2.3 SAP HANA as a Database for SAP Applications
SAP HANA was created to be SAP’s core database for all its future application developments. In this section, we’ll walk through the history of SAP ERP to the creation of SAP S/4HANA, and we’ll briefly discuss the evolution of SAP BW.
2.3.1 SAP Enterprise Resource Planning
Since the 1970s, SAP has been improving and evolving its enterprise software. As shown in Figure 2.4, SAP has come a long way from the days of SAP R/1 to SAP S/4HANA. SAP is moving away from designing its enterprise software to run on software from other companies, transitioning customers to a faster, flexible, and all-SAP landscape.
There’s a lot of confusion around SAP R/3, SAP ERP, and SAP ECC. SAP R/3 was developed and released in the early 1990s; starting in 2003, SAP began using the term SAP ERP, which was later changed to SAP ECC, and then switched back to SAP ERP. SAP ERP is the main component of the SAP Business Suite.
SAP Business Suite supports processes for manufacturing, finance, procurement, IT management, human resources, product development, marketing, sales, and supply chain management and services. It’s comprised of a set of fully integrated applications such as SAP ERP, SAP Customer Relationship Management, SAP Supply Chain Management, and SAP Supplier Relationship Management that empower businesses to run their core operations more efficiently.
Deciding whether to move directly from SAP Business Suite to SAP S/4HANA or to SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA can be a difficult task for customers. We’ll break down the differences between these options in the following sections.
Figure 2.4 History of SAP Enterprise Resource Planning
SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA
The first implementation option for SAP HANA is SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA. When a migration to SAP HANA is performed without changing the frontend, it transforms SAP ERP to SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA. This means that SAP HANA is used as the underlying database for the SAP Business Suite applications, but SAP HANA is only used as a database. Doing so allows businesses to benefit from the power of SAP HANA without restructuring the application layer; users don’t have to become accustomed to a new system.
The migration to SAP HANA doesn’t change any code or optimize any transactions in your system. It only moves your existing data to memory. In the next section, we’ll discuss transitioning to SAP S/4HANA, which will implement optimized transactions designed for SAP HANA.
Choosing SAP Business Suite allows for a simple migration to SAP HANA with two options:
- A full migration, in which the entire SAP Business Suite is moved to SAP HANA.
- A sidecar implementation, in which an additional instance of SAP Business Suite is created on the SAP HANA database and hardware. This approach allows businesses to become accustomed to SAP HANA and can optimize specific processes in a test environment.
Implementing SAP HANA requires minimum software versions and components: SAP NetWeaver 7.3, SAP ERP 6.0 EHP 6, and ABAP AS 7.4. If your current software doesn’t meet the required minimum versions, you’ll be able to upgrade to the required version with a service pack.
In short, in a migration to SAP HANA without changing the frontend, SAP ERP becomes SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA, allowing businesses to benefit from SAP HANA without changing the application layer.
SAP S/4HANA
SAP S/4HANA is the evolution of SAP ERP software. It isn’t just a release or a service pack; SAP S/4HANA was designed and optimized for SAP HANA and moves away from the SAP R/3 or SAP ERP architecture. SAP changed the core code and rewrote models one by one with one thought in mind: SAP HANA. The simplified, fourth generation of SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA becomes SAP S/4HANA when new business functions are activated.
Although many of the features and functions of SAP S/4HANA are similar to those of SAP ERP, the traditional modular concepts for Financials (FI) and Controlling (CO), Sales and Distribution (SD), Materials Management (MM), Warehouse Management (WM), and the like are gone. These ideas were rethought and reorganized to fit the way that business is organized, by processes: procure-to-pay, plan-to-produce, order-to-cash, request-to-service, human resources, human capital management, and finance. This structure was designed to emulate better than the modular concept how new systems or functionalities would be implemented.
One of the major benefits of SAP S/4HANA over SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA lies in financial management and accounting. SAP S/4HANA covers a range of tasks that includes planning, accounting, analysis, compliance, and risk management. This allows you to quickly build models, real-time cost and revenue analysis, and cash flow optimization. Compliance and monitoring financials become easier and quicker, because SAP S/4HANA centralizes data and eliminates redundant data.
SAP Fiori is leveraged by SAP S/4HANA to prove a new user experience (UX), maximize the speed and power of SAP HANA, and introduce the possibility of a single database for both online transaction processing (OLTP) and online analytical processing (OLAP). The digital core of SAP S/4HANA is illustrated in Figure 2.5.
Figure 2.5 Digital Core of SAP S/4HANA
When it comes to transitioning your landscape to SAP S/4HANA, there are several options. Each option depends on your deployment model (on-premise, cloud, or hybrid), your business needs, and what the digital future of your company looks like.
The three main options are as follows:
- New implementation, also referred to as a greenfield deployment. This option is mainly for customers who are migrating from a non-SAP system or for existing SAP ECC customers who want to implement a fresh system. After the installation of SAP S/4HANA, transaction and master data are migrated from the legacy system. Deployment: on-premise or cloud.
- System conversion, commonly known as a lift and shift. Existing customers on SAP ECC or SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA undergo a complete system conversion. If the existing system is SAP ECC, it will be transitioned to SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA and then converted to SAP S/4HANA. Deployment: on-premise or cloud.
- Landscape transformation. This scenario allows customers to either consolidate current SAP systems or separate selected entities—for example, if a company wants to create one global SAP S/4HANA system or deploy it as a hybrid solution. Deployment: on-premise, cloud, or hybrid.
Note
All databases and tables will be converted into a columnar structure and obsolete aggregated tables and indices removed. Any applications or modifications created by the customer will need to be evaluated for such modifications to work properly going forward.
Deployable on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid solution, SAP S/4HANA is SAP’s replacement for SAP ERP. Although customers aren’t forced to make the switch, all future advancements will be centered on SAP S/4HANA.
Now that we’ve covered SAP’s enterprise software, let’s explore the deployment options for SAP BW and some information on the SAP BW/4HANA add-on.
2.3.2 SAP Business Warehouse
As with most data warehouses, SAP BW is a combination of databases and database management tools used to help make decisions. Providing more than infrastructure, SAP BW also provides preconfigured data extractors, business process models, and analysis and report tools. It can transform and consolidate data from a variety of sources. SAP has been continually optimizing SAP BW to use SAP HANA—not just as a database, but to transform itself into a next-generation data warehouse.
In this section, we’ll be covering the differences between SAP BW powered by SAP HANA and SAP BW, compatibility mode, formally known as SAP BW 7.5, edition for SAP HANA.
SAP BW Powered by SAP HANA
SAP BW powered by SAP HANA was first introduced with SAP BW 7.3 SP 5 as one of the first steps toward enhancing SAP’s products on SAP HANA, much like transitioning SAP ERP to SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA. Using SAP BW powered by SAP HANA means that no other database is required. With the introduction of SAP BW 7.4 powered by SAP HANA, activities such as activations for DSOs and other transformations perform the same way, but the processing has been moved to SAP HANA. This reduces the amount of data moved during each process, thus executing the processes with much greater speed.
Making the switch to SAP BW powered by SAP HANA is a lift-and-shift operation, in which the data in the database is migrated to SAP HANA. This again is just like migrating from SAP ERP to SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA, in that the application layer of SAP BW stays the same but capitalizes on the power that SAP HANA can provide. For example, you can still modify and create InfoCubes, DSOs, MultiProviders, InfoSources, and DataSources, just as before.
SAP BW, Compatibility Mode
SAP BW, compatibility mode is SAP BW powered by SAP HANA with the SAP BW/4HANA add-on installed. The SAP BW/4HANA add-on allows for using new object types, such as Advanced DSOs, CompositeProviders, and Open ODS views. Although this option allows for supporting the existing object types, they can’t be modified or created. The new object types, which we we’ll discuss further in Chapter 5, optimize SAP BW to take advantage of SAP HANA.
Now that we’ve looked at SAP HANA as a database for SAP applications, let’s move on to examine the deployment options for SAP HANA.