SAP HANA brings the power of in-memory data processing - leveraging advances in main memory, processor technology and application know-how - to deliver unprecedented benefits to analytics and a new category of applications. The SAP BusinessObjects Strategic Workforce Planning application is the first such application that processes large quantities of data using in-memory computing with an innovative calculation engine that enables application processing to be performed directly "in-memory."
"SAP HANA and the first applications built on it are already showing customers the unprecedented speed of in-memory computing, as well as the latency they have in the layers of their current IT systems," said Vishal Sikka, executive board member, Technology and Innovation Platform, SAP AG. "The customers we are working with are already recognizing the great potential of SAP HANA to deliver solutions that were previously not feasible, and re-thinking how to run their businesses better, now that they can analyze, simulate and react in real time."
SAP Introduces First SAP HANA-Enabled Application
SAP HANA provides a foundation on which a new generation of applications can be built, enabling customers to analyze large quantities of data from virtually any source in real time. With the integrative approach of SAP HANA and the new programming paradigm, SAP is simplifying existing computing layers and allowing applications to directly benefit from hardware improvements for the first time. SAP BusinessObjects Strategic Workforce Planning, version for in-memory computing, leverages the in-memory database and calculation engine, allowing managers to simulate scenarios in real time, analyze complex relationships quickly and see how proposed organizational changes will impact the business. Managers and human resources executives can simulate how their workforce would need to grow and change using predictive modeling. This allows them to make intelligent, data-based decisions about allocating or adjusting staff, for example, as a result of an acquisition or to enter a new market.
Working together with its partner and customer ecosystem, SAP plans in the next year to introduce new applications based on SAP HANA that will help utility companies manage power supply in real time, provide retailers more timely analysis of point-of-sale data and enable more accurate sales pipeline forecasting for all types of companies.
Early Results Generate Excitement Among Customers
As part of the co-innovation program, SAP has used data from customers to demonstrate how particular business processes could be improved by SAP HANA, and these customers are already seeing valuable results.
"We participated in the co-innovation program for SAP HANA and saw how SAP in-memory computing can dramatically improve our processes," said Martin Petry, CIO, Hilti Corporation. "Hilti provided over nine million customer records to SAP. By loading these into SAP HANA, it was possible to comb through these records in a matter of seconds, versus the days it took previously to extract them from our data warehouse and SAP Business Suite. We're looking forward to further exploring the transformative impact of SAP in-memory computing on our business."
Customers across the globe are evaluating SAP HANA and recognize the benefits to their organization. As the largest retailer with approximately 1,000 stores across India, Future Group needs real-time visibility into sales data so it can better understand customer insights and plan business accordingly. SAP HANA has the potential to provide instant information about which products are selling, promotions that have been effective and stores that are most effective. In-memory computing from SAP may offer a powerful way for Future Group to analyze customer spending and revenue across its multitude of stores and product lines.
During the customer co-innovation program, SAP HANA achieved ground-breaking performance results that are the basis for a new generation of applications with the potential to significantly improve customers' business:
-Very complex reports and queries against 500 billion point-of-sale records were run in less than one minute, thanks to the unique multi-core processing algorithms. This result was achieved on a system with 10 blades and 32 cores each.
-SAP HANA scales linearly with performance proportional to hardware improvements so in the future customers will be able to deploy systems with 1,000 or more cores that enable complex real-time analytics.
-SAP has mastered massive parallelism for enterprise applications (such as aging) with its in-memory computing engine, harnessing these benefits for business applications.
For more information about SAP HANA, please visit the SAP TechEd newsroom. Follow on Twitter at @SAPInMemory and join the conversation around the launch at #sapteched, #inmemory and #hana.
SAP® TechEd 2010 in Berlin, Las Vegas, Bangalore, and Shanghai
More than 14,000 SAP customers, partners and technical experts are expected to convene at SAP® TechEd 2010, the company's largest ecosystem education event series. The conference brings IT managers, software developers, administrators, and business process experts together to see, hear, and share how they and their peers can stay one step ahead of business change. Choosing from hundreds of hours of expert-led sessions and hands-on training, attendees can gain the inspiration and skills they need to maximize impact on their organizations. In its 14th year, SAP TechEd 2010 was held in Berlin, Germany, October 12-14, and Las Vegas, Nevada, October 18-22, and is being held in Bangalore, India, December 1-3; and Shanghai, China, December 1-2. Follow SAP TechEd on Twitter at @sapteched and join the conversation at #SAPTechEd.