Enabling Advanced Analytics for the Digital BusinessThree Key Factors Driving Adoptionof SAP HANA on AWS

Today’s businessesare undergoing dramatic transformation.

With rising volumes of data generated from multiple sources,

businesses must not only keep up with the speed of change

mandated by the competition, but must also capitalize on the

opportunity to innovate. The drive to innovate is made possible

by public cloud technologies that enable businesses to increase

the speed of modernization, utilize insights to drive strategic

decision-making, and fundamentally alter business operations.

Leading cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS)

further accelerate innovation by enabling IT to harness the

power of SAP HANA, an in-memory data management platform.

SAP HANA promises to streamline data management in a way

that frees IT staff to focus on the innovative projects that drive

business growth. At the same time, SAP HANA capitalizes on

real-time data analytics to deliver smarter business intelligence

and improve strategic decision-making. Implementing SAP

HANA on the AWS platform enables the digital business to

achieve great agility, flexibility, and the transformative

economics that can optimize IT spend. More than this, SAP

HANA on AWS offers the great power of in-memory data

management while allowing businesses to maximize the many

benefits of the cloud, harness next-generation applications and

real-time analytics, and deliver innovation without taking on

traditional and costly IT overhead.

The Promise of SAP HANA

Driving great innovation and efficiencies, SAP HANA enables

enterprise IT organizations to break free from time-consuming

database and data management tasks. The technology

transforms standard report-writing to in-memory analysis that

takes just minutes or seconds rather than hours or days. In

interviews with organizations currently using SAP HANA, IDC

found that core analytics operations are completed an average

of 6.5 times faster, in 85% less time, than with previous

database platforms. “The result is that queries, batch

processes, business reports, and data access occur much

faster and closer to the time of actual need for insights from

these operations,” says IDC.5

The same report from IDC notes additional efficiencies. The

organizations interviewed claim that their application

development teams are 23% more productive. By the same

token, their database management has improved by 29%. This

greater efficiency enables IT teams to lend greater value to

their organizations by focusing on technology innovation.

In addition to improving data management, SAP HANA holds

great promise in increasing revenue and reducing

costs—directly improving the bottom line. The technology

enables businesses to leverage data to boost their competitive

edge and improve business outcomes with more efficient and

cost-effective operations. IDC’s analysis shows that SAP HANA

can win more business and generate more revenue, to the

tune of $52.61 million per year.6 This is accomplished through

the enablement of core customer-facing services, the

monitoring of business patterns, customer behavior analysis,

and more effective sales operations.

IDC also shows that operational cost reductions amount to an

average of $675,700 annually. The analyst firm claims that

many organizations are saving more in operational costs than

they are spending in annual maintenance fees for SAP HANA.

IDC projects that investment in the technology will yield an

average five-year ROI of 575% with a nine-month payback. This

is based on average annual benefits of $19.27 million per

organization compared to an average annual investment of

$2.41 million over five years.7

Aside from cost savings and revenue gains, SAP HANA

enables businesses to empower decision-makers with

real-time business intelligence, a necessity in today’s

hyper-competitive, fast-moving business environment. IDC’s

research shows that 83% of enterprises consider having access

to the right information at the right time critical to their

business. The majority of those same respondents said that

without access to data, mere guesswork formed the basis for

their business decisions.8

With consistent, timely, and robust data insights, businesses

can create greater customer value, offer data-driven services,

and improve strategic decision-making. SAP HANA offers a

strategic platform to innovate next-generation applications

that capitalize on IoT, Big Data, and machine learning.

According to IDC, “Even sophisticated analyses, such as

predictive, spatial, text analytics, graph, and time series data

processing can be performed on live transactional data

without compromising performance.”9

Ferrara Candy Company has achieved these many benefits and

more with SAP HANA. With existing solutions unable to deliver

timely, actionable business insight and a merger that created a

disruptive and incoherent analytical environment, the

confectionary company implemented SAP Business Objects on

HANA using Amazon Virtual Private Cloud.

“Running SAP BusinessObjects on HANA in AWS enables

unparalleled agility for reports and analytics across our

business,” said Mustafa Mustafa, IT director, BI and app

development. “The solution empowers our business with a

streamlined analytical process for making strategic, tactical,

and operational decisions.”

Originally introduced in 2010, SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented,

relational database platform that removes the burden of maintaining separate

legacy systems and disparate data sources. As data continues to grow in

volume, variety, and velocity, an infrastructure that streamlines and simplifies

data management is crucial.

“This platform is enabling SAP customers to build innovative custom applications that blend transaction processing with real-time analytics in order to gain competitive advantage and enhance revenue opportunities,” says IDC.1

The technology is beginning to achieve widespread adoption. By

August 2015, more than 7,200 customers had adopted SAP

HANA, doubling from only a year prior and generating more than

850,000 active users.2 Nearly 90% of users say they have found

positive business and IT value from SAP HANA. Another 76% are

in the midst of or planning another SAP HANA implementation.3

The technology is receiving praise throughout the IT

community. In fact, SAP was recognized as a leader among

in-memory database platforms by Forrester Research. “SAP’s

razor-sharp focus on in-memory technology is paying off,”

wrote Noel Yuhanna, Forrester’s principal analyst serving

enterprise architecture professionals.4

1 IDC, “Innovating with Real-Time Data and Insights with SAP HANA for Better Business Outcomes and More Efficient Operations,” November 2016.2 SAP, “SAP HANA Named a Leader Among In-Memory Database Platforms by Independent Research Firm,” August 5, 2015.3 ASUG Research, “SAP HANA Adoption, What ASUG Members Say in 2015,” 2015.4 Forrester Research, Inc., “The Forrester Wave: In-Memory Database Platforms, Q3 2015,” August 2015.5 IDC, “Innovating with Real-Time Data and Insights with SAP HANA for Better Business Outcomes and More Efficient Operations,” November 2016.6 Ibid.

Driving great innovation and efficiencies, SAP HANA enables

enterprise IT organizations to break free from time-consuming

database and data management tasks. The technology

transforms standard report-writing to in-memory analysis that

takes just minutes or seconds rather than hours or days. In

interviews with organizations currently using SAP HANA, IDC

found that core analytics operations are completed an average

of 6.5 times faster, in 85% less time, than with previous

database platforms. “The result is that queries, batch

processes, business reports, and data access occur much

faster and closer to the time of actual need for insights from

these operations,” says IDC.5

The same report from IDC notes additional efficiencies. The

organizations interviewed claim that their application

development teams are 23% more productive. By the same

token, their database management has improved by 29%. This

greater efficiency enables IT teams to lend greater value to

their organizations by focusing on technology innovation.

In addition to improving data management, SAP HANA holds

great promise in increasing revenue and reducing

costs—directly improving the bottom line. The technology

enables businesses to leverage data to boost their competitive

edge and improve business outcomes with more efficient and

cost-effective operations. IDC’s analysis shows that SAP HANA

can win more business and generate more revenue, to the

tune of $52.61 million per year.6 This is accomplished through

the enablement of core customer-facing services, the

monitoring of business patterns, customer behavior analysis,

and more effective sales operations.

IDC also shows that operational cost reductions amount to an

average of $675,700 annually. The analyst firm claims that

many organizations are saving more in operational costs than

they are spending in annual maintenance fees for SAP HANA.

IDC projects that investment in the technology will yield an

average five-year ROI of 575% with a nine-month payback. This

is based on average annual benefits of $19.27 million per

organization compared to an average annual investment of

$2.41 million over five years.7

Aside from cost savings and revenue gains, SAP HANA

enables businesses to empower decision-makers with

real-time business intelligence, a necessity in today’s

hyper-competitive, fast-moving business environment. IDC’s

research shows that 83% of enterprises consider having access

to the right information at the right time critical to their

business. The majority of those same respondents said that

without access to data, mere guesswork formed the basis for

their business decisions.8

With consistent, timely, and robust data insights, businesses

can create greater customer value, offer data-driven services,

and improve strategic decision-making. SAP HANA offers a

strategic platform to innovate next-generation applications

that capitalize on IoT, Big Data, and machine learning.

According to IDC, “Even sophisticated analyses, such as

predictive, spatial, text analytics, graph, and time series data

processing can be performed on live transactional data

without compromising performance.”9

Ferrara Candy Company has achieved these many benefits and

more with SAP HANA. With existing solutions unable to deliver

timely, actionable business insight and a merger that created a

disruptive and incoherent analytical environment, the

confectionary company implemented SAP Business Objects on

HANA using Amazon Virtual Private Cloud.

“Running SAP BusinessObjects on HANA in AWS enables

unparalleled agility for reports and analytics across our

business,” said Mustafa Mustafa, IT director, BI and app

development. “The solution empowers our business with a

streamlined analytical process for making strategic, tactical,

and operational decisions.”

1% 2% 14%

32%

51%

Not Critical At All

VeryCritical

83% of respondents consider having access to the right information at the right time critical to their business.

“This platform is enabling SAP customers to build innovative custom applications that blend transaction processing with real-time analytics in order to gain competitive advantage and enhance revenue opportunities,” says IDC.1

The technology is beginning to achieve widespread adoption. By

August 2015, more than 7,200 customers had adopted SAP

HANA, doubling from only a year prior and generating more than

850,000 active users.2 Nearly 90% of users say they have found

positive business and IT value from SAP HANA. Another 76% are

in the midst of or planning another SAP HANA implementation.3

The technology is receiving praise throughout the IT

community. In fact, SAP was recognized as a leader among

in-memory database platforms by Forrester Research. “SAP’s

razor-sharp focus on in-memory technology is paying off,”

wrote Noel Yuhanna, Forrester’s principal analyst serving

enterprise architecture professionals.4

7 Ibid.8 IDC, “Enabling the Agile Enterprise Through Unified Data,” August 2015.9 IDC, “Innovating with Real-Time Data and Insights with SAP HANA for Better Business Outcomes and More Efficient Operations,” November 2016.

Maximizing the Benefitsof the Cloud

AWS is widely known as the leading platform for building

cloud-native applications and moving workloads to public

cloud. Next-generation SAP environments powered by SAP

HANA are no different. AWS offers great speed and agility,

enabling IT organizations to provision a SAP HANA

infrastructure for development in an hour or less. Full

production environments can be created in days instead of the

traditional, on-premises implementation which can take weeks

or months to procure and deploy. With SAP HANA on SUSE

Enterprise Linux for SAP Applications, AWS further enhances

the deployment process by streamlining many processes and

offering installation wizards for SAP HANA Firewall and other

key features.

In addition to speed and agility, SAP HANA on AWS offers all

the benefits of in-memory data management and cloud

capabilities at a fraction of the cost of on-premises

deployments. In a study examining the costs of running SAP

systems in on-premises or outsourced environments, VMS AG

noted that businesses can achieve substantial savings with

3 Key Factors Driving SAP HANA Adoption on AWS

AWS. The research shows that with infrastructure and

operational costs

considered, AWS offers a 71% lower total cost of ownership.10

Additional savings can be achieved when factoring in

advanced cost optimization strategies that leverage AWS

Reserved Instances and CloudWatch or third-party tools.

While the total cost of ownership is an important

consideration, the initial investment required with AWS is also

significantly reduced. The forecasted infrastructure

requirements of traditional, on-premises projects require the IT

organization to build significantly more capacity, beyond what

is needed at the time of deployment, to compensate for

potential fluctuations in compute or storage capacity.

By default, AWS offers scalable and flexible capacity, enabling

IT organizations to provision and pay for only what is needed

for the project at hand. This pay-as-you-go pricing promises

great savings over reserved instances. For example, at the end

of the quarter when a business might see spikes in demand, IT

can scale up and pay for only the infrastructure needed to

process the quarter-close activities at the time they are

needed. Not all applications need to be running 24/7. Further

efficiencies and cost savings can be gained by automating the

provisioning of cloud workloads. With AWS, IT can design and

architect to account for the needs of the application at hand,

its hosting requirements, and specific usage while maximizing

cost-optimization principles.

Lastly, as with any cloud deployment, implementing SAP

HANA on AWS converts capital expenditures (CapEx) to

operating expenses (OpEx) with no upfront cost or

commitment for compute, storage, or network infrastructure.

The potential savings from this alone make a strong case for

implementing SAP HANA in an AWS cloud environment.

Enabling Next-Generation Applications and Real-Time Analytics

Today’s digital universe is experiencing a fundamental shift

fueled by the rapid processing and analysis of data created by

next-generation applications. This greater analysis enables a

business to better understand and respond to business

patterns and deliver the products and services that meet the

changing needs of its customers.

By delivering data through real-time and predictive analytics,

SAP HANA enables decision-makers to utilize live data to act

and adjust as needed during the course of the business day.

The technology allows users to ask multiple questions of the

data on the fly and continue to interact with the data as more

questions arise.

With real-time transactional data analysis, business users and

teams can optimize their cooperative efforts to gain

efficiencies, reduce costs, and potentially provide better

products and services to customers. With such analysis

enabled by SAP HANA on AWS, a business might leverage the

innovative services that power Amazon’s Alexa to create

applications powered by machine-learning and artificial

intelligence, for example.

SAP HANA also enables businesses to use geospatial data to

optimize the movement of materials, inventory, personnel, and

other important business assets. With innovative geospatial

capabilities embedded directly in the platform, the data is

instantly available for real-time decision making.

By implementing SAP HANA on AWS, businesses can build

and deploy next-generation applications without sacrificing

performance or availability. Applications built using SAP

HANA on AWS can rely on the global availability of a cloud

infrastructure that operates in 16 geographic regions and 42

availability zones that span physical data centers. In addition,

the AWS cloud is certified for production workloads. SUSE

Enterprise Linux for SAP Applications, which is optimized for

high performance leveraging AWS Elastic Network Adapters,

optimizes network traffic with up to 20 Gbps bandwidth for

specific EC2 instances.

Lastly, the real-time, in-memory data capabilities of SAP

HANA on AWS enable businesses to utilize and incorporate

data from the Internet of Things (IoT), such as sensors and

smart apps. The AWS IoT platform and services like

Greengrass and Lambda offer the features needed to build

networks of interconnected devices to the advanced analytics

applications that power the digital business.

Empowering Data-Driven Innovation that Minimizes Risk

As discussed previously, implementing SAP HANA on AWS

can yield significant cost savings over a traditional,

on-premises deployment. Beyond cost savings, AWS offers

services that enable businesses to innovate with SAP HANA

without assuming great risk.

Many businesses are uniquely positioned to take advantage of

these technologies. They may be at the onset of planning a

move to SAP S/4HANA or moving their business warehouse or

other applications to SAP HANA while also driving cloud

adoption as a major IT initiative. Including AWS in an adoption

plan enables businesses to easily create a pilot project that

helps to ensure the success and business value of a

full-production SAP HANA environment. Risk is further

reduced with SUSE Enterprise Linux for SAP Applications on

AWS as well as a variety of preconfigured images, packages,

and offerings from SAP such as SAP HANA Express which

enables developers to develop, test, and train on SAP HANA

on AWS without having to invest in additional licenses.

Given these many benefits, SAP HANA yields positive business outcomes for those that choose to deploy it. Implementing SAP

HANA on the AWS cloud provides on-demand infrastructure that can create SAP HANA production environments in hours

instead of weeks or months. AWS also provides an ever-growing suite of infrastructure services that enable businesses to deploy

the technology in a highly available, fault-tolerant, and affordable way. The combined technologies offer the many capabilities of

SAP HANA along with the flexibility and security of AWS.

There are three key factors that drive today’s businesses to investigate an AWS cloud solution when deploying SAP HANA. These

include maximizing the benefits of the cloud, enabling next generation applications and real-time analytics, and empowering

data-driven innovation that minimizes risk.

10 VMS AG, “TCO Study for SAP on Amazon Web Services (AWS),” February 12, 2013.

1

Maximizing the Benefitsof the Cloud

AWS is widely known as the leading platform for building

cloud-native applications and moving workloads to public

cloud. Next-generation SAP environments powered by SAP

HANA are no different. AWS offers great speed and agility,

enabling IT organizations to provision a SAP HANA

infrastructure for development in an hour or less. Full

production environments can be created in days instead of the

traditional, on-premises implementation which can take weeks

or months to procure and deploy. With SAP HANA on SUSE

Enterprise Linux for SAP Applications, AWS further enhances

the deployment process by streamlining many processes and

offering installation wizards for SAP HANA Firewall and other

key features.

In addition to speed and agility, SAP HANA on AWS offers all

the benefits of in-memory data management and cloud

capabilities at a fraction of the cost of on-premises

deployments. In a study examining the costs of running SAP

systems in on-premises or outsourced environments, VMS AG

noted that businesses can achieve substantial savings with

AWS. The research shows that with infrastructure and

operational costs

considered, AWS offers a 71% lower total cost of ownership.10

Additional savings can be achieved when factoring in

advanced cost optimization strategies that leverage AWS

Reserved Instances and CloudWatch or third-party tools.

While the total cost of ownership is an important

consideration, the initial investment required with AWS is also

significantly reduced. The forecasted infrastructure

requirements of traditional, on-premises projects require the IT

organization to build significantly more capacity, beyond what

is needed at the time of deployment, to compensate for

potential fluctuations in compute or storage capacity.

By default, AWS offers scalable and flexible capacity, enabling

IT organizations to provision and pay for only what is needed

for the project at hand. This pay-as-you-go pricing promises

great savings over reserved instances. For example, at the end

of the quarter when a business might see spikes in demand, IT

can scale up and pay for only the infrastructure needed to

process the quarter-close activities at the time they are

needed. Not all applications need to be running 24/7. Further

efficiencies and cost savings can be gained by automating the

provisioning of cloud workloads. With AWS, IT can design and

architect to account for the needs of the application at hand,

its hosting requirements, and specific usage while maximizing

cost-optimization principles.

Lastly, as with any cloud deployment, implementing SAP

HANA on AWS converts capital expenditures (CapEx) to

operating expenses (OpEx) with no upfront cost or

commitment for compute, storage, or network infrastructure.

The potential savings from this alone make a strong case for

implementing SAP HANA in an AWS cloud environment.

Enabling Next-Generation Applications and Real-Time Analytics

Today’s digital universe is experiencing a fundamental shift

fueled by the rapid processing and analysis of data created by

next-generation applications. This greater analysis enables a

business to better understand and respond to business

patterns and deliver the products and services that meet the

changing needs of its customers.

By delivering data through real-time and predictive analytics,

SAP HANA enables decision-makers to utilize live data to act

and adjust as needed during the course of the business day.

The technology allows users to ask multiple questions of the

data on the fly and continue to interact with the data as more

questions arise.

With real-time transactional data analysis, business users and

teams can optimize their cooperative efforts to gain

efficiencies, reduce costs, and potentially provide better

products and services to customers. With such analysis

enabled by SAP HANA on AWS, a business might leverage the

innovative services that power Amazon’s Alexa to create

applications powered by machine-learning and artificial

intelligence, for example.

SAP HANA also enables businesses to use geospatial data to

optimize the movement of materials, inventory, personnel, and

other important business assets. With innovative geospatial

capabilities embedded directly in the platform, the data is

instantly available for real-time decision making.

By implementing SAP HANA on AWS, businesses can build

and deploy next-generation applications without sacrificing

performance or availability. Applications built using SAP

HANA on AWS can rely on the global availability of a cloud

infrastructure that operates in 16 geographic regions and 42

availability zones that span physical data centers. In addition,

the AWS cloud is certified for production workloads. SUSE

Enterprise Linux for SAP Applications, which is optimized for

high performance leveraging AWS Elastic Network Adapters,

optimizes network traffic with up to 20 Gbps bandwidth for

specific EC2 instances.

Lastly, the real-time, in-memory data capabilities of SAP

HANA on AWS enable businesses to utilize and incorporate

data from the Internet of Things (IoT), such as sensors and

smart apps. The AWS IoT platform and services like

Greengrass and Lambda offer the features needed to build

networks of interconnected devices to the advanced analytics

applications that power the digital business.

Empowering Data-Driven Innovation that Minimizes Risk

As discussed previously, implementing SAP HANA on AWS

can yield significant cost savings over a traditional,

on-premises deployment. Beyond cost savings, AWS offers

services that enable businesses to innovate with SAP HANA

without assuming great risk.

Many businesses are uniquely positioned to take advantage of

these technologies. They may be at the onset of planning a

move to SAP S/4HANA or moving their business warehouse or

other applications to SAP HANA while also driving cloud

adoption as a major IT initiative. Including AWS in an adoption

plan enables businesses to easily create a pilot project that

helps to ensure the success and business value of a

full-production SAP HANA environment. Risk is further

reduced with SUSE Enterprise Linux for SAP Applications on

AWS as well as a variety of preconfigured images, packages,

and offerings from SAP such as SAP HANA Express which

enables developers to develop, test, and train on SAP HANA

on AWS without having to invest in additional licenses.

2

3

SAP HANA on AWS enables digital businesses to rise with the tide of

innovation while maximizing real-time, in-place analytics and the agility,

flexibility, and affordability of the cloud. Before beginning such an important

project, there are several questions the IT organization must ask of itself to

ensure success. These questions include:

Conclusion:Getting Started

• Are we looking to analyze existing data sources?

• What types of data do we need to analyze?

• How can in-memory analytics help us reduce costs and

complexity over the long term?

• Can this project be part of an organization-wide digital

transformation or must it remain specific to a particular

line of business?

With the answers to these questions, IT must gauge its

expertise in the initiative, particularly deciding whether to

utilize internal resources or work with a partner who has the

skills and personnel to handle such an implementation. For the

internal staff, an important consideration is the fact that the

project involves much more than maintaining and supporting

the application. Delivering real-time, actionable insights based

on in-memory data requires a business mindset and a

service-oriented approach that delivers analytics to the

business users who need them most.

In addition, utilizing an internal staff to implement SAP HANA

on AWS requires an investment in skills such as Amazon Web

Services certified architects and engineers, Fiori, or other

in-memory database development, collaboration, web

development, and mobile enablement. These skills enable the

IT department to offer value to the business through SAP

HANA and evolve with the technology of the future. For

detailed information on the resources required of an internal

implementation team, download the SAP HANA on the AWS

Cloud Quick Start Reference Deployment guide.

Alternatively, if the commitment and investment are

unreasonable to expect of internal teams, the business might

partner with an outside organization. There are many agile

companies, such as Protera Technologies, which offer cloud

migration assessments and professional services to help

streamline the journey to SAP HANA on AWS. With these

many considerations in mind, the successful IT organization

can implement SAP HANA on AWS to deliver in-memory

analytics for improved decision-making and greater

technology innovation to drive growth in the digital business.

1-800-796-3700 (U.S. and Canada) or

1-801-861-4500 (worldwide).

www.suse.com

For more informationContact your local SUSE Solutions Provider,

visit www.suse.com or aws@suse.com, or

call SUSE at:

SUSE Solutions for SAP HANA on AWS

Accelerate your Digital Transformation journey with SUSE on AWS. Build and deploy dev/test, QA, and production environments

in days instead of weeks and months. When you run SAP HANA, the next generation of SAP in-memory computing technology,

you want to ensure that the underlying OS you choose gives you enterprise-level reliability, availability, scalability, manageability,

and security to meet your needs. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the recommended and supported OS of choice for SAP HANA

and is currently running in over 5800 SAP HANA installations.

Important features include:

• Automated failover of the SAP HANA system replication (only available

from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP on the public cloud)

• Installation wizards for features such as the SAP HANA firewall

• Integrated priority support from both SUSE and SAP with a dedicated

SAP update channel for secure patches and updates

• Page cache management for enhanced performance