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TammyPowlas
Active Contributor

SAP Hana Roadmap: an ASUG Webcast

On Friday, SAP provided an ASUG BI Community webcast, covering the SAP Hana Roadmap, hosted by the Enterprise Data Warehousing Special Interest Group's Allison Levine.  Thanks to SAP speakers Scott Shepard, Matthew Zenus, and Balaji Krishna for providing this presentation and responding to all the questions and answers.  If you have further questions, see related links below or consider attending these ASUG Sessions at ASUG Annual Conference next month.  Please see below.

  The general legal disclaimer applies that things are subject to change.

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows the SAP product strategy and plan.

Phase 1 was “Introduction”, In-Memory Analytics.  The first phase included BI Suite, SAP BW powered by HANA

Next phase is the “innovation” phase.  This includes migrating line of business applications.

Longer term is the transformation, combining analytics / transactions on the same data platform.  This phase includes the plan of having the SAP Business Suite optimized to run on SAP Hana.

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows the planned roll-out and benefits; running BI and ERP on the same platform.  The vision is to have HANA is the primary persistence layer for transactions and analytics.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows what is coming in an upcoming release, including text search on structured and unstructured data.  This includes advanced statistics capabilities with R, and predictive and business functions.  HANA is part of the big data story, with the Hadoop environment.

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows the planned innovations surrounding HANA.

In ramp-up today is the new BusinessObjects Predictive Analysis software providing visualization capabilities.

Figure 5, Source: SAP

Future planned direction is shown in Figure 5.  Real-time data platform strategy is for Sybase and HANA products.    This includes new SaaS applications, big data story and “openness” to third party partners.

Related Links:

http://www.sap.com/hana - Official SAP HANA page with customer testimonials

http://www.experiencesaphana.com - SAP HANA collaboration space for customers

http://help.sap.com/hana_appliance/ - SAP HANA User Guides

http://service.sap.com/HANA - Installation and Implementation knowledge

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/in-memory - SAP Developer Network for HANA

http://service.sap.com/roadmap - Roadmaps on SAP Service Marketplace

Subset of Question & Answer - special thanks to SAP and ASUG Volunteers for a detailed Q&A


Q: Can you define tables as with DDL and ref them in memory with loading and retrievals>?

A: you can use DDL's to create and load tables in HANA and then use BI thru odbc/jdbc/odbo interfaces
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Q: Can Informatica be used in place of Data Services?

    A: It is not certified by SAP but customers have been using it
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Q: Can I run BEx queries / workbooks against HANA?

A: yes when your BW is sitting on HANA DB
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Q: If HANA does what it promises to do, Can SAP BW layer be eliminated if we need to  report data from the central ECC system ?
A: Yes, you do have the option to directly report from ECC data once its replicated into HANA
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Q: When will Hana BW73  be GA ?

A: BW on HANA was GA'd April10th
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Q: We have SAP HANA, We have SAP BW 7.0 and now we want to uprade SAP BW to SAP BW 7.3 powered by HANA, do we need additional HANA license?
A: HANA is a separate product, it is a DB platform..so you need to procure license
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Q: What is the expected compression rate of data for sizing purposes?

A: Here are the sizing notes for BW on HANA and just HANA (non-BW non SAP ERP):

https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1514966

https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1637145

Also includes presentation and quicksizer.

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Q: HANA on BW, without using optimized Infocube and ODS implementation, What's the storage format of other normal BW DB tables? Will be in Columnar/Row format?

A: it'll mostly be in column tables
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Q: End-user workstations can view HANA content using Excel, Crystal, BOE, BOBJ Dashboards, BOBJ BI suite

    A: correct
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Q: is there any configuration changes needed on the ECC system to enable SLT?  If so, what is the impact to the underlying system?

    A: There are some additional components that have to be installed but we haven’t seen any impact on the ECC system
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Q: If we eliminate BW, how can we get the BEx Query functionality?

A: Do not have to eliminate BW...HANA enhances BW..so all ur current bex queries will still run..and run much faster
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Q: Can you run SAP HANA with BOBJ XI 3.1 ?

A: Yes, webi 3.x can be used with HANA but BI4.x release is optimized..so plan the deployment to get the best out of in-mem platform
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Q: can you define tables with DDL? I'm interested in how to push an entire Sybase or SQL Server database into HANA.

    A: You have to use the replication techniques supported with HANA


________________________________________________________________

Q: Is all  TREX features will be incorporated with HANA?

A: HANA is built on top of trex technology for column store...much of the success with BWA has been reused
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Q: If  I have 20 million records to update to the same DSO, can it handle all those changes or do I have to break the load in chunks (assume the 20 million coming as changes not as new)

A: BW on HANA has some amazing new capabilities that enable these types of workloads.  For example, with BW on HANA one can easily do remodeling without any of the previous challenges with dropping and reloading data, waiting on data model updates, etc.   We will demo this at SAPphire/ Teched.  It is very cool and extremely useful for BW architects..
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Q: Did I understand correctly, that HANA will be available for ECC 6.0 at the end of 2012?

    A: Yes, we are working towards it...will be in ramp up end of 2012
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Q: If we implement HANA, connected directly to ECC, should we still invest time in building SAP  BW cubes/data marts for reporting or change our strategy to get the same reporting out of HANA-ECC ?

    A: If you have an investment in BW currently HANA will enhance the experience..in terms of fast data loads, DSO activation and query response.
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Q: With HANA as database, do not need any backend data base Oracle, SQL , DB etc? right?

    A: That is the plan we are working towards
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Q: Can you show that Predictive Business Objects solutions?

    A: We have a webcast on Predictive Analytics/HANA in June and presentations at ASUG Annual Conference/SAPPHIRE
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Q: Where can I get information on SAP CO-PA accelerator, SAP ERP for operational reporting?   

A: experiencesaphana.com
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Q: Can Customer migrate BW database  into HANA, or we have to get SAP/Partner services?   

A: Recommed going thru a OS/DB migration specialist
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Q: Any timeline for ECC 6.0?   

A: it was in the presentation, first limited/restricted shipment is planned for end of this year
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Q: Will HANA eventually become a "hub" technology that will integrate data access for all SAP applications that now run on independent databases, like ERP, SCM, GTS, CRM ?

A: Yes.  It is planned for the entire business suite to run on HANA.  First will be ECC.
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Q: What is the ramp-up and GA availability of ECC on HANA?  Will this require 1.0 “SP4” or something beyond 1.0 SP3?

A: Planned for ramp-up Q4 2012.  Most likely with HANA SPS5.
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Q: What's the role of Information composer compared Hana Studio?

    A: web based and end user can combine personal data (spreadsheets) with already build hana column views
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Q: When will a roadmap with visibility beyond SP3 be released?   

A: SPS3 was already released. We just covered some key functionality of what is coming and not released yet
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Q: Is the plan to replace other ERO and BW database oplatforms with HANA

A: The plan is to have HANA as the real-time foundation for ERP and BW and support analytics as well.
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Q: How does Hana makes BW remodeling easier

A:  The workload will be reduced because of simpler data models, the elimination of aggregates and reduced query tuning.  Also, building and maintaining BW data models is simplified using flattened HANA optimized BW structures.

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Q: When will multi-tenancy be expanded so that BW and BOBJ/Native HANA use-cases don’t drive separate hardware, technical the multi-tenancy is possible but it is a narrow set of requirements.

A:  Multi-tenancy is supported with BW and other applications (including Custom Data Marts or SAP packaged applications) on the same hardware.

See note for the latest information: https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1661202
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Q: Multi-tenancy is even more important when BW and BOBJ/Native HANA use-cases are augmented by ECC on HANA.
A: See note for more info on multi-tenancy: https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1661202

________________________________________________________________


Q: I have a customer invested heaviliy in informatica to bring in data from non-sap sources and is interested in leveraging HANA for performance reasons. In order to protect the investment already made on informatica, can HANA support informatica?

A:  Third-party ETL products are not supported by SAP with HANA at this time.  However, this is being considered for the future.
________________________________________________________________

Q: Will HANA SLT support extracting data in real time using SAP Business Content Data Sources in ECC?
A:  Yes
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Q: Visibility into certification of hardware with partners is key, when will more than 512MB per chassis be possible (software constrained) the chassis can handle upto 3TB in the case of the IBM X5 3950.

A:  See SAP Product Availability Matrix for the latest info on the hardware partner certifications.

http://service.sap.com/pam

  ________________________________________________________________

Q: What would be the Back-up strategy and disaster recovery for SAP Hana and how does it work similar to other DB models? Can Hana works in a cluster environment?

A:  See experienceSAPHANA site:

Backup and recovery: https://www.experiencesaphana.com/docs/DOC-1220

High Availability and Disaster Tolerance: https://www.experiencesaphana.com/docs/DOC-1221


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Q: Is HANA licensed by data size?  How does that work in BW where the data is replicated at the DSO and Cube layers?

A:  Yes, the SAP HANA software (including for BW on HANA) is licensed by memory size requirements.
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Q: Are there any plans for enhancements to allow for nearline storage for some of the data in SAP HANA?

A:  Yes.  That can be done today with Sybase IQ as a nearline datastore and Data Services.
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Q: Any plans to open front end tools up to other vendors to use SAP HANA as DB ?

A: Yes, there are plans to do this.

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Q: Can you provide further info on pushing calculations to the DB layer? Help me explain to a mid level manager please.

A:  Instead of pulling data out of the database, you perform the processing and calculation in the in-memory database calculation engine. This allows the parallelization of this calculation being performed.
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Q: What is the max storage capacity of Hana?

A: No max storage yet; tested with 70 terabytes
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Q: Can non structured data like Jpg, word docs, txts, pdfs etc be stored in HANA ?

A:  Yes.  Structured and unstructured data can be stored in HANA.  This includes multi-media files like .jpg, images, video, etc.

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Q: What’s the minimum cost to have SAP HANA on BW 7.3 hardware cost for SAP HANA and also licenses?

A:  From a hardware perspective you would have to confirm with your hardware vendor.  For SAP HANA software licensing, please speak with your SAP account representative.

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Q: What are the options for improving load performance?  Adding more SAP HANA nodes?  Other?

A: There are various options including pushing more processing in HANA via DataServices using ELT.
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Q: Will SAP ever let Qlikview be a front end visualizer for SAP HANA backend ?
A: Testing 3rd party programs right now cannot be specific
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Q: Is SAP planning to bring the replication technologies inside HANA instead of external tools like SLT and BOBJ DS

A:  Yes.  There are some new planned data provisioning capabilities and enhancements in upcoming releases of SAP HANA.

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Q: We did not hear anything in the presentation about HANA and Mobile computing. Are there any points to consider on this topic?

A: As the real-time data platform foundation HANA supports mobility including SAP's mobility via SAP's Mobile Enterprise Application Platform and Business Analytics layer.

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Q: Hello...does SAP BW 7.3 come with HANA option inherently (pre-packaged) or to be licensed separately for HANA for BW 7.3?

  1. SAP HANA is a separately licensed component from SAP BW 7.3.
    ________________________________________________________________


Q: What is the fastest way to load non-SAP data into SAP HANA?  Flat file loads?  Data Services?  Other?

A:  SAP HANA offers multiple ways to load data from flat files, Data Services, SLT, Sybase Replication Server, etc.  Depends on what you want to do, how much data to be loaded, how frequently, etc.


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Q: How about other suites (CRM, SCM etc) on HANA?

A:  First business suite on HANA will be ECC.  The other business suite solutions (e.g. CRM, SCM, PLM, etc.) will be after ECC and timing and order is TBD.
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Q: With NW Business suites running on HANA, how much transaction history will we able to keep in business suites, say 3,5,7,10 years.  A seperate DW is typically where historical transactions are kept.

A: HANA can scale so it will be capable of storing a lot of data, if necessary.

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Q: Is Log based replication through Sybase Replication, Support more than one ERP DB?
A:  See product availability matrix.  http://service.sap.com/pam
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Q: What is the planned timing to support multiple SAP BW systems leveraging the SAP HANA Production instance?
A:  it is still under testing..You'll hear more at SAPPHIRE
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Q: What types of intellectual property from the Sybase DB is planned to be included in the SAP HANA DB

   A: Some of the things related to Hadoop integration will take advantage from IQ's existing technology

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