Is IBM now shaking up the Hana server market?

With Hana-based enterprise solutions, the number of SAP server vendors has increased dramatically. And for the bulk of the previous Hana-inserts will be In-memory-Intel–Linux-systems are used. With the SAP-certified IBM-Power8 systems with Linux SAP customers have had an alternative to x86 in terms of computer architecture for quite some time.

Why would an SAP customer vote for HoP?

Jochen Ziegler: HoP offers three advantages over HoI systems: greater flexibility, higher resiliency with distinct RAS advantages, especially for the operation of business-critical SAP systems, and better performance. With HoP, customers are able to define completely flexible systems based on the proven virtualization technology PowerVM with Logical Partitioning, or LPAR for short. In principle, in a bandwidth of, for example, 0.1 cores with an in-memory size of 32 terabytes or, conversely, just one GB with 192, regardless of processor sockets and the main memory installed in them.

Exactly this is possible with x86-Hana–ServersThis is not feasible in virtualized form in productive operation, since there are direct dependencies between sockets and the memory they contain. Furthermore, a larger number of virtual guest systems can be operated in parallel at HoP thanks to LPARs. Soon, eight productive HoP LPARs will be virtualized on a physical Server be released by SAP.

As far as resiliency is concerned, one knows IBM-SAP systems and SAP landscapes for decades and knows what smooth and efficient 7×24 SAP mission-critical operations mean, for example with S/4 Hana or Suite on Hana in terms of requirements and necessities and how this can be combined with IBM Power can be realized. And in terms of performance, we are significantly better than HoI systems with HoP in BW-EML benchmarks per core, namely by a factor of 1.8.

When will there be a S/4–Hana-(ERP-)benchmark, similar to the SD?

Ziegler: There is officially the SAP-BW-EML-Hana-benchmark. In the long term, there will certainly also be a benchmark from SAP for transactional systems, e.g. for S/4 Hana ERP. Perhaps another example from a current customer test - environment based on HoP/Suse SLES for SAP Applications together with the SAP Bank Analyzer 8.5 solution with a database content of approx. 1.5 million accounts or loans. With Hana on Power, we achieved almost six million transactions per minute in one hour. With x86, we were at around 1.4 million transactions per minute. Both with comparable hardware equipment, 24 TB of Hana memory in each case. HoP therefore achieved more than four times the throughput of HoI.

There are statements in the market that in the long term HoP will have a market share in SAP-Hana–Servers of around 20 percent. Is that how you see it? What has changed IBM as a goal, let's say in the next five years?

Ziegler: Of course we want to catch up. Whether we achieve 20 percent market share or more or less with HoP is speculation. We are for the Hana-on-Power use well prepared. IBM addresses with HoP not only previous power SAP customers, but also x86 customers who are dissatisfied or had expected something different. All SAP customers who focus on quality and experience are potential HoP customers. Quite a few SAPIBM-We have already won a number of customers and a considerable number of them are already successfully using HoP productively, for example in the BW area. By the end of the year, we will have additional references with S/4 Hana and SoH are coming.

Nevertheless, it takes time for customers to get an IT investment approved, implement the project, test it, and then roll it out. Production take. This applies to both a HoP scale-up and a scale-out environment. It has to be said that a scale-up environment is easier to operate than a scale-out (cluster) environment with, for example, 4, 6 or 8 nodes. In addition, extensive testing must be carried out before business-critical Hana-based applications in Production go

By the way, it is a fact that our HoP systems are on a par with x86 in terms of price and TCA. If you perform a fair overall TCO analysis, we even have clear advantages over x86.

Will it be HoP-Server from other providers as well? From providers from the Open Power Initiative/Foundation?

Ziegler: There are currently no plans in this regard. Hana only runs on Power 8, not on Open Power. The Power systems from IBM, Power 8, 9 or 10 then, have a different architecture and a higher in-memory bandwidth than Open Power systems. From a purely technical point of view, Hana could in principle also run on Open Power. It would be conceivable for development and test systems to run on Open Power systems and for production environments to run on Open Power systems. IBM- Power-hardware. But, as I said, nothing is currently planned in this regard.

Which Hana-Migration support offers IBM - infrastructure and application side?

Ziegler: IBM has a large partner community that supports SAP customers with first-class services. Incidentally, Power systems are predominantly sold via partners. They also realize customer projects, implement Hana or carry out migrations in the direction of Hana. Of course offers IBM itself also provides equally far-reaching support if customers so desire. And we do this through our Global Technology Services (GTS) organization.

Service providers play a key role in Hana-The latter play an important role. However, they all rely on Hana on Intel. No good cards here for HoP with this target group?

Ziegler: We could now only later than with x86 with HoP into the Hana–Server-business. A service provider in Holland, CTAC, has already decided in favor of HoP, is also already IBM-reference customer. In German-speaking countries, we are currently talking to several SAP hosters, cloud providers or managed services companies. An HoP contract was recently signed with an SAP service provider. We will also catch up with this HoP target group. And that's because customers are encouraging their service providers, Hana-based SAP enterprise solutions on Hana on Power.

How to imagine the "DB2–Hana-Auseinandersetzung" at IBM introduce internally? After all DB2 or DB2 BLU to Hana a competing product?

Ziegler: Of course, there are discussions about this. DB2 and DB2 BLU for SAP is associated with Hana in competition. A goal of IBM is to be the leading and preferred partner in the SAP environment or in the SAP IT infrastructure area. At the end of the day, the customer decides on his SAP IT infrastructure and the Database of his choice. Just about every SAP customer has the strategic Hana-alignment of the Walldorf software group have been absorbed and internalized. S/4 Hana is here and BW/4 Hana has just been announced. Both run exclusively on the Hana-Platform. NetWeaver-based systems with "AnyDBs" will be supported until 2025 as part of standard maintenance, according to SAP. The application provider specifies which Database is used with which enterprise solutions. We have to deal with that, and so do other companies.

In connection with S/4 and Hana in general - HEC, HCP, SoH, BW/4 Hana etc. - SAP strongly propagates the Cloud computing. What about using HoP in the cloud? HoP also via AWS or MS Azure?

Ziegler: In the environment of the DSAG-At the SAP Technology Days 2015, the SAP User Association published various results of a survey. According to the survey, only three percent of SAP customers with business-critical data see the public-Cloud Computing as target-oriented. SAP currently recommends that business-critical S/4–Hana-The Hana Cloud Platform (HCP) allows you to connect to cloud applications such as SuccessFactors, Hybris, Concur or Ariba.

This gives SAP customers the option of moving certain selective data to the cloud. And precisely those for which it is justifiable to put them in the cloud. HoP on or via AWS or MS Azure? A very clear No. HoP from the IBM Cloud?

A resounding yes.