SAP HANA Tutorial for Beginners – How SAP HANA Work?

SAP HANA Tutorial : SAP HANA is developed an in-memory database, and principles which can be used on-premises or cloud. SAP HANA is a blend of hardware and software, which combines different components like SAP HANA Database, SAP SLT (System Landscape Transformation) Replication server, SAP HANA Direct Extractor connection.

This  HANA tutorial has been prepared for beginners to learn basic concept of SAP HANA Tutorial with examples and introduction, meaning, challenges and technology etc.

SAP HANA Tutorial : Quirk Guide

What is SAP HANA?

SAP   HANA is   the   next   generation   of   SAP   HANA   platform,   it   is   ideal   for   supporting   Digital Transformations  in  organizations  that  need  to  implement  the  most  recent  in-memory  technology  in executing their Business. SAP has enhanced this latest version of innovations to help IT sector in helping their  organizations  to  accelerate  Digital  Transformation  and  spend  less  time  to  maintain  the  status. Companies  should  work  with  managed  service  providers  in  upgrading  SAP  HANA.  The  early  your Business maintains a partner to plan your SAP HANA upgrade, the easier will be the transition.

SAP HANA introduced in-memory computing and SAP has driven breakthrough variations on a highly stable core data platform for their end users. Continual innovations led by SAP are the key component of SAP HANA in-memory computing platform tactics. Now, the release of SAP HANA spots a milestone in the industry and it propels customers towards a successful and fruitful digital future.

SAP HANA is the latest in-memory analytics product. Using HANA, companies can do ad hoc analysis of large volumes of big data in real time.

SAP HANA is a completely re-imagined platform for real-time business.

SAP HANA transforms businesses by streamlining transactions, analytics, planning, and predictive data processing on a single in-memory database so business can operate in real time.

SAP usually releases application and database upgrades for SAP HANA. These upgrades will focus on new functions in SAP modules like SAP  S/4  HANA  Finance Accounting,  underlying  databases.  The platform’s exiting capabilities are improved for innovation and can help users to compete more efficiently in the digital economy. Since SAP HANA is an extension of the existing SAP HANA platform, the user can access to  a  highly  available,  stable,  and  secure  data  environment  for  your  applications.  HANA is designed specifically for companies embracing Digital Transformation in mind.

There are different types of SAP HANA edition, some of them as below-

It provides Core database technology. It Combines SAP element like SAP HANA database, SAP HANA Studio, and SAP HANA clients.

It is for customers who want to use ETL-based replication and already have a grant for SAP Business Objects Data Services.

SAP HANA Edition

SAP HANA Enterprise Edition – It involves data provisioning (SLT, BODS, DXC) element including core database technology. It is for clients who want to use both trigger-based replication or ETL-based replication and do not have all of the needed licenses for SAP Business Objects Data Services.

SAP HANA Extended Edition – It includes data provisioning looks more than Platform and Enterprises edition. It is for customers who want to use the full potential of all possible replication scenarios including log-based replication.

Why Need for SAP HANA?

IT Challenges:

Big Data” (volume) growing and challenge for real-time access to Operational Enterprise Systems Costly for IT to purchase and maintain hardware to handle increasing data volumes

• IT not the hero – dissatisfied business users
• Processing and analysis results delayed
• Data not in real time

Challenges for Business:

• Inadequate access to real-time operational information
• Need to react faster to events impacting business
• Need to quickly uncover trends and patterns by functional users – empower users/organizations
• Need to improve business processes.

Why Use SAP HANA?

HANA enables businesses to make smarter, faster decisions through real-time analysis and reporting, combined with dramatically accelerated business processes

Lack of delay between insight and action turns business into a “real time business”

Top 10 Reasons Why Companies Choose SAP HANA

• Speed – Manage massive volumes at high speed
• Agility – Enable real-time interactions across Value Chain
• Any Data – Gain insights from structured and unstructured data
• Insight – Unlock new insights with predictive, complex analysis
• Applications – Run next-generation
• Cloud – Step up to next advanced platform
• Innovation – Deploy ultimate platform for business innovation
• Simplicity – Manage fewer layers and landscapes for lower costs
• Value – Innovate without disruption and add value to legacy investments
• Choice – Work with preferred partner at every level

Key Terminology

Aggregation: To enable the calculation of key figures, the data from the info provider has to be aggregated to the detail level of the query, and formulas may also need to be calculated. The system has to aggregate using multiple characteristics.

BICS: Business Intelligence Consumer Services (BICS) is SAP’s proprietary interface for queries.

Business Objects: One can visualize SAP® Business Objects™ as “black boxes” that encapsulate data and business processes, thus hiding the details of the structure and implementation of the underlying data.

Business Warehouse (BW): SAP BW provides standard application data for program usage over various systems.

Compression: Compression features help reduce space requirement dramatically, resulting in lower storage cost and improved input and output performance.

Data Stripping: Technique of segmenting logically sequential data, such as a file, in a way that accesses of sequential segments are made to different physical storage devices. Striping is useful when a processing device requests access to data more quickly than a storage device can provide access.

In Memory Computing Engine (IMCE): The heart of Hana solution is the In-memory Computing Engine (IMCE) allowing to create and perform accelerated calculations on data. 

Multi-Dimensional Expressions (MDX): MDX is a language developed by Microsoft for queries using multidimensional data.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP): OLAP makes multi-dimensionally formatted data available using special interfaces.

Partitioning: You use partitioning to split the total dataset for an info provider into several smaller, physically independent and redundancy-free units. This separation improves system performance.

Structured Query Language (SQL): SQL is a special purpose programming language designed for managing data. 

As an advanced platform, SAP HANA will release technology improvements twice per year to sustenance agile information technology. The new principal feature as well as simulations to support the Information Technology transform includes the following things:

SAP HANA Tutorial for Beginners

SAP HANA Database Enhancements

• SAP HANA supports IT companies to guarantee continuity of business with disaster backup and high availability.
• It allows load balance real-intensive functions between both primary as well as the second occurrence of HANA with the active/active-read enabled mode.
• It optimizes workload for third-party backup tools by combining SAP HANA log backups.
• It automates instrumentation of HA/DR strategies with improved SAP HANA Landscape Management Integration.

Security

• It lowers TCO with the support of available LDAP groups for instinctive role assignment.
• SAP HANA enables IT enterprises to protect data by using a comprehensive encryption method for data and redo log files of the SAP HANA.
• It analyzes security alerts monitoring as well as security and user configuration in the new HANA cockpit

SAP HANA Architecture

SAP HANA Column Storage Vs. Row-Based Storage

1), Storing data in columns is not a new technology, but it has not been leveraged to its full potential, yet

2), The columnar storage is read optimized, that is, the read operations can be processed very fast. However, it’s not write-optimized, as new insert might lead to moving a lot of data to create a place for new data.

3), HANA handles this well with delta merge. The columnar storage performs very well while reading and the write operations are taken care of by the In-Memory Computing Engine (IMCE) in some other ways.

Column Storage Opportunities

Compression: As the data written next to each other is of same type, there is no need to write the same values again and again

Partitioning: HANA supports two types of partitioning. A single column can be partitioned to many HANA servers, and different columns of a table can be partitioned in different HANA servers. Columnar storage easily enables this partitioning

Data stripping: When querying a table, there are often times where a lot of columns are not used

Parallel Processing: It is always performance-critical to make full use of the resources available. With the current boost in the number of CPUs, the more work they can do in parallel, the better the performance.

SAP HANA Tutorial for beginners explain what SAP HANA, and it gives a brief understanding and important of SAP HANA language concepts are explained above post. I will be adding more posts in SAP HANA tutorial, so please bookmark the post for future reference too.