cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Question to SAP: What does the H stand for in hdb....?

Former Member
0 Kudos

Now that HANA 1.0 reached GA status I was reading the "SAP In-Memory Database - Server Installation and Update Guide". In this guide I see the prefix "hdb" all over and it makes me wonder what does this hdb stand for? Is it an abbreviation for:

- HANA DB?

- Hybrid DB? (columnar storage + row storage)

- HassoDB?

- "s" was already used by MaxDB so some random letter was chosen and pure chance decided to use "h" for the IMCE

Regards,

Mark

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Former Member
0 Kudos

H igh-Performance An alytic A ppliance

Best Regards

Former Member
0 Kudos

H igh-Performance An alytic A ppliance

>

>

> Best Regards

Hm, in this case I have a sudden insight what the prefix sdb with MaxDB instances really means. Is it for S low D ata B ase?

Just kidding.

Since no one from SAP answered my question I start to believe they don't know either.

lbreddemann
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Hmm... sdb was obviously taken from SapDB.

For hdb it's similar. The name HANA had been around in SAP for a long time (far earlier than the official product name).

And there are quite a lot ex-MaxDB developers involved with HANA development in different areas...

Since we need to have a three-letter acronym for NetWeaver integration hdb seemed to fit in.

hope that answer eases your mind

cheers,

Lars

Answers (3)

Answers (3)

dvankempen
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert

HDB = Hybrid database

Row store (p*time) + Column store (TREX) + Object store (livecache)

For the full story with links and sources, see https://blogs.sap.com/2019/11/30/what-does-hana-mean-sap-hana-2.0-an-introduction/

Vitaliy-R
Developer Advocate
Developer Advocate
0 Kudos

I would like to add that "hybrid" has different meening for different vendors.

SAP mentioned "hybrid" because it combines different stores: row, column now and OO in the future.

Other in-memory db vendor calls their offer "hybrid" because it mixes RAM and other storage (which is the case for SAP HANA as well!)

Hadoop DB calls itself hybrid because of the mix of MapReduce and parallel DBMS technologies (at SAPPHIRE in Orlando SAP announced introduction of map/reduce in HANA in the future too).

Net, the question is - what is an example of non-hybrid database on the market now?

Former Member
0 Kudos

Thanks for your answers! I just hoped someone from SAP could clarify this mystery once and for all. If it won't be explained while the DB is new, I assume the origins of the name might get lost forever.

Former Member
0 Kudos

It is HANA DataBase.

Regards

Pranav

Vitaliy-R
Developer Advocate
Developer Advocate
0 Kudos

Pranav, code development for HDB has started year ago, while the engine has been renamed to HANA database just one month ago. So, the root of the accronim comes from something else...

Former Member
0 Kudos

I go with Hybrid DB - in IMC Studio you need to decide weather you want to create a row table or a columnar table. We created around 50 tables before we realized they have been created as default row tables and then had to do that all over again.

Harald