SAP Business Suite Gets a HANA In-Memory Boost
SAP is not slowing down when it comes to finding new markets for its HANA in-memory analytics platform. The business software maker unveiled Business Suite Powered by SAP HANA this week, a new offering that bridges real-time transactions and analytics for faster and timelier business insights.
According to SAP, the innovation can help companies react faster to market dynamics, or in some cases proactively pursue opportunities.
Since its launch, HANA has developed into an analytics center of gravity for SAP. The company has courted big names in IT, including HP and Cisco, to support its in-memory technology. In October, SAP announced HANA One, a business analytics engine hosted on Amazon's cloud infrastructure.
Today, SAP is targeting businesses that don't want to wait for business intelligence.
Not only does infusing HANA into SAP's Business Suite application portfolio give organizations a real-time edge in business decision making, it furthers SAP's vision of enhancing applications with the company's transformative in-memory database technology, according to Dr. Vishal Sikka, an SAP Executive Board member.
“We have delivered consistently on this vision over the last two years, and today marks a major milestone in that commitment as we now enable SAP Business Suite to benefit from the power of SAP HANA,” he stated in a company release.
Speeding up Analytics
SAP says the integration has some big benefits for corporate IT departments, including the elimination of redundant data and systems required by other analytics solutions. Sikka added that HANA enables SAP customers to leverage high performance analytics without breaking the bank or giving up their existing database investments.
“We can now eliminate the traditional trade-offs between cost and performance and reinvent real-time business while dramatically simplifying our customers’ landscapes, together with a strong open ecosystem of partners. And SAP Business Suite continues to fully support and optimize for all major databases in the industry, further demonstrating our commitment to openness and innovation without disruption,” he said.
According to IDC's Henry Morris, SAP's in-memory addition to Business Suite come at a time when businesses are looking to shorten — or outright eliminate — the time it takes for analytics apps to generate meaningful intelligence from transactional data.
“With the ever-increasing pace of business and ever shorter decision cycles, there is a growing need to reduce the time needed to capture, analyze and act on information. SAP Business Suite running on SAP HANA is a response to this need,” Morris said.
SAP's approach will win fans on both the IT and business development sides of the fence, said Morris. “The integration of transaction management with real-time decision management eliminates the delays and inefficiencies inherent in parallel operational and business intelligence systems. This enables employees to make better tactical, operational and strategic decisions based on relevant, granular, up-to-the-moment data.”
Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.
Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.
