Tailwind for containerization

Admittedly, it is not easy for participants or observers at major SAP events to grasp the innovations presented in their entirety or to classify individual innovations according to importance or as a kind of trend.

For example, at the TechEd conference last fall, SAP CTO Juergen Mueller explained that SAP's in-memory database Hana is evolving into a set of microservices to increase scalability and usability through isolated Kubernetes-based services and the use of APIs. This statement is increasingly proving to be a signpost for the use of Kubernetes in SAP systems.

Kubernetes as a basis

You can spin it any way you want: Kubernetes means container and container means Kubernetes. Applied to what was outlined earlier, this means that Hana is running or will run as a container. It can be assumed that the Hana container development is well advanced and should be completed soon.

An important background for this development is certainly the fact that the use of Kubernetes can create the basis for running or operating software or software systems in multiple cloud environments once they have been developed. Once they are developed Kubernetes-native (or cloud-native), they will run in virtually any cloud. In a private cloud as well as in a public cloud.

In this context, Hana should of course be seen as the foundation for SAP applications. But also as a general-purpose database management system (DBMS) for all conceivable database-supported applications in companies, which competes with other DBMSs in the market and for customer favor.

The above makes it clear that SAP continues to rely on open source and the container management technology Kubernetes. This does nothing other than confirm that there is a certain tailwind for containerization in the SAP environment.

But that's not really surprising, since SAP has been a member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) since October 2017, just like other IT industry heavyweights. One project that the CNCF is dedicated to is - precisely: Kubernetes.

Started with SAP Data Hub

Kubernetes is able to advantageously support container apps in cluster environments (physical or virtual machines). Likewise, Kubernetes is high on the list when it comes to efficiently putting a container-centric infrastructure into action (instead of a more rigid host-centric one).

With a container infrastructure solution like Suse's CaaS platform, two things are possible: either containerizing applications directly or using a microservices architecture. Suse CaaSP supports both.

The goal is to push agility on the one hand, and to reduce IT operating costs on the other. CaaSP was the first "container solution" for the (from an architecture perspective) combined system solution SAP Data Hub. This was also the first time container technology was used in an SAP solution.

Above all, this ensures that flexible, simplified and automated options for delivering small-scale services (microservices) are provided, along with the use of Kubernetes.

Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is also used as a container host OS in a specialized version (Suse Linux Enterprise Server Micro OS). The benefit: a small footprint with optimal use of resources. SLES Micro OS is a component of Suse CaaSP and is thus also used as a type of Linux container in SAP Data Hub. Incidentally, Suse is a certified Kubernetes service provider.