So what exactly is SAP HANA Smart Data Access and how can it benefit your organization? Put simply, it’s a data virtualization feature in SAP HANA, which allows customers to access data virtually from other remote sources, for example Oracle and Hadoop among others. Smart Data Access then combines data from these remote sources with the data that resides in an SAP HANA database.
So why is it important? Well, by enabling smart data access, no ETL or data replication is required and all your data will now remain within the source systems. So essentially, Smart Data Access allows for the simple integration of multiple disparate systems into a single HANA instance. This allows for multiple SAP HANA systems to be federated without a need for data loading and enables integration between SAP and non-SAP systems. By allowing large sets to remain within the source, companies can reduce the size and total cost of ownership of any SAP HANA instances.
So how hard is it to get SAP HANA Smart Data Access up and running? Well there are a number of technical considerations that must be accounted for. A few of the key requirements before you start include:
- Ensuring your organization is running SAP HANA SP06 or later
- Installing the driver(s) on HANA system for each source
- Preparing all the data in your source system (if needed)
- Provisioning your source systems SAP in HANA as Smart Data Access source
- Creating the virtual tables in SAP HANA
- Validating the data in SAP HANA
It’s also important to note, that only certain database types are supported in SAP HANA although this is increasing with each subsequent SAP HANA support pack. Currently support databases include:
- SAP HANA
- Hadoop Hive
- SAP Sybase IQ
- TeraData v13/14
- Oracle 12c
- MSSQL Server 2012
- DB2 10.1
- Netezza v7
If you’re interested in learning more about SAP HANA Smart Data Access, don’t miss out on Tony Guetersloh’s of TruQua Enterprises upcoming session ““Technical considerations for leveraging smart data access to create virtual data sources in SAP HANA... at SAPinsider’s HANA 2015 event, scheduled for Wednesday, March 11, @4:45pm. For more information on the conference, visit www.hana2015.com or follow us on twitter @TruQuaE.
