Introduction to SAP S/4 HANA

SAP HANA DATABASE

SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database management system developed and marketed by SAP. Its primary function as a database server is to store and retrieve data as requested by applications. Additionally, SAP HANA performs advanced analytics—including predictive analytics, spatial data processing, text analytics, text search, streaming analytics, and graph data processing—and includes ETL capabilities as well as an application server.

Today's business users need to respond swiftly to changing customer and market environments, requiring dynamic, real-time access to raw data. SAP HANA empowers users with flexible, on-the-fly data modeling functionality by providing non-materialized views directly on detailed information.

Traditional database management systems were designed to optimize performance on hardware with limited main memory, where disk I/O was the primary bottleneck. These systems focused on minimizing the number of disk pages read into main memory during processing. In contrast, SAP HANA is built on the premise that memory is abundantly available, given that 64-bit systems have a theoretical memory capacity of roughly 18 exabytes. Consequently, SAP HANA optimizes memory access between the CPU cache and main memory rather than hard disk I/O. It is a massively parallel (distributed) data management system that operates entirely in main memory, offering both row- and column-based storage options and supporting built-in multitenancy.

SAP HANA serves as a foundation for developing future in-memory analytic and transactional applications. It can potentially enhance the performance of existing SAP applications, allowing those using Open SQL to run on SAP HANA without modification.

Uniquely, SAP HANA leverages the latest hardware technologies by combining columnar data storage, massively parallel processing (MPP), and in-memory computing through optimized software design.

SAP BUISINESS SUITE 4 HANA (SAP S/4 HANA)

SAP S/4HANA® is SAP’s next-generation business suite, serving as a digital core for organizations. Built entirely on SAP HANA®, one of the most advanced in-memory platforms, it employs modern design principles and the SAP® Fiori® user experience (UX). SAP S/4HANA introduces significant simplifications in areas such as customer adoption, data models, user experience, decision-making, business processes, and models. It also offers innovations for the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, business networks, and a mobile-first approach, helping businesses thrive in the digital economy.

SAP S/4HANA is designed to seamlessly integrate with and leverage IoT, Big Data, mobile technology, business networks, third-party systems, and more. It enables customers to create a truly Live Business:

  • Immediate - Empowers business users with real-time insights to act promptly.
  • Intelligent – Goes beyond automation to provide predictive suggestions.
  • Integrated – Connects not only internal departments but also the global ecosystem.

SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA (or SAP S/4HANA) is a business suite built on SAP’s proprietary operational database system and in-memory computing platform, SAP HANA. SAP has re-engineered the S/4 platform to fully leverage the in-memory capabilities of the HANA database.

S/4HANA introduces a new data model by eliminating old tables, aggregate tables, and index tables, resulting in fewer columnar-based tables and delivering a real single version of the data. This optimized database model substantially reduces the data footprint, as calculations are performed on the database layer instead of the traditional application layer.