Why Linux comes first for memory-intensive applications

In addition to Suse Enterprise Linux (SLES), Red Hat can now also be used as the operating system for Hana. The processor architecture can be , or the even higher-performance IBM Power platform.

The architecture of Linux enables the SAP Hana database, which is based on in-memory technology, to calculate real-time analyses. In the process, the data is temporarily stored on storage media, but otherwise kept in the working memory. This greatly increases the evaluation and processing of the collected data and the speed of its processing.

Uninterrupted access to the SAP system is crucial for companies, as it manages and stores data for all parts of the business. To ensure uninterrupted access to this data, Suse provides SLES for SAP applications, a high-availability solution for synchronous database replication between two computers.

The importance of data places particularly high demands on data backup. The highest possible performance can ensure a reliable and complete backup of the data.

That's why SAP has also introduced its own certification for backup solutions for Hana. This ensures that data backup keeps pace with the performance of Hana. This is supported by the use of multi-streaming technology, which enables rapid storage of data that is vital to companies' survival.

In addition to backing up the SAP application data, it is also necessary to completely back up the Linux operating system with all its settings. This applies to physical systems as well as to the virtualization platforms approved by SAP.

Now that the Hana applications offered exclusively on Linux are also becoming increasingly popular in the midmarket, the previous data backup solutions are coming under scrutiny.

In this context, the management of a company should define the tolerated RTOs (how long may a business process/system be down?) and RPOs (how much data loss can be accepted?) before implementing an SAP system.

The availability of SAP applications, which always handle business-critical processes and are responsible for functioning order and delivery processes, for example, should be backed up consistently and quickly, and it should be possible to restore them without data loss in the event of a disaster.

Large SAP full-service providers such as Uniorg Consulting have taken this to heart in recent months. Here, too, the certifications for the various SAP environments were decisive.

SAP-certified solutions for all products used are becoming an important criterion when selecting backup software.

Soon even more data through IoT

The fact that the trend is moving in the direction of in-memory databases can easily be seen from the topics of Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0.

Real-time applications require real-time databases, which means that data volumes are increasing extremely. Therefore, SAP will stop maintaining SAP systems on relational databases in 2025.

In less than eight years, all SAP software will then run exclusively on Hana. This means that companies will have to think about implementing highlyefficient deduplication technology.

This is because the data backup should additionally be replicated to multiple locations and media, and for this purpose deduplicated data is very performant and also cost-saving, especially for the exchange between data centers.

One important point should not be ignored: data recovery. This is where it becomes clear how good the data backup software really is and whether the manufacturer can help quickly in an emergency.