SAP AG and IBM have announced the first official performance results of SAP In-Memory Appliance (SAP HANA), finding that the software easily handles 10,000 queries per hour against 1.3 terabytes of data, returning results within seconds. According to the companies, the test scenarios were directly based on the query workload requirements typical in SAP customers' enterprise resource planning (ERP) reporting requirements. They accessed the data found in the sales delivery database tables for the SAP ERP application.
The test was part of a joint project between the two companies to deliver real-time analytics by optimizing software and hardware, based on SAP In-Memory Computing technology and IBM's industry-leading 3850 series servers. It was independently audited and verified by WinterCorp, and used testing scenarios designed to measure the performance of the in-memory database processing analytical queries on operational business data. The test database scenarios closely mirrored the complexity of enterprise data, in terms of data definition, data types and data distributions, without pre-aggregating the data or tuning the database. According to the vendors, the ad hoc, analytical queries were specifically designed to reflect the demands of today's business, allowing companies to understand trends in their sales history such as their top customers, best-selling products and customer returns in any detail or timeframe. The companies say the results confirm the performance that SAP has seen with the 50 customers participating in the co-innovation program for SAP HANA.
"By dramatically outperforming traditional disk-based systems on analytical queries, SAP HANA opens new business opportunities and makes real-time business possible for the first time," said Jake Klein, vice president, Data and Analytic Engines, SAP. "The results of this performance test are one more important step for SAP and our hardware partners, demonstrating the significance of our in-memory computing technology to both the industry and our customers. With the incredible performance offered by SAP HANA as the foundation, we can develop a whole new generation of applications that offer unparalleled speed and insight."
IBM and SAP have cooperated closely to implement the advanced replication scenario for DB2-based customers. DB2 is SAP HANA-ready and can efficiently replicate data into SAP HANA in near real time using the Sybase Replication Server. Customers with ERP systems on DB2 can therefore seamlessly support demanding business needs for real-time reporting based on the latest available data with unmatched administrative effort.
"IBM is very pleased to add another record to our already impressive array of benchmarking results," said Alex Yost, vice president, System x and BladeCenter, IBM. "Our customers continue to benefit from the eX5 enhanced memory capabilities through SAP HANA."
More technical details about the performance study and specific results, including the audit letter filed by Winter, are available in a blog post on the SAP Developer Network site. Watch a video of Klein discussing the importance of the performance test and SAP In-Memory Computing technology for the industry and customers: "SAP and IBM Demonstrate the Power of SAP In-Memory Appliance Software."