Hana Large Instances and Linux on Azure

Less and less SAP customers avoid cloud implementations. Almost all of them who leverage Hana or Hana-based solutions are also using (hybrid) cloud computing or are planning to do so in the near future.

According to a new Forrester study, 74 percent of interviewed companies (SAP and non-SAP customers) said that their strategy was to go hybrid; using on-prem systems paired with public or multi-cloud, that is.

Especially in the SAP community, public cloud provider Microsoft Azure is in customers’ good graces. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is also favored. Google Cloud Platform is gaining more and more acceptance. Even more so now that former SAP executive Rob Enslin is Google Cloud President. Furthermore, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, former Oracle employee, will do his best to gain SAP customers’ acceptance.

More and more Hana deployments

Anyone wanting to use SLES for SAP Applications via Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Microsoft Azure can do so easily. Suse works closely with almost every public cloud partner in the SAP community; meaning that product offerings are continually expanded.

At Susecon, Suse and Microsoft announced that they now support Enterprise Linux Large Images for Hana on Azure. This highlights their close collaboration and their longstanding partnership.

Before the announcement of Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications for Hana Large Instances on Microsoft Azure, there were some new developments. For example, SAP customers can now use Hana configuration with SLES for SAP Applications on Microsoft Azure (with more than 0.5 TB).

The plan is to be able to operate and support SAP workloads/Hana instances on Azure up to 60 TB. This is in tune with SAP customers’ demand to use Hana and Hana-based applications inside their hybrid cloud environments; e.g. for consolidating numerous SAP ERP/ECC systems to one S/4 system.

Help with public cloud usage

Additionally, Suse and Microsoft are optimizing the Suse kernel for Microsoft Azure. By the way, at the time of Susecon, SLES for SAP Applications was the first and only SAP Linux for SAP Large Hana Instances on Microsoft Azure—and it still might be.

Suse furthermore supports SAP customers with various tools on their way from datacenter to public cloud; or in creating an image; or in using public cloud. It is committed to help customers whenever they need it. For example with OBS, the Suse Open Build Service, and more open source tools like Kiwi.