How Linux underpins the large-scale deployment of S/4 Hana

The user group of large and largest companies worldwide that have been using SAP for years is also increasingly switching to S/4 Hana. They account for around 20 percent of all SAP users.

One goal for them is to convert ERP-ECC systems to S/4 and Hana. Of course, they are proceeding thoroughly and will certainly need more time to go live than, for example, companies that can be classified as medium-sized enterprises.

The SAP systems used here are now larger, more extensive or even more complex. Particularly in terms of both the granularity of the business processes supported and the necessarily extensive large-scale SAP infrastructures used.

The database volume (alone) of an ERP system at a large or very large company with sales in the high double-digit billions is well into the double-digit TB range.

It is not uncommon to have several ERP systems. And the number of SAP users can be in the five-digit range.

How big does it need to be?

Only recently, in a workshop, the question arose whether currently available Hana infrastructure components support the ERP use cases of these same large and very large companies to a sufficient extent and in line with their needs.

During the Hana development, in which Suse was involved, all business-related topics were taken into account against the background of so-called data center readiness. For example, the "Hana large mission critical enterprise deployment" in conjunction with Suse SLES for SAP Applications.

Naturally, Suse's experience in the use of Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications at large and very large companies in the ERP ECC NetWeaver environment was also taken into account.

The fact is that with the Suse SLES variant, which is geared towards mission-critical SAP deployment, Hana volumes of up to 512 TB are supported. Far more than the world's largest SAP environment ever to date - which means: There is still a lot of room for improvement!

At the moment, Hana in-memory servers with up to 32 TB RAM are available as scale-up systems, possibly 64 TB systems soon. On the other hand, scale-out systems can be flexibly expanded.

Upswing for Hana Power

The very well functioning interaction of Hana and Linux as well as with the corresponding servers from various Hana hardware providers does the rest as to why more and more large or large companies are moving in the direction of Hana, Hana-based applications or even S/4 Hana. HoI providers (Hana on Intel), but also IBM with HoP systems (Hana on Power) have a share in this.

All IBM HoP deployments to date - now a four-digit number worldwide - exclusively use Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications as the operating system platform with extensive functionality geared to SAP deployment.

The fact that IBM can also be successful with large and very large companies with its HoP servers is certainly due to the fact that the long-standing SAP partner is regarded as a kind of "trusted advisor".

IBM has been playing the role of an "SAP Full Service Provider" for years and, like few other SAP partners, is in a position to offer practically "everything from a single source" in terms of both infrastructure and consulting/processes.

Suse and IBM have maintained a close partnership for years: in the Hana environment, in mainframe-z deployment, or in matters of high-performance computing.