Better Business Through In-Memory Analytics Strengthen Your Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Infrastructure with SAP and IBM

1. S A P i n S i d e r S P e c i A l r e P o r t | B e s t- i n - C l a s s B i s e r v i C e a n d s o l u t i o n P r o v i d e r s
Better Business Through
In-Memory Analytics
Strengthen Your Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Infrastructure with SAP and IBM
Don Mettica
SAP Business Analytics
Global Practice Leader
IBM Global Business
d
Services
ata can provide power, but if that data is wrong, or the need to have a copy of the database for transac-
if you don’t have an effective way to navigate it, it tional systems. The software, which is groundbreak-
can leave you powerless. Even with the explosion of data ing yet non-disruptive to existing landscapes, also
flowing into today’s companies, business leaders are streamlines the IT landscape and reduces TCO.
operating with larger blind spots than ever before.  Process integration: SAP HANA supports consolida-
According to a recent IBM Global Business Services sur- tion and acceleration of both transactional and multi-
vey of 225 business executives, one in three executives is dimensional in-memory data on one platform,
making major decisions with incomplete or untrust- without affecting performance. This enables mixed
worthy information.1 IBM has also found, in working workloads of analytics, operations, and performance
with thousands of organizations worldwide, that many management in a single system. All of this means you
companies get their data from disjointed sources and can achieve greater flexibility to deliver innovative,
lack the right analysis tools to turn all of that data into real-time analysis and reporting scenarios.
actionable insight.
 Data acceleration: SAP HANA provides an environ-
There is a major opportunity for businesses to create
ment that supports real-time decision making, simu-
a competitive advantage when business process man-
lation, and what-if analysis to enable smarter business
agement is coupled with new business intelligence (BI)
decisions that are supported by increased visibility
technology and analytics capabilities. The opportunity IBM and SAP are
into large volumes of business information. This also
becomes even greater when BI solutions work in real working to help
allows organizations to more nimbly react to business
time to translate data into actionable insights at the businesses turn their
events through real-time analysis and reporting of
pace of your business.
operational data. data into usable
That’s why IBM has teamed up with SAP to offer
insights that enable
in-memory computing using SAP High-Performance
smart, innovative
Analytic Appliance (SAP HANA) software to help busi- Get the Right Technology to Support
decisions.
nesses quickly turn their growing data into usable In-Memory Computing
insights that enable smart, innovative decisions. IBM is teaming up with SAP to offer SAP HANA as a
rapid-deployment solution by leveraging IBM hardware
In-Memory Analytics Drive and memory technology. SAP HANA can be deployed
Business Transformation alongside existing SAP transactional systems and SAP
Business leaders in the new economic environment face NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW)
intense pressure to cut costs and optimize resources and systems to quickly solve specific business problems
capital productivity on a global basis. In a truly globally around data-intensive analysis, easing the burden on
integrated enterprise, work flows to where it can be transactional systems and providing real-time analytics.
done best, emphasizing repeatable processes, optimized When deploying SAP HANA, IBM provides an architec-
assets, and integrated operations. SAP HANA provides a ture assessment and benchmark, a proof of concept,
platform to accelerate the operationalization of this express deployment, and strategic business alignment.
globally integrated enterprise through: Combining SAP HANA with IBM System x and
 Architecture simplification: Since SAP HANA pro- BladeCenter servers that use eX5 technology enables a
vides in-memory business applications, it eliminates scalable solution and benefits customers with a shared
vision that delivers a whole new level of unprecedented
1
LaValle, Steve. “Business Analytics and Optimization for the
BI performance, while still remaining cost effective. To
Intelligent Enterprise.” IBM Institute for Business Value (2009). learn more, visit www.ibm-sap.com/hana. n
Reproduced from the Jan n Feb n Mar 2011 issue of SAPinsider with permission from its publisher, WIS Publishing | sapinsider.wispubs.com