In-Memory Technology and Enterprise Mobility
By Sam Sliman, President, Optimal Solutions Integration
In several recent announcements, SAP binds its breakthrough in-memory technology to the company’s on-device imperative, prompting many SAP customers to ask what, exactly, is in-memory technology? And why is it vital to enterprise mobility?
The in-memory advantage over traditional databases
The limitations of traditional, disk-based databases are well known. They are costly CPU hogs that pose daunting power and cooling challenges. While good at storing persistent, structured data, traditional databases are woefully inadequate for business intelligence purposes. They take too long to query and analyze large amounts of data.
Unlike traditional databases that read and write off of hard disks, in-memory databases move information to be processed into main memory. By storing data in-memory rather than on hard disks, queries and analytics can be performed 100x – 1000x faster, and at a fraction of the cost.
SAP’s in-memory edge
Speeding up queries leveraging in-memory technology is nothing new for SAP, dating back to SAP liveCache technology that powered the SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) solution within mySAP SCM (circa 2004). In 2006, SAP introduced its Business Warehouse Accelerator, an analytic engine for NetWeaver that utilizes in-memory technology to enable very fast query processing, and at SAPPHIRE 2009, SAP announced SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, accelerated version, a solution that bundles BusinessObjects Explorer and the SAP BW Accelerator in a blade server appliance set up.
(For more on SAP’s early in-memory forays, read: Database-free SAP)
This year at SAPPHIRE NOW, SAP announced that it is working with leading hardware partners to deliver an in-memory software and hardware appliance optimized for real-time analytics using data from operational systems, data warehouses, real-time events and the Web.
SAP dubs the software it is developing for this new appliance the ‘SAP Business Analytic Engine’ and slates commercial availability by the end of 2010.
Vishal Sikka, chief technology officer and member of the SAP Executive Board leading Technology and Innovation, paints a compelling picture for the potential of SAP’s in-memory technology:
“Imagine sitting at your desk or using your mobile device and being able to pull and analyze data instantly — and how that would improve every aspect of your work life. Moving forward, our customers will be able to develop better business simulations and plans, do real-time inventory and price optimizations, or quickly evaluate the effect of currency changes in financial systems. Using the new in-memory offerings from SAP will give customers real-time transparency into their business and help ensure that they are executing their corporate strategies as planned. The speed and agility provided by in-memory computing will change the game for our customers, allowing them to become the best-run companies in their industries.”
In-memory technology and the promise of enterprise mobility
According to IDC, the number of smart mobile devices shipped every year will grow at rates close to 20% to reach 439.4 million units in 2014. Recognizing that mobile devices are rapidly becoming the tool of choice among business users to connect with SAP applications, SAP has made enterprise mobility a core component of its three-legged product roadmap -- “on-premise, on-demand and on-device.”
The promise of enterprise mobility has always been to enable business users to instantaneously access, explore, model and analyze transactional, analytical and Web-based data in real-time in a single environment on any device.
To date, the limitations of traditional databases have prevented the full realization of this promise. But now, with its breakthrough in-memory technology that surmounts the limitations of traditional databases, SAP makes the full promise of enterprise mobility attainable.
