German software-maker SAP AG is testing a new software that promises to cut costs on database investment, as well as lag time in accessing data.
“It’s going to make doing business go leaps and bounds,” managing director Kowshik Sriman told Southeast Asian reporters in Singapore last week.
Sriman led a presentation of the company’s high-performance analytic appliance (HANA), which had its global launch just the week before in India.
According to Asia-Pacific senior vice president Simon Dale, SAP has begun shipping copies of HANA, which are expected to arrive at the door of 25 select companies before Christmas.
“We asked them to test HANA before rolling it out on a mass-scale next year,” Dale told reporters from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Initial testing of HANA with a European consumer products firm revealed that processing time of a single query was cut from 77 minutes to 13 seconds, according to Dale.
“Imagine what it can do for energy companies wanting data on how the company is doing in real time, not a minute later but at this instant,” he said.
The secret is processing data in-memory that, according to Dale, also takes advantage of the current low prices of memory and storage.
The Walldorf, Germany-headquartered SAP also infused the software in memory chips manufactured by other companies. A press statement cited that in-memory computing bypasses the process of reading, processing and rewriting data on the database of a company.
“It has the ability to scan 2 million records per millisecond…over 10 million complex aggregations calculated on the fly per second,” the company claims.
Dale said in-memory computing reduces the cost of investment in information technology, especially on hardware, IT personnel and workspace.
The company’s new appliance, however, is also tied to the limitations of the capacity of memories and processors available in the market, which is at 2 terrabytes.
Nonetheless, Dale said SAP’s in-memory computing engine will be able to compress 20 terrabytes of data into the available 2Tb capacity.
“As processors and available space advances, we believe HANA will expand,” he said.
The testing by companies will allow SAP to have empirical data as it extends HANA “to power the whole business warehouse as we roll it out in the next couple of years,” according to Dale.
A SAP official told the BusinessMirror they expect the mass roll out of HANA by the first quarter of next year.
SAP’s launch of its new appliance came a month after losing in a long court battle with competitor Oracle Corp. in November.
In Photo: A sign bearing the company logo stands outside the headquarters of SAP AG in Walldorf, Germany, on March 8, 2010. (Bloomberg News)
