP HANA studio. To access it, right-click on a System ->Configuration and Monitoring -> Open Memory Overview in the context menu, as follows:

SAP HANA Advantages

Below are advantages of SAP HANA -

• By In-Memory Technology user can explore and analyze all transactional and analytic data in real time from virtually any data source.
• Data can be aggregated from many sources.
• Real-time replication services can be used to access and replicate data from SAP ERP.
• SQL and MDX interface from third party support.
• It provides information modeling and design environment.

SAP HANA Compare to BWA (Business Warehouse Accelerator)

• SAP BW Accelerator: It is an in-memory accelerator for BW. BWA is focused on improving the query performance of SAP NetWeaver BW. BWA is specifically designed to accelerate BW queries reducing the data acquisition time by persisting copies of the infocube.
• SAP HANA: SAP HANA is in-memory database and platform for high-performance analytic reports and application. In SAP HANA data can be loaded from SAP and non-SAP Source System through SLT, BODS, DXC, and Sybase and can be viewed using SAP BO/BI, Crystal Reports, and Excel, etc.

Currently, SAP HANA also work as in-Memory database for SAP BW, so in this way SAP HANA able to improve the overall performance of SAP Net weaver BW.

Summary:

• SAP HANA is an in-memory database and application, which runs on SAP authenticated hardware and Software.
• SAP HANA have three version – platform, enterprises and extended.
• SAP HANA can load data from SAP and Non-SAP data source through SLT, BODS, DXC, and Sybase.
• SAP HANA provide real-time provisioning and reporting.
• SAP HANA provide high-performance real-time analytic reporting.
• SAP HANA reduces Total IT cost.