Hana from the cloud

For many companies, the introduction already fails due to the timely availability of technically qualified resources - even more so if the system is to be operated in the cloud.

The IT consultancy Sirius Consulting & Training AG uses Hana as a database for the demonstration, development and test environment within the scope of its customer projects.

In order to operate the system economically and flexibly, the company wanted to deploy an individual solution that would not be limited by fixed instance sizes and only indirect intervention options.

More and more IT managers in companies are turning to the Hana application platform. With its in-memory database system, Hana enables rapid data access, real-time analytics and the creation of ad-hoc reports.

The platform thus promises a significant increase in business performance and can also pave the way for new lines of business. For example, large international retail chains use Hana to query inventory and sales in real time.

The system requires a high level of financial, technical and human resources, making the implementation of Hana a demanding task - but one that would be no less demanding if it were done in a traditionally hardware-heavy environment.

Sirius Consulting und Training AG from Hesse, which specializes in optimizing IT processes, uses Hana in conjunction with the SAP Solution Manager application management platform to design customer projects and test new developments.

The company, which has around forty employees, attaches particular importance to supporting its customers from the conception phase through to implementation. To this end, Sirius has developed reference models and takes a methodical look at processes and optimization potential.

"Even though we mostly focus our attention on our customers' IT processes, the projects are actually never pure IT projects"

says Michael Kern, General Manager at Sirius.

"Departmental involvement is an important part of our methodology."

The processes designed individually for each customer are developed and tested on the basis of Hana and SAP Solution Manager.

Not always the best choice

Until now, Sirius operated Hana in its own data center. According to Michael Kern, this was not only inconsistent, but also costly.

"We have already been relying on managed cloud services for several years in almost all areas - from the ERP system to Microsoft Office and the file service.

This allows us to use the resources that operating internal IT systems would tie up elsewhere. We want to concentrate on our core business, consulting. That's why the Hana environment should now also go to the cloud."

Some cloud service providers and SAP itself offer Hana operation as a managed solution. However, Sirius wanted an individual solution based on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for its own use case.

The flexibility and scalability of an original IaaS environment played an important role:

"In our experience, the design phase of a project often takes up a particularly large amount of computing power"

Christoph Tschirsich, Managing Director O&I at Sirius, explains the requirements.

"In the implementation phase, however, part of it is no longer needed. For us as a service provider working on a project basis, an IaaS is therefore an advantage over an on-premise infrastructure.

With IaaS, resources are always available when they are needed. Once the compute-intensive phase is over, we can minimize the cloud resources quickly and easily. With an on-premise infrastructure, this naturally involves far more effort and higher costs."

The real challenge, however, lay in the way Hana works. Designed as an in-memory system, it works faster than conventional relational databases.

For this, however, Hana requires very large RAM, because the data is consistently held there. Typical server instances often do not offer enough expansion possibilities for RAM.

More effort at first, more beneficial in the long run

Hana can also be obtained directly from SAP as a managed cloud service, eliminating any hardware requirements. However, this deployment option is not per se the best choice for all companies and requirements, as it entails limitations in customizability, control and, in some cases, cost-effectiveness.

"We were looking for an IaaS service provider with a good pricing model who was willing to equip their servers accordingly and help us with the installation"

says Christoph Tschirsich.

Christoph Tschirsich's team compared several IaaS providers. After several preliminary discussions and due to good recommendations as well as a pricing model with minute-by-minute billing, Sirius decided on a proof of concept with the Berlin-based IaaS specialist ProfitBricks.

"The critical question was whether ProfitBricks' servers could be deployed in the way we needed for our Hana development environment"

makes Christoph Tschirsich clear.

ProfitBricks provides instances with AMD processors that have high RAM capacities. Each server is equipped with up to 240 GB of RAM and the latest generation of processors.

Because Sirius had not opted for deployment as a managed cloud service from SAP, the platform had to be manually installed and configured on ProfitBricks IaaS. This required close cooperation between the technical teams at Sirius and ProfitBricks.

"We have had positive experiences in the process. The technical teams from both sides supported each other productively. Our individual requests were taken seriously by ProfitBricks, implemented quickly and we felt like an equal partner at all times".

says Christoph Tschirsich.

In the meantime, the proof-of-concept has been completed and the Hana development and test environment has gone live:

"Our system runs stable and performant on IaaS from ProfitBricks".

sums up Christoph Tschirsich.

"Hana really demands everything from the hardware: Our servers at ProfitBricks now have a maximum of RAM in the correspondingly necessary combination with the appropriate processors.

This is a very good fit for our use case, even in the long term. And the higher initial outlay is now paying off in the form of low and easily calculable costs for the cloud resources."

ProfitBricks used this pilot project to expand its SAP Hana expertise. The cloud provider works closely with its customers and in doing so develops its own offering in a targeted manner.

"The project shows that even compute- and data-intensive applications can be implemented with cloud resources"

says Achim Weiss, CEO of ProfitBricks.

"What's more, Sirius proves that you don't always have to rely on the often oversized solutions offered by large service providers."