SAP HANA
By SAP
SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented relational database platform developed by SAP that combines transactional and analytical processing to power SAP's enterprise applications and custom data workloads.
Definition
SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented relational database platform developed by SAP that combines transactional and analytical processing to power SAP's enterprise applications and custom data workloads.
Overview
SAP HANA ('High-Performance Analytic Appliance') was built around keeping data primarily in RAM rather than on disk, using Columnar Database storage and heavy compression so both transactional reads/writes and complex analytical queries can run against the same live dataset. This blurs the traditional separation between OLTP and OLAP systems, a model SAP markets as unified real-time analytics. HANA underpins SAP's flagship ERP suite, S/4HANA, and is also sold as a standalone database platform that customers can use for custom applications, data warehousing, and advanced analytics including predictive and spatial processing. It competes with other in-memory and columnar systems such as Vertica for analytical workloads, while also serving as an OLTP backend similar in role to Microsoft SQL Server. SAP has pushed HANA toward cloud delivery through SAP HANA Cloud, a managed service that reduces the operational burden of running large in-memory clusters while retaining compatibility with on-premises HANA deployments.
Key Features
- In-memory, column-oriented data storage
- Unified engine for transactional and analytical workloads
- Deep integration with SAP S/4HANA and other SAP applications
- Built-in predictive analytics and spatial data processing
- SAP HANA Cloud managed service offering
- Advanced data compression to offset in-memory cost