SUSE Linux Gives SAP HANA® Wings

[Former Member]

Over 2,100 companies of different sizes and from all sectors of industry already use SAP’s in-memory appliance, HANA – benefitting from quicker transactions, analysis, planning, as well as forecast and trend evaluation.

This is backed up by countless practical examples. In its latest reference customer blog, SAP writes that HANA has enabled the Mercedes subsidiary, AMG, to evaluate vast amounts of data from its engine test bay in real time and thus further consolidate its pole position in the field of drive technology. In the same SAP blog, we can also read how the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning sector's leader in technology and innovation, the Vaillant Group, has used this SAP appliance to reduce its IT infrastructure and operating costs by 66% and its storage capacity by a factor of 8.3. Vaillant now closes deals more quickly, opens up new possibilities in sales and product development, and saves costs across all of its departments.

Three leading technologies united

Software from SAP, hardware powered by processors from Intel, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server – these are the three leading technologies on which HANA is based. As a secure and reliable open-source operating system, SUSE Linux has been proven to bring about reduced costs, increased availability, and improved system performance. Right from the start, SAP relied on the widely used Linux platform to optimize the use of its in-memory technology, and it brought SUSE on board as a development and innovation partner.

The cost benefits provided by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server give customers the freedom to innovate. For example, the leading Italian food catering group, CIR Food, reduced the operating costs of its SAP system environment by migrating to the Linux platform – and invested the resulting savings in SAP HANA. Consequently, CIR Food not only benefits from the enhanced performance and flexibility of its SAP systems, but has also been able to considerably improve its business forecasting and budget planning by deploying HANA to analyze data quickly.

Clearing the way for innovation  

This is just one of many references that show how the increasing popularity of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server in the SAP environment is freeing up more and more resources for innovative technologies such as SAP HANA. To further improve the use of its in-memory platform, SAP is constantly forming new strategic partnerships. The latest example of this is its reseller agreements with Intel and Hortonworks, which see HANA being deployed  with Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop and/or Hortonworks Data Platform, an open-source platform for analyzing large volumes of data. As IDC's white paper entitled "Big Data: Trends, Strategies, and SAP Technology" points out:

• It is not only access to data but the ability to analyze and act upon it that creates competitive advantage.
• The most frequently mentioned Big Data challenge was identified as deciding what data is relevant.

As the new year begins in 2014, experts are unanimous about one thing: Alliances and innovations such as these will further promote the triumphal progress of SAP HANA technology – and with it, that of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, the operating system based on Linux with the highest growth rates worldwide.