HANA is many things. It is an own, in-memory database manager with columnar store by SAP AG. Including a number of newly-developed components for ERP, advanced planning, Business Intelligence, Analytics, etcetera.

What is special about SAP HANA’s database management system? In an earlier article, the key challenge of designing contemporary database management software has been described. On large data sets it has to work well for both row and column oriented operations. An ERP-application requests many, simple, row oriented read and write operations: request a row, update and store it. An analytics-application requests fewer operations, mostly reading, but on larger data sets. Simplified: the traditional row oriented organization of data is well-suited for Online Transactional Processing (OLTP, like ERP). The column store suits Online Analytical Processing (OLAP, like business intelligence) much better.

This time: Column oriented storage in SAP HANA.

Every table in SAP HANA is either row or column oriented, depending on the database’s design.

All column oriented tables are also made available in row oriented form by SAP HANA. This makes it possible to decide, before execution of any query on request by the user, which is the best way to access the data: via the row store or the column store.

HANA takes care that the row and column oriented versions of a table are kept in sync. The column store is highly compressed usually. Despite that, maintaining two versions of the same table requires extra memory capacity. And for every change to the data in a column oriented table (insert, update, delete), both versions of the table have to be adjusted.

Complicated? Using a column store makes dramatic improvements to the speed of queries on large data sets possible. For example, the number of sales order lines per (material-based) MTP-type.

The MRP-type is a material property that determines how the availability of a material should be planned. In SAP ERP, it is a simple code with usually only a few or a few dozens of possible values. A column store organizes this as a row of (pointers to) materials per possible value of the MRP-type. By doing this, a query that requires “materials per MRP-type” can be executed very quickly.

It gets even more complicated: delta-stores.

HANA is many things. It is an own, in-memory database manager with columnar store by SAP AG. Including a number of newly-developed components for ERP, advanced planning, Business Intelligence, Analytics, etcetera.

What is special about SAP HANA’s database management system? First, a general introduction.

Increasing processor power and larger memory have become available at lower prices over the past years. Operating system software is capable of dealing efficiently with these new capabilities. This makes the concept of performing data intensive tasks in memory increasingly attractive: in-memory computing.

For the in-memory operations, the fastest memory available should preferably be used. A cache on the processor is preferred over the separate RAM. And preferably, the fastest of the caches is used. The fastest cache is usually the smallest, so the use of the different types of memory requires careful consideration for each calculation task.

Another aspect is the component that performs data-intensive calculations. Close to the data it needs to be done, preferably. By the database management software itself. That makes sense but is not in line with the traditional roles of application servers and database servers, in which they exchange a lot of data. Moving the calculation to the database server is called code pushdown.

When calculation tasks on large data sets are performed in-memory, on the database server, it is key that the source data can be requested in an efficient way. For this, it is usually more efficient to request a single table column in its entirety.

The relational model for databases is row oriented, and this is how traditional database management software works. To be able to request a table column, we need a column store. This is a way of storing data so that we have efficient access to parts of the column, or even the full column. Even when it contains millions of items.

A column store increases the efficiency of certain calculations on large data sets considerably. But a large part of the tasks of the database manager will still be row oriented.

This is a key challenge of the design of database management software: on large data sets it has to work well for both row and column oriented operations. An ERP-application requests many, simple, row oriented read and write operations: request a row, update and store it. An analytics-application requests fewer operations, mostly reading, but on larger data sets.

Simplified: the traditional row oriented organization of data is well-suited for Online Transactional Processing (OLTP, like ERP). The column store suits Online Analytical Processing (OLAP, like business intelligence) much better.

Following: how does the column store of SAP HANA work?

In 2016, I registered domain name homan.ee. It matches the way I write my name on a form that requests family name and initials. Top level domain ee is a country code, which, following ISO3166-1, belongs to Estonia. And that is where I have requested the domain name.

Already earlier, I had been looking at this domain name. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Estonia has developed quickly, also regarding internet technology. However, registration of domain names in the top level domain ee could only be done by entities established in Estonia until recently. Furthermore, it required a process involving paper work and physical visits to offices in Estonia. A number of interesting developments made it possible for me to register the domain name from my home.

Between 2006 and 2016, Toomas Hendrik Ilves has been the president of the Republic of Estonia. Mr. Ilves was raised in the United States. In 1991, after the new Estonian independence, he became a resident. He was a member of the national and European Parliaments, after which he became president. He launched an ambitious plan to provide governmental services via the internet, large scale. Estonian residents can do a lot with their government issued digital identity: taxes, social security, subsidies, voting, requesting permits, etc.

The digital identity is being exported as well. Non-residents can request Estonian “e-Residency”. And this is what I have done in 2015. After my request had been processed, I was invited to collect the stuff at the Estonian embassy to The Netherlands, located in The Hague. A plastic identity card and a reader to connect to a pc. Similar to a debit card.

The possibilities of e-Residency should not be underestimated. With my digital identity and the reader, I can digitally sign documents. And that gives me a lot of possibilities, for example to open a bank account at an Estonian bank, establish an Estonian Ltd, do VAT-reporting for this Ltd. Maybe even marriage, but I did not check that.

Since 2016 it is also possible to register domain names with extension ee, using the digital identity. Finding a local, affordable hosting solution was not an issue, of course. Everything could be arranged easily from my home.

Estonia has a relatively small population. After the Soviet era stagnation, there was a desire for development. The backlog proved to be an advantage for the realization of modern concepts like the digital identity. And Toomas Hendrik Ilves was the director and producer who made it all possible. Not entirely comparable with the situation in The Netherlands, but still I think we can learn from it.

2017 will be of key importance to SAP HANA

HANA is many things. It is an own, in-memory database manager with columnar store by SAP AG. But a radical change in the architecture of Enterprise Resource Planning and Business Intelligence applications as well. And all of this available as contemporary cloud solutions.

SAP AG are betting big on HANA. Already for years, the market is being prepared for the new concepts, while at the same time new products are being developed and launched.

But the extent to which the market fully embraces these concepts is limited, for example when looking at the number of live HANA-installations. The end-of-support date for a number of products that are supposed to be replaced by HANA has been postponed by SAP AG several times.

Certainly, there are successful HANA-implementations. Most of these are the relatively easy cases. Like replacing the database manager of a business intelligence application with HANA: a technical migration to a modern database platform. Or a greenfield implementation of Simple Finance: an implementation with a limited functional scope and without the burden of migrating existing SAP-applications.

However, the easy cases are not in line with the high expectations as they have been set for HANA by SAP AG.

Who combines his OLTP- and OLAP-solutions on a single, live database-instance currently? Who has pushed down the application code for financial and supply chain processes to a live HANA-environment? Or who will achieve this in line with current plans in 2017? Virtually nobody.

Meanwhile, new innovative products and technologies as part of HANA are being announced and made available. For example, HANA 2.0 and HANA Cloud Platform in November 2016.

Existing SAP-customers need to take care of their businesses, and very often have a fair deal of complexity to manage in their current SAP application landscape. This is why they will wait until the advantages of using HANA will become visible to them, and until the risks relating to adopting HANA can be controlled. In other words: until there is a business case.

In order to bring reality somewhat in line with expectations set by SAP AG, HANA will have to gain momentum in 2017, like in more live installations and in projects for the application of a broad range of HANA functions and scenarios.

SAP AG are betting big on HANA. 2017 will be of key importance to SAP HANA. This is why 2017 will also be of key importance to SAP AG.

Hello, and welcome to my blog site.

I will publish articles on various topics: Business Intelligence, Analytics, Internet of Things, In-memory Databases, SAP, SAP HANA, Software Development, Master Data Management, etc.

You might notice that the blog site is very basic at this moment. This is partly on purpose, because it is supposed to be about content. But partly, this is also because I have decided to set it up myself, which requires setting up of a number of things.

Happy reading in 2017!

Erwin Homan