What Is Sap Hana? Everything You Need to Know About Sap S/4 Hana

What is HANA? SAP HANA is an in-memory database solution from the ERP giant SAP itself.

SAP HANA Enterprise is an ERP suite developed by SAP, which combines SAP database software on servers that are pre-tuned to use in-memory, storage, and networking. It provides real-time data to the application servers for analysis, transaction and reporting purposes .S/4 HANA is the new generation version of the legacy SAP system. This new version allows the database in a column instead of raws in al the tables, allowing to process data swiftly. It allows the system to process data faster and dig into the large database to find the correct set of data.

SAP HANA is not just a software, but it is a combination of hardware and software which created to handle massive database in real-time and provide in-memory computing. HANA combines all SAP tables into some vertical and some horizontal tables. This makes possible to reside all data in real-time main memory (RAM) and not on the hard disk. Keeping the database in the main memory makes it easier to retrieve in less time. SAP HANA is suitable for increasing amounts of the database. It can be helpful to perform real-time analysis, develop and deploy the real-time application. This makes overall integration easier.

SAP HANA provides an in-memory database and so all databases are stored in the main memory. This makes possible to load data directly without fetching it from the hard disk. This saves time and improves efficiency as the data is live. Currently, systems need to get the data from the hard disk. In processing, the system uses some data from real memory and keep some in the hard disk. With HANA this delayed process can be eliminated. So the CPU can quickly access the database it needs to process the applications. So this is the speed advantage HANA offers and it can be accelerated by multi-core and multiple CPUs.

For business users, day to day transactions and other reporting became faster as the system provides data from real-time memory. This enables various business processes and workflows to complete in a timely manner. The especially period end process can be significantly faster with faster processing of reports and reconciliations.

The main part of the SAP HANA Enterprise is the in-memory database and its data processing application. The data processing application melds column-based, row-based and object-based storage techniques. There are several other components in SAP HANA, which requires to run the system smoothly.

Some additional components are as below:

• SAP In-Memory Computing Studio,
• SAP Host Agent 7.2,
• SAP CAR 7.10,
• Sybase Replication Server 15,
• SAP HANA Load Controller 1.00, and,
• SAP Landscape Transformation 1 - SHC for ABA.

These are some technical parts of HANA networking. The SAP is also developing some add-ons for different SAP modules to take the best advantage of this architecture.

Until now SAP evolved itself as a user-friendly ERP tool which is highly integrated into its various modules. Now with HANA, SAP is delivering several next generations, an analytically designed application that can use real-time data integration to provide the most efficient analysis and less time-consuming transactions.SAP Simple Finance and COPA accelerator are some examples of HANA applications. The SAP is continuously developing other applications that can be used in various other business sectors such as defense, telecommunication, insurance, banking, manufacturing, customer service, retail, and finance.

HANA is highly integrated and optimized to support data modeling and reporting at various levels. The SAP is working on to provide an application that works with enhanced framework and database tunneling. One good example is the Simple Finance tool. Such tools can use in-memory networking for better transaction support.

SAP HANA needs hardware with special memory requirements. SAP has partnered with various hardware providers such as HP, IBM, Dell, Fujitsu to sell SAP-certified hardware which can support HANA. These hardware providers will provide machines (desktops, laptops and handheld tablets) that come with memory and HANA platform pre-installed.

In addition, SAP is also selling licenses to use SAP HANA and other application tools which include the HANA database, cloud computing, and data modeling tool (also known as SAP HANA Studio).

In a nutshell, SAP HANA is SAP's new application server which provides an in-memory solution with its column-oriented database management system. This new suite aimed to handle larger amounts of data while taking advantage of in-memory and hardware. SAP started deploying HANA suit and aimed to upgrade in all current clients in the next 10 years.