LOWER THE OVERALL COST OF THE SAP HANA PLATFORM · certifies that SAP HANA appliances produced by...
Transcript of LOWER THE OVERALL COST OF THE SAP HANA PLATFORM · certifies that SAP HANA appliances produced by...
LOWER THE OVERALL COST OF THE SAP HANA® PLATFORMLenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 provides better three-year total cost of ownership (TCO) than competing SAP HANA appliances for scale-out and scale-up configurations
Being able to extract real-time insights from large in-memory databases like
the SAP HANA® platform has become crucial for organizations in a variety of
industries. And while the price of memory continues to decline, purchasing
single-server scale-up or multi-node scale-out clusters still represents a sizable
investment for IT organizations. However, the price of acquisition is only part of
the cost: SAP HANA deployments can be expensive to operate, particularly when
labor costs for specialists to manage them are factored in.
Evaluating both scale-out and scale-up configurations for SAP HANA solutions
running on servers powered by latest-generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors
from Cisco, HPE, and Lenovo shows that Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 servers
provide a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for a wide range of memory sizes
over a three-year period as compared to Cisco UCS® C480 M5, Cisco UCS C880
M5, and HPE® Superdome® Flex rack-based servers. This lower TCO stems from
both lower capital expenditures (CapEx) and lower operating expenses (OpEx) for
the Lenovo™ servers. In addition to raw TCO advantages, the Lenovo solutions
for SAP HANA evaluated in this study also feature the same high reliability and
customer satisfaction as other Lenovo servers.
CONTENTSTechnology Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Comparison Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Scale-Out TCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Scale-Up TCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Details of Study Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Details of Scale-Out Cost Analysis
over a Three-Year Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Qualitative Differentiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Compute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Reliability and Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Reliability, Availability,
and Serviceability (RAS) . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Customer Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Appendix A: Hardware Specifications . . . . .11
Cisco: Scale Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Cisco: Scale Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
HPE: Scale Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
HPE: Scale Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Lenovo: Scale Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Lenovo: Scale Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Appendix B: Study Assumptions . . . . . . . . .13
Appendix C: Three-Year Costs . . . . . . . . . . .14
Three-Year TCO for Scale-Out
Configurations Examined . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Three-Year TCO for Scale-Up
Configurations Examined . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Lenovo™ Scale-Out Solutions:
Up to
l ower TCO than C isco ® so lu t i ons
54%
Lenovo™ Scale-Up Solutions:
Up to
l ower TCO than C isco ® so lu t i ons
24%
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Technology TrendsReal-time analytics is a primary operational requirement for enterprises. In-memory database platforms
like SAP HANA are the bedrock for this requirement of the modern enterprise. Running large databases
in-memory—even several terabytes large—keeps storage latency from slowing down queries and
provides faster, actionable insights on increasingly large datasets.
Many kinds of applications beyond traditional line-of-business (LOB) applications build on
top of databases to benefit from the in-memory, columnar capabilities of SAP HANA.
SAP S/4HANA® provides next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities
with the real-time capabilities of SAP HANA. SAP® BW/4HANA is the next generation of
SAP® Business Warehouse optimized for SAP HANA, and it provides simplified operations
and improved performance for business-warehouse applications.
The hardware supporting SAP HANA is crucial to realizing the performance capabilities of
the platform; attempting to run SAP HANA on hardware that cannot utilize all of its capabilities
constrains overall performance. To avoid such mismatches between hardware and software, SAP
certifies that SAP HANA appliances produced by OEMs successfully integrate with
SAP® solutions.1 In addition, SAP requires that SAP HANA appliances have a valid
SAP HANA hardware certification at the time of purchase by customers.
Comparison OverviewThis study compares both the CapEx to acquire appliances that are certified for SAP HANA and that
are powered by Intel Xeon Scalable processors, in addition to the OpEx associated with running those
appliances over a three-year period. Factors considered in the OpEx analysis include:
• Management
• Power
• Cooling
This study examines TCO considerations for appliances in both scale-up and
scale-out configurations.
Figure 1 lists the SAP HANA platform–certified appliances examined in this study.
On-Premises Versus Cloud Deployment Considerations
Whether to deploy the SAP HANA® platform in the cloud is a question that many organizations grapple with, and it
has no one-size-fits-all answer. SAP HANA in the cloud might save some organizations money while proving more
expensive for others.2 Cloud-based SAP HANA might provide higher security for some organizations while being
untenable for others due to legal or regulatory requirements. This study assumes on-premises deployment of SAP
HANA, and it does not consider the ramifications of TCO for deploying SAP HANA in the cloud.
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Scale-Out TCO
While Lenovo generates lower three-year TCO than Cisco or HPE in most scale-up and scale-
out configurations, the most dramatic TCO results came from the matchup between Lenovo and
Cisco rack-based, scale-out configurations for SAP HANA. When compared to the other solutions,
Lenovo presented a lower TCO across a variety of SAP HANA scale-out cluster sizes and amounts
of total memory over a three-year period. Figures 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 show how much less the Lenovo
ThinkSystem SR950 SAP HANA scale-out appliance costs compared to appliances built from Cisco
rack-based servers for 6-TB, 24-TB, and 96-TB sizes, respectively.
Scale-Up Versus Scale-Out SAP HANA® Configurations
Scale-up SAP HANA configurations add resources (such as additional memory or processors) to a single server as
needs increase. The maximum memory for a single SAP HANA appliance running SAP S/4HANA® is 12 TB, with a 6-TB
maximum for SAP® BW/4HANA, in an 8-socket configuration.
Scale-out SAP HANA configurations connect a cluster of smaller SAP HANA systems together into a single clustered
database. SAP HANA is a shared-nothing architecture, so scale-out configurations require shared storage for data
persistence. This can be supplied either with a clustered file system, such as with the Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950,
or a storage-area network (SAN), as with the other vendors’ solutions examined in this study.
Figure 1. SAP HANA® platform–certified appliances examined in this study
HPE® ConvergedSystem 500 HPE® Superdome® Flex
Cisco UCS C480 M5Cisco UCS® C880 M5
Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950
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$7,000,000
$6,000,000
$5,000,000
$4,000,000
$3,000,000
$2,000,000
$1,000,000
$—
Cisco UCS® C480 M5 3 TB Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 3 TB
17% less
TCO Comparison: Cisco vs. Lenovo8-Node, 24-TB Cluster
Figure 2.2. TCO comparison between Cisco UCS® C480 M5 and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 in an 8-node, 24-TB configuration
$3,000,000
Cisco UCS® C480 M5 1.5 TB
TCO Comparison: Cisco vs. Lenovo4-Node, 6-TB Cluster
Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 1.5 TB
$2,500,000
$1,500,000
$500,000
$—
$2,000,000
$1,000,000 23% less
Figure 2.1. TCO comparison between Cisco UCS® C480 M5 and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 in a 4-node, 6-TB scale-out configuration
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Scale-Up TCO
Lenovo also provided superior overall value at the extreme end of SAP HANA scale-up appliances.
The three-year TCO for a 12-TB SAP HANA scale-up appliance built on the Lenovo ThinkSystem
SR950 cost nearly $12,000 less than a similar HPE Superdome Flex and almost $800,000 less than a
comparable appliance built on a Cisco UCS C880 M5 server.
$35,000,000
$30,000,000
$25,000,000
$20,000,000
$15,000,000
$10,000,000
$5,000,000
$—Cisco UCS® C880 M5 6 TB Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 6 TB
53% less
TCO Comparison: Cisco vs. Lenovo16-Node, 96-TB Cluster
Figure 2.3. TCO comparison between Cisco UCS® C880 M5 and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 in a 16-node, 96-TB configuration
SAP HANA® TCO Comparison: Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950, HPE® Superdome® Flex,
and Cisco UCS® C880 M5
Cisco UCS® C880M5 12 TB
$3,172,159
HPE® Superdome®
Flex 12 TB
$2,407,622
Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 12 TB
$2,395,868
Figure 3. Three-year TCO for 12-TB SAP HANA® scale-up configurations for Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950, HPE® Superdome® Flex, and Cisco UCS® C880 M5 (lower is better)
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Details of Study MethodologyThe TCO examined in this study includes both CapEx and OpEx costs for SAP HANA appliances.
CapEx costs examined include:
• Server hardware
• Storage hardware (integrated and external)
• Licenses
OpEx can be more nebulous. While power is unarguably an operating cost connected to
a particular piece of hardware, other costs—like space in a data center—can be harder
to discretize for individual appliances. For this reason, this study limits OpEx costs to
the following:
• Management
• Power
• Cooling
For specific assumptions about these costs, see Appendix B.
Details of Scale-Out Cost Analysis over a Three-Year PeriodThe TCO benefits of Lenovo scale-out configurations for SAP HANA, compared to those from HPE
(Figure 4.1) and Cisco (Figure 4.2), come from a combination of lower CapEx and OpEx.
HPE
6 TB,4 nodes
$12,000,000
$10,000,000
$8,000,000
$6,000,000
$4,000,000
$2,000,000
$—12 TB,
8 nodes24 TB,
16 nodes12 TB,
4 nodes24 TB,
8 nodes48 TB,
16 nodes
15% less
6% less
8% less
9% less
1% less
2% less
Lenovo
Three-Year Overall TCO Costs: HPE® Superdome® Flex vs.
Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950
Figure 4.1. Percentage differences for overall TCO between HPE® Superdome® Flex and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 rack-based SAP HANA® scale-out appliances over three years
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Cisco
6 TB,4 nodes
$14,000,000
$12,000,000
$10,000,000
$8,000,000
$6,000,000
$4,000,000
$2,000,000
$—12 TB,
8 nodes24 TB,
16 nodes12 TB,
4 nodes24 TB,
8 nodes48 TB,
16 nodes
Lenovo
Three-Year Overall TCO Costs: Cisco UCS® C480 M5 vs.
Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950
23% less
12% less
7% less
25% less
17% less
14% less
Figure 4.2. Percentage differences for overall TCO between Cisco UCS® C480 M5 and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™
SR950 rack-based SAP HANA® scale-out appliances over three years
OpEx plays a comparatively bigger role in Lenovo’s lower TCO. This stems in large part from the use of
IBM Spectrum Scale™ shared storage for ThinkSystem SR950 clusters as opposed to a storage-area
network (SAN) for storage with the Cisco UCS C480 M5, Cisco UCS C880 M5, and HPE Superdome
Flex clusters; the addition of a SAN to the Cisco and HPE solutions greatly increases the labor costs for
those clusters.
Note that the TCO comparisons in Figure 4.1 and Figure 4.2 do not include the labor or consulting costs
associated with deploying the Cisco, Lenovo, or HPE solutions. This is because such figures can vary
greatly between organizations and systems integrators. The CapEx components of TCO calculations
made throughout this study rely solely on manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) figures for
hardware and software.
For detailed three-year TCO for the scale-out and scale-up configurations examined in this study
see Appendix C.
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Qualitative DifferentiatorsBeyond the TCO benefits highlighted in this study, a number of hard-to-quantify differentiators emerged
between the SAP HANA solutions examined. These differentiators span scalability, storage, compute,
and reliability and satisfaction.
Scalability
The more scalable a solution, the longer an organization can build on it without having to replace or
rearchitect it, which can be a factor in TCO. When scaling up a single server, in contrast to solutions
from Cisco and HPE, Lenovo SAP HANA scale-up configurations are upgradeable from two to four to
eight sockets within a single system. For SAP HANA scale-out configurations, the ThinkSystem SR950
can scale out to 94 nodes in contrast to 48 nodes maximum for the Cisco and HPE SAP HANA
scale-out solutions.
Storage
Storage presents a number of qualitative differences between the solutions examined in this study,
largely because of the radically different storage architectures used in the various solutions. Aside
from Lenovo, the SAP HANA scale-out solutions use SAN-based shared storage, which has been
documented elsewhere in this study as a driver for OpEx costs for those solutions. Harder to put into
terms of TCO are the ramifications for scalability and performance presented by the use of SANs.
The ThinkSystem SR950 scale-out configurations for SAP HANA evaluated in this study use the IBM
Spectrum Scale shared-nothing storage architecture.3 Formerly called IBM® GPFS™, IBM Spectrum
Scale scales farther than SAN-based shared storage, which uses XFS or Network File System (NFS).
Compute
The 1.5-TB and 3-TB Cisco UCS C480 M5 run Intel Xeon Gold processors in contrast to the Intel Xeon
Platinum processors in the HPE and Lenovo SAP HANA scale-out solutions (and the Cisco UCS C880
M5). These more-powerful Intel Xeon Scalable processors provide more cores (28 cores versus 14–16
cores) than in the Cisco servers, which in turn support more threads for faster computational power
and analytics. In addition, Intel Xeon Platinum processors provide additional reliability, availability, and
serviceability (RAS) features not present on Intel Xeon Gold processors.
Reliability and Satisfaction
Reliability is another category in which factors can be hard to quantify into TCO. That stated, two
qualitative differentiators for reliability and customer satisfaction did stand out from analyzing the SAP
HANA solutions in this report and both can point to lower downtime and other sources of friction that
can increase operational expenses.
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RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, AND SERVICEABILITY (RAS)Lenovo servers continue to be the industry’s most reliable servers.4 The “ITIC 2016 – 2017 Global
Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Report” from Information Technology Intelligence Consulting
(ITIC) noted that, continuing a trend, Lenovo servers recorded the least amount of unplanned annual
server downtime among competitors including Cisco and HPE in the 1-to-40-minutes, the 41-minutes-
to-4-hours, and the 1-to-over-4-hours brackets examined by the consultancy.4 Specific RAS features in
the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 include:
• Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA), which alerts administrators to impending failure
of processors, memory, power-supply units (PSUs), system fans, adapter slots, hard-
disk drives (HDDs)/solid-state drives (SSDs), and voltage-regulator modules (VRMs); this
enables servicers to schedule planned downtime rather than reacting to sudden failure
• Independently powered light-path diagnostic LEDs, which light up beside a failing
component for instant identification in order to enable fast servicing and reduce downtime
• Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Recovery, which provides operating system–
layer assisted recovery from uncorrectable data errors, helping to prevent system resets
• Adaptive Double Device Data Correction (DDDC), which protects the system from
memory errors while repairing those errors
• Fatal-error handling, which enables override of application shutdown by setting a
custom handler of fatal errors
Lenovo hardware achieved the highest percentage of 99.999 percent overall uptime and availability in
ITIC’s 2016–2017 report, with 70 percent of surveyed deployments achieving 99.999 percent uptime
(less than 26 seconds of downtime annually) and 30 percent achieving 99.99 percent uptime (less than
four minutes, 19 seconds of downtime annually).4
CUSTOMER SATISFACTIONCustomer satisfaction is also high with Lenovo servers. Technology Business Research (TBR) noted
in its 2016 customer-satisfaction survey that Lenovo led its competition in customer-satisfaction
scores in 21 of the 22 categories (and tied for the lead in the twenty-second category).5 Quantized in
TBR’s Weighted Satisfaction Index, Lenovo achieved an overall score (which takes into account sales,
product, and service attributes, in addition to brand loyalty) of 82.8 out of a possible 100. The next
highest score in the Weighted Satisfaction Index was HPE at 78.6.5
Management
Hardest to quantify (at least in terms of TCO) are management features. The Lenovo ThinkSystem
SR950 comes with management software to simplify administration and reduce management costs
(as opposed to management software being a separate product). Lenovo™ XClarity® Controller is a
hardware-embedded management engine that uses Redfish® API-compliant REST APIs. XClarity
Controller enables the ThinkSystem SR950 to boot in half the time of prior-generation servers, in
addition to providing firmware updates that are up to six times faster than older-generation servers.6
In addition, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 comes with Lenovo XClarity Administrator to centrally
manage the ThinkSystem servers, storage, and networking in a scale-out Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950
solution for SAP HANA.
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ConclusionAnalysis of the TCO for Cisco and Lenovo offerings for SAP HANA over three years reveals dramatic
savings with Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 servers compared to Cisco UCS C480 M5 and Cisco UCS
C880 M5. Comparison of HPE and Lenovo offerings shows a more muted TCO advantage across
many memory sizes for the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 compared to the HPE Superdome Flex. For
scale-up configurations, the savings can run as high as 24 percent compared to the Cisco UCS C880
M5; for scale-out configurations, the savings are even more impressive: up to 54-percent lower TCO
compared to the Cisco UCS C880 M5.
These savings derive from a combination of lower CapEx and OpEx. A primary—though not sole—
driver for these cost differences is the lack of a need for a SAN or separate network-attached storage
(NAS) for Lenovo scale-out nodes. The use of IBM Spectrum Scale shared-nothing storage for Lenovo
ThinkSystem SR950 scale-out clusters removes the need for purchasing, operating, and administering
a separate SAN (as is required with scale-out clusters based on Cisco UCS C480 M5, Cisco UCS C880
M5, and HPE Superdome Flex servers). With larger memory-sized servers, Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950
servers cost much less up front than Cisco UCS C880 M5 servers as well.
In addition to quantitative differences between the solutions, Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 servers
provide qualitative benefits beyond those supplied by competing Cisco and HPE servers. Lenovo
servers continue to be the most reliable servers in the industry and the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950
hosts a number of unique RAS capabilities absent from its competitors. Lenovo also leads the industry
in customer satisfaction to supply lower overall cost coupled with lower heartburn for IT administrators.
Finally, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 supports a number of tools to simplify administering complex
SAP HANA deployments, including Lenovo Managed Services for SAP HANA.
Lenovo™ Managed Services for SAP HANA®
With Lenovo Managed Services for SAP HANA, Lenovo service professionals remotely monitor and
manage supported server, storage, networking devices, and select third-party products sold by Lenovo or Lenovo-
authorized resellers. These services enhance the security and reliability of your data center and help ensure high
performance and stability for your SAP HANA deployment. Continuous monitoring, scheduled health checks, and
recommended updates can help control management costs for SAP HANA and provide skills and knowledge that your
IT organization might not already possess. For more information, visit:
https://cloud.kapostcontent.net/pub/32e62228-f148-4769-8d13-9f66d54c3cbf/
sap-bwa-managed-services.pdf
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Appendix A: Hardware SpecificationsThis section details hardware specifications for each appliance included in this study, grouped by OEM and configuration.
Cisco: Scale OutCisco UCS® C480 M5 (1.5 TB RAM)
Intel® Xeon® Gold 6132 processor (2.6 GHz, 140 W, 14 cores, 19.25 MB cache) 4
32 GB DDR4 2,666 MHz RDIMM, PC4-23100, dual-rank, x4, 1.2 V 48
240 GB 6 Gb SATA 2.5-inch SSD enterprise-value local storage 2
Shared storage: NetApp® All-Flash Fabric-Attached Storage (AFF) A300 (with 24 x 900 GB SSD)
Cisco UCS C480 M5 (3 TB RAM)
Intel Xeon Gold 6142 processor (2.6 GHz, 150 W, 16 cores, 22 MB cache) 4
64 GB DDR4 2,666 MHz RDIMM, PC4-23100, quad-rank, x4, 1.2 V 48
240 GB 6 Gb SATA 2.5-inch SSD enterprise-value local storage 2
Shared storage: 4 x Cisco UCS C240 M5 server for eight SAP HANA® nodes (24 x 1.8 TB 12 gigabits per second (Gbps)
SAS 10K revolutions per minute (rpm), 4K per Cisco UCS C240 M5 server)
Cisco UCS C880 M5 (6 TB RAM)
Intel Xeon Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 8
128 GB DDR4 2,666 MHz TSV-RDIMM, PC4-21300, octal-rank, x4, 1.2 V 48
960 GB SATA M.2 2
Shared storage: 4 x Cisco UCS C240 M4 server for eight SAP HANA nodes (24 x 1.8 TB 12 Gbps SAS 10K rpm, 4K per Cisco UCS C240 M5 server)
Cisco: Scale UpCisco UCS® C480 M5 (6 TB RAM)
Intel® Xeon® Gold 6132 processor (2.6 GHz, 140 W, 14 cores, 19.25 MB cache) 4
128 GB DDR4 2,666 MHz TSV-RDIMM, PC4-23100, octal-rank, x4, 1.2 V 48
240 GB 6 Gb SATA 2.5-inch SSD enterprise-value local storage 2
Cisco UCS C880 M5 (12 TB RAM)
Intel Xeon Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 8
128 GB DDR4 2,666 MHz TSV-RDIMM, PC4-21300, octal-rank, x4, 1.2 V 96
960 GB SATA M.2 4
HPE: Scale OutHPE® Superdome® Flex (1.5 TB)
Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 4
HPE® SD Flex DDR4 256 GB (4 x 64 GB) Mem Kit 6
Shared storage: HPE® 3PAR® StoreServ® 8400 24 x3.84 TB SSD (RAID50) 1 per 8 scale-out nodes
HPE Superdome Flex (3 TB)
Intel Xeon Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 4
HPE SD Flex DDR4 256 GB (4 x 64 GB) Mem Kit 12
Shared storage: HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8400 24 x 3.84 TB SSD (RAID50) 1 per 8 scale-out nodes
HPE Superdome Flex (6 TB)
Intel Xeon Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 8
HPE SD Flex DDR4 256 GB (4 x 64 GB) Mem Kit 24
Shared storage: HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8400 24 x 3.84 TB SSD (RAID50) 1 per 8 scale-out nodes
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HPE: Scale UpHPE® ConvergedSystem 500 (6 TB)
Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 4
HPE® 128 GB 8Rx4 PC4-2666V-L Smart Kit 48
1.8 TB 10K SAS HDD (RAID5) 6
HPE® Superdome® Flex (12 TB)
Intel Xeon Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 8
HPE® SD Flex DDR4 512 GB (4 x 128 GB) Mem Kit 24
1.8 TB 10K SAS HDD 22
400 GB SSD cache (RAID50) 3
Lenovo: Scale OutLenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 (1.5 TB RAM)
Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8176 processor (28 cores, 165 W, 2.1 GHz) 4
ThinkSystem 32 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (2 R x 4 1.2 V) RDIMM 48
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1635a 400 GB mainstream SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 2
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1633a 3.84 TB capacity SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 5
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 (3 TB RAM)
Intel Xeon Platinum 8176 processor (28 cores, 165 W, 2.1 GHz) 4
ThinkSystem 64 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (4 R x 4 1.2 V) LRDIMM 48
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1635a 400 GB mainstream SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 2
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1633a 3.84 TB capacity SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 9
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 (6 TB RAM)
Intel Xeon Platinum 8176 processor (28 cores, 165 W, 2.1 GHz) 8
ThinkSystem 64 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (4 R x 4 1.2 V) LRDIMM 48
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1635a 400 GB mainstream SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 2
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1633a 3.84 TB capacity SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 18
Lenovo: Scale UpLenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 (6 TB RAM)
Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8176 processor (28 cores, 165 W, 2.1 GHz) 4
ThinkSystem 128 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (8 R x 4 1.2 V) 3DS RDIMM 48
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1635a 400 GB mainstream SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 2
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1633a 3.84 TB capacity SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 9
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 (12 TB RAM)
Intel Xeon Platinum 8176 processor (28 cores, 165 W, 2.1 GHz) 8
ThinkSystem 128 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (8 R x 4 1.2 V) 3DS RDIMM 96
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1635a 400 GB mainstream SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 2
ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1633a 3.84 TB capacity SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 18
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Appendix B: Study AssumptionsThis study makes the following assumptions in projecting the three-year TCO for the SAP HANA appliances analyzed:
• Labor costs—This study uses a uniform fully burdened cost of $150,000 per year per full-time employee (FTE) equivalent for both storage and SAP HANA management.
• FTE equivalents—This study assumes the following number of FTE equivalents per management responsibility:
FTE Equivalents
Per SAP HANA® scale-out node (scaled linearly) 0.675
Per SAP HANA scale-up server 1.700
Per storage server (scaled linearly) 0.325
Per NetApp® AFF array 1.300
Per 4-node IBM Spectrum Scale™ storage configuration 0.012
Per 8-node IBM Spectrum Scale storage configuration 0.019
Per 16-node IBM Spectrum Scale storage configuration 0.031
• Power costs—This study uses the United States national average commercial cost of $0.1082 per kWh7
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Appendix C: Three-Year Costs Three-Year TCO for Scale-Out Configurations ExaminedScale-out TCO Nodes CapEx Labor Power Cooling Total
6 TB scale out
Cisco UCS® C480 M5 1.5 TB 4 $1,006,080 $1,800,000 $18,669 $19,176 $2,843,925
HPE® Superdome® Flex 1.5 TB 4 $1,183,776 $1,361,250 $13,328 $13,835 $2,572,189
Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 1.5 TB 4 $956,448 $1,215,000 $11,783 $11,779 $2,195,011
12 TB scale out
Cisco UCS C480 M5 1.5 TB 8 $1,734,432 $3,015,000 $30,113 $31,129 $4,810,674
HPE Superdome Flex 1.5 TB 8 $1,884,452 $2,576,250 $24,772 $25,788 $4,511,262
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 1.5 TB 8 $1,753,296 $2,430,000 $23,566 $23,559 $4,230,421
24 TB scale out
Cisco UCS C480 M5 1.5 TB 16 $3,260,568 $5,591,250 $54,807 $56,842 $8,963,467
HPE Superdome Flex 1.5 TB 16 $3,768,904 $5,152,500 $49,543 $51,576 $9,022,523
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 1.5 TB 16 $3,346,993 $4,860,000 $47,131 $47,118 $8,301,242
12 TB scale out
Cisco UCS C480 M5 3 TB 4 $1,667,616 $1,800,000 $20,739 $21,354 $3,509,709
HPE Superdome Flex 3 TB 4 $1,475,784 $1,361,250 $18,025 $18,019 $2,873,078
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 3 TB 4 $1,381,712 $1,215,000 $12,992 $12,988 $2,622,693
24 TB scale out
Cisco UCS C480 M5 3 TB 8 $3,057,504 $3,015,000 $34,254 $35,486 $6,142,244
HPE Superdome Flex 3 TB 8 $2,468,468 $2,576,250 $34,167 $34,156 $5,113,041
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 3 TB 8 $2,603,824 $2,430,000 $25,984 $25,977 $5,085,786
48 TB scale out
Cisco UCS C480 M5 3 TB 16 $5,906,712 $5,591,250 $63,090 $65,554 $11,626,606
HPE Superdome Flex 3 TB 16 $4,936,936 $5,152,500 $68,335 $68,312 $10,226,083
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 3 TB 16 $,048,049 $4,860,000 $51,969 $51,954 $10,011,971
24 TB scale out
Cisco UCS C880 M5 6 TB 4 $6,687,076 $1,800,000 $32,019 $32,011 $8,551,106
HPE Superdome Flex 6 TB 4 $2,505,676 $1,361,250 $31,498 $31,487 $3,929,911
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 6 TB 4 $2,714,740 $1,215,000 $23,836 $23,829 $3,977,405
48 TB scale out
Cisco UCS C880 M5 6 TB 8 $13,096,424 $3,015,000 $56,813 $56,800 $16,225,037
HPE Superdome Flex 6 TB 8 $4,528,252 $2,576,250 $61,112 $61,093 $7,226,706
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 6 TB 8 $5,110,280 $2,430,000 $47,671 $47,658 $7,635,609
96 TB scale out
Cisco UCS C880 M5 6 TB 16 $25,984,552 $5,591,250 $108,208 $108,182 $31,792,192
HPE Superdome Flex 6 TB 16 $9,056,504 $5,152,500 $122,223 $122,186 $14,453,412
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 6 TB 16 $9,582,161 $9,901,361 $95,342 $95,315 $14,952,018
15 |
1 SAP. “Certified and Supported SAP HANA® Hardware.” www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2014-09-02-hana-hardware/enEN/index.html.2 For example, a recent survey notes that managing cloud spend was a challenge for 76 percent of respondents—with 21 percent reporting it as a
significant challenge. The same survey reported that 30–35 percent of cloud spend by organizations was wasted. Source: RightScale.
“2018 State of the Cloud Report™.” 2018. https://assets.rightscale.com/uploads/pdfs/RightScale-2018-State-of-the-Cloud-Report.pdf.3 Although not covered in this study, the second scalable storage solution for a scale-out Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 solution for SAP HANA® is the Lenovo™ Storage
Solution for SAP HANA. It is an SAP HANA Tailored Datacenter Integration (TDI) software-defined storage (SDS) solution built on the open-source Ceph® project and integrated
with SUSE® Linux® Enterprise Server. The Lenovo Storage Solution for SAP HANA brings block, file, and object data-access capabilities to a single cluster, all without a SAN.4 Information Technology Intelligence Consulting (ITIC). “ITIC 2016 – 2017 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Report.”
October 2016. https://en.resources.lenovo.com/analyst-reports/itic-2016-2017-global-reliability-survey-2h-2016.5 Technology Business Research (TBR). “Lenovo x86-based server customer satisfaction scores trend above competition.” December 2016.
https://en.resources.lenovo.com/analyst-reports/tbr-lenovo-outscores-competitors-in-x86-based-server-customer-satisfaction-2h16.6 Lenovo. “Lenovo XClarity Controller.” www.lenovo.com/us/en/data-center/software/systems-management/xclarity-controller/.7 U.S. Energy Information Administration. June 2018 data released August 24, 2018. www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a.
The analysis in this document was done by Prowess Consulting and commissioned by Lenovo.
Results have been simulated and are provided for informational purposes only. Any difference in system hardware or software design
of configuration may affect actual performance.
Prowess and the Prowess logo are trademarks of Prowess Consulting, LLC.
Copyright © 2018 Prowess Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.
Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Three-Year TCO for Scale-Up Configurations Examined
Scale-up TCO CapEx Labor Power Cooling Total
6 TB scale up
Cisco UCS® C480 M5 6 TB $874,512 $765,000 $3,534 $3,533 $1,646,579
HPE® ConvergedSystem 500 6 TB $734,235 $765,000 $4,398 $4,397 $1,508,030
Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 6 TB $814,968 $765,000 $3,540 $3,539 $1,587,047
12 TB scale up
Cisco UCS C880 M5 12 TB $2,381,000 $765,000 $13,081 $13,078 $3,172,159
HPE® Superdome® Flex 12 TB $1,626,343 $765,000 $8,141 $8,138 $2,407,622
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 12 TB $1,617,765 $765,000 $6,552 $6,550 $2,395,867