Friday, December 30
Understanding the SAP HANA Next Generation Database
What is HANA ? I probably must have asked this question a thousand times in the last three months . HANA is actually a lot easier to understand than people think you know . Also explaining it with the kind of common metaphors that we are used to . HANA is a database . Now it’s a special kind of database that is really unique in the market .
If you think about the database market in the last thirty years , it is a very simple and straight forward architecture . You have a computer with a spinning disc inside of it or the newer ones which have a solid state disc , but they have a disc ans you store information on that disc . The relational database , you know a part of it resides on a disc and part of it will work with the computer CPU in – memory to produce information . That’s how it works . And we looked at , what we looked at was how could we dramatically simplify that , that’s number one . Number two , is how could we radically speed up the performance of the architecture that has been around for twenty to thirty years . So when we thought about that , the first thing we thought about was what kind of storage medium , is it disc , is it solid state disc , or potentially RAM or a computers memory . Should we use this next generation database concept . Well we knew that RAM was very very expensive , but we knew that it was incredibly fast . Actually anywhere from ten thousand times to a million times faster than the various disc options that you might have in the server . This interesting .
If the prices of RAM were to drop , or computers memory significantly and the ability to have large amounts of RAM inside of a server of computer is increased. You could literally put the entire database plus all of its data in a computers physical memory . And just by doing that you radically change the value proportion of a database . You go from minutes to hours to lots of hours to days to retrieve a large matter of information to seconds to milliseconds to retrieve very very large amounts of information and that is very intriguing . So that is kind of what set us on the path of this in – memory technology and of course HANA is the result of it. HANA is an appliance and on that appliance is the next generation in – memory database .
Literally the entire database and all the data it stores sits inside of a computers physical RAM . We skip the disc all together , we have left it behind. We use it for a back up . But that creates such a powerful value proposition for our customers who are able to take HANA and apply it to an existing system that they have and immediately get performance approval , and consolidate the amount of hardware investment and software investment that they currently have . But HANA opens up a new generation of possibilities . For example , if you are a retailer , and you wanted to completely transform your point of sales experience . That’s a perfect application for HANA . What I mean to say is that when you walk into a retailer today , you take your big pile of clothes , you set it on the couch and give him your credit card and we all know what they say next – would you like to sign up for another credit card ? , which you probably don’t need , for ten percent off on the purchase today . As far as I am concerned , that is corporate bomb marketing .
That is I don’t know if you need that or not , but I am just going to ask . And with HANA you can actually do very precise marketing . What I can do is that , as the retailer rings up every single item in your pile and swipes your credit card , by the time that card drops ,you can send those items as well as your credit card details back to HANA , have it analyzed your previous purchases , compare to what you are buying now and make real time suggestions to the guy behind the counter or the girl behind the counter like – “hey you know, the last time you were here , you purchased three items along with another pair of jeans that you are buying today . Can I give you one of those shirts for fifty percent off today ? “ . That’s the power of in – memory computing in real time and it doesn’t take a massive farm of servers to do it . HANA can do it with a single blade .
Because what HANA can provide is a single blade which really has a terabyte or RAM which stores a very large amount of information . But because of the speed of analysis inside of that HANA machine you can literally do is transform the retail point sale experience and do it in a cost effective manner . That’s really the reason that we are driving in – memory computation , is to transform what companies can do with the budgets that they have on hand .
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