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IngoH
Advisor
Advisor

In all the previous posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7) we discussed how customers can leverage SAP HANA, SAP HANA Live, and SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA in different options.

Now this blog post is about a customer that uses SAP ERP and non-SAP OLTP environments and is looking at SAP Technology to create a custom DWH.

To put it in slightly different words, this is a customer that has SAP and non-SAP applications and did not deploy SAP NetWeaver BW, but instead is looking to create a custom DWH. So what solutions can SAP offer for this customer and can SAP HANA be part of this?

In the previous blog posts we did already discuss the value of SAP HANA Live for customers that are interested in operational reports, by delivering pre-configured content in form of SAP HANA models and content for the SAP BusinessObjects BI suite. In our landscape #8 – even though the customer did not implement SAP NetWeaver BW – SAP HANA Live can still deliver value in form of predefined content for the SAP BusinessSuite. Before we now look into the options how such a custom DWH could look like, let’s take a look first at the two available solutions to create such a custom DWH.

For a custom DWH solution, SAP is offering SAP HANA and Sybase IQ.

Figure 1: EDW with SAP HANA

Looking at the overview shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, which outline some of the key capabilities of SAP HANA and Sybase IQ as EDW solutions, there is one question that comes up – “What is the key difference between SAP HANA and Sybase IQ”.

Figure 2: EDW with Sybase IQ

Without going into too much details, here just some key differences between SAP HANA and Sybase IQ:

SAP HANA

Sybase IQ

Key Technologies

Columnar database
In-Memory engine

Columnar database

Disk-based

Delivery Method

Appliance

Installs on commodity hardware

Main Purpose

Agile Data Mart

Operational Data Mart

Applications based on SAP HANA

SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA

SAP Suite on SAP HANA

Open EDW

Extreme large data volumes (petabyte scale)

In the previous posts we did already discuss the different options of creating a data mart on top of the SAP ERP or the non-SAP OLTP environment, so I won’t repeat those scenarios here. So that leaves us with the custom DWH scenarios based on SAP HANA and Sybase IQ.

Figure 3: EDW with SAP HANA

Figure 3 shows the option to create a custom DWH solution based on SAP HANA. Customers can use different ETL technologies, such as SAP BusinessObjects Data Services or SLT to load the data from the different source systems into SAP HANA. In this scenario customers can also use SAP HANA Live to benefit from the pre-configured content for operational reporting based on SAP BusinessSuite.

Figure 4: EDW with Sybase IQ

Figure 4 shows the same concept, but this time we use Sybase IQ to create the custom DWH and we do not leverage SAP HANA Live for the pre-configured content for the SAP BusinessSuite. As mentioned in Figure 1 and Figure 2, depending on the customer’s choice, topics such as data level security or the life cycle management of the data models will then be solved based on the available technology from SAP HANA or Sybase IQ.

Now a lot of readers might think that SAP HANA or Sybase IQ is a “one or the other” question, but that’s not true. In the same way as SAP HANA can take on different roles in combination with SAP NetWeaver BW, it can take on these roles in combination with Sybase IQ as well.

Figure 5: Sybase IQ and SAP HANA Combined

Figure 5 shows a scenario where the customer is using SAP HANA for operational reporting and data is loaded from the OLTP systems into SAP HANA – most likely even in real time. SAP HANA is storing the most up-to-date information and in this scenario Sybase IQ is being used to store the “aged” data. In other words, SAP HANA is used for the more critical and more valuable information (using the higher value storage medium) and Sybase IQ is used for aged information (using the lower value storage medium).

Figure 6: Sybase IQ and SAP HANA Combined

Figure 6 shows another scenario where a customer, who uses Sybase IQ for the EDW solution, leverages SAP HANA as an environment for agile data marts. The information from the OLTP environments is loaded into Sybase IQ and data is loaded into SAP HANA to support specific agile requirements in form of data marts loaded with information from Sybase IQ.

This finishes the series on the different scenarios for SAP HANA, SAP HANA Live, and SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA. I hope people see value in the material and I hope I was able to "show some light at the end of the tunnel".

... and remember, in case you would like to experience SAP BW on SAP HANA with SAP BusinessObjects BI yourself, you can leverage a 30 day trial.

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