Benefits of Deploying SAP HANA on Public Cloud
The leading organizations of tomorrow will thrive on data. That’s a given. The only question is the type of innovation organizations will use to harness data and improve business performance. The clear-cut answer at this moment is SAP-HANA. It is an in-memory database and application development platform for processing high volumes of data in real-time. It’s combination of speed, design, and analytical capabilities has many data enthusiasts excited.
The primary function of SAP-HANA as a database is to retrieve and sort data as requested by the application. In addition to its function as a database it can also perform advanced analytics such as predictive analytics, spatial data processing, text analytics, text search, streaming analytics, and graph data processing. Based on these features, a common misconception that rose up is that HANA is an acronym for High- performance, analytic, appliance. Contrary to popular belief HANA isn’t an acronym, it is just the name that SAP decided to give its database platform.
A book can be written on the value provided by it. However, we are only going to focus on the value of its in-memory database, predictive analytics, and deployment on cloud. These 3 value pillars are interdependent in terms of HANA’s overall value; however, each can stand-alone based on the value they each bring to an organization.
SAP HANA In-Memory Database
It is about 10x faster than a traditional memory base. This drastic increase in performance is a result of SAP-HANA keeping its data in-memory as opposed to disk-based hard drives. With in-memory processing speeds, users can access data immediately. Using the high-performance capabilities of an in-memory database does have a higher cost, however. To offset this higher cost, it can perform Dynamic tie ring, which helps users reduce costs by giving users the option of storing less frequently-accessed data in disk-based storage.
Predictive Analytics
SAP-HANA uses a number of analytic engines for different kinds of data processing. Out of its various kinds of data processing, predictive analytics has the most widespread value for businesses across all industries. Predictive analytics combines the depth and speed of in-memory analytics with the power of native predictive algorithms. Together with SAP’s predictive analysis for visualization and R’s extensive library of statistical data mining techniques, organizations have everything they need to predict the future in real time. Imagine being able to figure out what happened, why it happened, and what comes next in an instant. That is the value it brings in terms of predictive analytics. To make things even sweeter, using it for predictive analytics is easy. Analysts can use a drag-and-drop interface for selection, preparation and processing. They can also create models using predictive algorithms as well as algorithms from open source R. Every user in any line of business can now unlock key insights using it for predictive analytics.
Cloud Deployment
SAP customers have the option of deploying SAP HANA on premise or on cloud. Out of these two options, deploying it on public cloud provides the most compelling benefits. Since the value provided by its applications is already high, adding anything to improve the deliverability of it, makes it much more impactful. The primary benefits of deploying SAP HANA on cloud include:
Faster Deployment
Organizations no longer have to worry about siting, provisioning, and testing hardware infrastructure. With SAP-HANA on cloud, organizations can reduce the time to solution for SAP-HANA to hours.
Scalability of Landscape
With SAP-HANA and its complexities as a critical data storage and application platform, capacity planning can demand substantial time and resources. Organizations hosting it on cloud do not have to worry about capacity planning and can also reduce the up-front costs of carrying additional expensive high-memory hardware.
Reliable, Secure, Flexible Environments
The wide global presence of cloud providers enhances availability and provides greater choice in terms of disaster recovery solutions for SAP HANA.
Key Takeaways
As organizations of all shapes and sizes begin to harness more data, it is becoming apparent that SAP HANA is the bridge that will companies utilize data in new and exciting ways. A testament to this fact is the rise in SAP HANA adoption among enterprise customers. With it organizations will be able to leverage real-time data to identify critical trends and make optimal business decisions faster and more efficiently.
