Choosing the Right Deployment Option for Your SAP HANA

SAP customers have many important decisions to make. In the near future, applications such as SAP
Business-Suite and SAP BW Systems will reach end of support for third-party databases such as Db2,
Oracle, and SQL Server. In order to continue using SAP supported applications, customers will need to
begin using the program’s new business suite, S4/HANA, and business warehouse, BW4/HANA, both of
which only support their own in-memory database, SAP HANA. Therefore, customers on Db2, Oracle,
and SQL Server wishing to continue their ERP, CRM, or any other SAP applications will need to migrate
to SAP HANA by the end of 2025.

End of support leaves SAP customers with a few options. The first is to continue to use SAP applications
as an unsupported platform, while the second is to migrate to software tools outside the SAP umbrella.
However, migration is difficult, especially if the applications in question have been running SAP for a
long period of time. The final, and most viable, option is to begin planning a migration of the current SAP
landscape to the supported S4/HANA or BW4/HANA.

SAP HANA can be deployed on-premise as either a traditional appliance approach or as a TDI (Tailored
Datacenter Integration) for maximum control. HANA can also be deployed directly in the cloud which
yields a faster time-to-value. Customers can also choose a hybrid route, which supports a variety of
deployment scenarios ranging from on-premise to any public or private cloud. Each is an effective
option, however, with such a variety of choices available when migrating, making the right decision for
an organization can be difficult.

On-Premise
When deploying SAP HANA in an on-premise environment, there are two approaches best used. Each
allows for maximum control on one’s environment while running and deploying HANA, an advantage of
the on-premise option.

1. On-Premise: Appliance Approach – The SAP HANA Appliance approach is often referred to as
“all-in-one-box”. SAP has been delivering HANA as an appliance model for a while through
certified hardware partners. These partners mainly consisted of x86 based server platforms,
such as Dell, HPE, Lenovo, and Cisco. Appliances are pre-configured and pre-installed HANA
systems that include compute, storage, and network all in one box, with hardware and software
installed and maintained by SAP and its partners. In this situation, customers can benefit from
SAP and its partners’ expertise with post-installation and support. This approach is also simple
and easy to implement.

2. On-Premise: TDI (Tailored Datacenter Approach) – Over time, SAP realized the need for
increased flexibility with on-premise HANA options. Therefore, in 2015, they began offering
HANA on IBM Power Systems as a TDI approach. TDI is more flexible in terms of hardware
component requirements and also allows customers to reuse existing SAP certified hardware.
Additionally, this approach permits adding & removing resources on the same system, as well as
leverages any existing SAP investment such as the reuse of existing certified hardware like
 servers, storage, and networks. TDI also takes advantage of virtualization technologies like
VMware on x86 and PowerVM on IBM Power Systems while allowing multiple HANA instances
to run on the same hardware.

With TDI, if requirements change in the future the customer can add additional resources to the
existing server. This is a next generation approach for deploying HANA workloads and offers
better flexibility, resiliency, ease of deployment, and leveraging of virtualization technology. In
terms of cost, TDI provides a substantial amount of upfront savings, as customers do not have to
purchase all new hardware and avoid prematurely decommissioning existing hardware.

Figure: HANA Appliance versus TDI approach

**SAP HANA is certified to run multiple operating systems including SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server (SLES) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Supported hardware platforms for on-
premise deployment include Intel x86, IBM POWER8, and POWER9 Systems. The HANA system
is designed to support both vertical scaling (scale up) and horizontal scaling (scale out),
however, the general recommendation is that a system must be scaled up before scaling out.

Cloud Deployment
SAP HANA can also be deployed in the cloud. Public Cloud, Private Cloud or Hybrid Cloud are all viable
choices, giving the customer the opportunity to select an option that closely aligns with their goals and
environment capabilities.

1. Public Cloud (Infrastructure-as-a-Service): Public cloud infrastructure allows for simplicity,

flexibility, and consumption-based pricing. For customers with their own SAP HANA license and
a desire for public cloud benefits, HANA can be quickly deployed and managed in this space as
an IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service). SAP HANA is offered on different cloud platforms such as
Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Alibaba. Regardless of provider,
reduction of initial capital expenditure is a major benefit of choosing to deploy via public cloud.
 2. Private Cloud: The private cloud option is a fully managed and secured offering from SAP that
leverages SAP’s HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEP). It is an on-premise implementation hosted in a
secure private cloud, with infrastructure and software managed by the cloud provider (SAP).

3. Hybrid Cloud: Customers looking for a combination of both on-premise and public cloud
benefits are able to deploy using hybrid cloud. In this scenario, some core business applications
such as finance, sales, and inventory can be deployed in an on-premise environment, while
other enterprise applications like CRM’s or those with less sensitive data can be routed to the
public cloud.

How Can Datatrend Technologies Help?

With multiple different SAP HANA deployment options available, it is often difficult to decide which
route presents the most beneficial solution for an organization’s environment and business goals. Along
with choosing a deployment option, customers can also be faced with decisions such as selecting the
correct corresponding hardware and platforms. Since 1987, Datatrend Technologies has been helping
customers make these decisions, delivering IT solutions that move the needle for large to small
enterprises. Datatrend has a wide network of technical experts skilled in helping organizations choose
the right deployment model for their business, as well as a deep knowledge of data center
transformation and emerging technology rollouts that includes SAP HANA, Big Data Analytics, Artificial
Intelligence (AI), and cloud-based solutions.

To learn more about Datatrend, please visit: https://datatrend.com/solutions/data-center-solutions/