SAP to Introduce HANA in a Cloud Setting
In a recent announcement, SAP has introduced its latest offering - the HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEC) Service. This service, hosted by SAP and its managed service provider partners, is designed to address performance degradation issues in in-memory computing in the cloud.
The service is built using Intel's Xeon Processor E7 family, known for their scalability in handling high workloads. Each chip in the family boasts ten processor cores, ensuring optimal performance for SAP's mission-critical solutions.
Diane Bryant, General Manager for Intel's Data Centers Group, expressed her enthusiasm, stating that the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud on Intel Xeon processor E7 family provides customers with the opportunity to deploy mission-critical solutions powered by SAP HANA with cloud simplicity.
The HEC service mitigates performance degradation during read and write operations primarily through managed service features. These features ensure consistent system health, resource orchestration, and high availability. Key mechanisms include built-in database orchestration and monitoring, high availability and disaster recovery infrastructure, managed operations, resource scaling, and optimized system replication.
Professor Alexander Wolf, of Imperial College London's computing department, is involved in an SAP-backed project to develop technologies for in-memory computing in the cloud. However, the HARNESS project, led by Professor Wolf, does not seem to involve the use of GPGPUs in the construction of SAP's HANA Enterprise Cloud Service.
Instead, the focus on commodity hardware is a result of SAP's close collaboration with Intel. Adrian Simpson, SAP UK & Ireland's chief innovation officer, stated that SAP has focused on working with partners to use commodity hardware and move away from non-commodity processors.
The HANA Enterprise Cloud Service supports SAP's ERP, CRM applications, and data warehouse offering, providing businesses with a streamlined solution for their mission-critical operations. SAP is offering this new service to help businesses leverage the power of in-memory computing with the simplicity of the cloud.
While the HARNESS project does not appear to be directly related to the development of SAP's HANA Enterprise Cloud Service, it aims to help cloud providers use GPGPUs in their data centers, potentially offering another avenue for performance optimisation in the future.
The HANA Enterprise Cloud Service, built by SAP and its partners, leverages technology such as Intel's Xeon Processor E7 family, demonstrating their commitment to data-and-cloud-computing solutions that offer optimal performance for mission-critical applications. SAP's focus on commodity hardware, as opposed to non-commodity processors, is a strategic decision aimed at providing businesses with a streamlined, cost-effective solution for their in-memory computing needs in the cloud.
