Dell Introduces New Solutions for SAP HANA Environments

Dell has collaborated with SAP for more than two decades to deliver hundreds of solutions to customers across many industries. Dell helps organizations achieve rapid and sustainable business results with end-to-end solutions that are high-performing and standards-based.

In addition to innovative, leading-edge hardware platforms, Dell offers access to thousands of enterprise computing solutions consultants. Our knowledge experts incorporate lessons learned and best practices into an enterprise solution delivery model that spans hardware, consulting, implementation, hosting and application management services designed to enhance value for customer investments in SAP solutions.

Dell offers customers a portfolio of end-to-end solutions and services in support of SAP HANA applications. Our complement of assessment, implementation, management, data modeling and use case assistance services help reduce IT costs while helping organizations transform their business. Dell’s innovative platforms can dramatically increase the availability and speed of business information which in turn drives insightful decision-making using SAP HANA.

The Dell Advantage

Dell and SAP have teamed up to offer an optimally configured SAP   HANA solution that includes a hardware appliance, pre-loaded software and a full range of services. This solution is reliable, scalable and offered in multiple configurations to address your specific business needs and gives your organization full access to the power of SAP HANA.

Dell’s SAP HANA appliance solution includes:

Powerful technology: Single server configurations, ranging in size from 128GB to 2TB, are based on the Dell PowerEdge R920 server platform and provide a consistent experience and a solid base for future expansion. Dell’s PowerEdge R920 incorporates Intel E7 v2 technology, which is certified for SAP HANA single server solutions, and includes everything needed to support your SAP HANA solution. The forerunner of the R920, the PowerEdge R910, will continue to be offered in scale out configurations until the PowerEdge R920 is certified by SAP for scale out solutions later this year.

Virtualization  for development: Dell single server solutions  are also certified by SAP to run SAP HANA virtualized using VMware VMs. A virtualized HANA implementation allows for a more economical application development environment and is ready for deployment in production environments when SAP and VMware enable it.

Enterprise class availability: The Dell scale out solutions for SAP HANA are engineered to provide resiliency and easy expandability from 1TB up to 16TB and beyond using both fibre channel SAN technology  and a  highly available multi-node design.

High performance: Automated tiering of data with Dell Compellent storage software provides the quickest access to the data sets as it is most needed for analysis.

Disaster recovery: Dell solutions for SAP HANA leverage unique features found in Dell Compellent SAN storage to provide remote disaster recovery through SAP HANA system replication and/or storage  replication.

Modular growth: The Dell scale out solution is designed to grow  from 1TB up to 16TB in modular increments and to grow without disruption to the existing system.

SAP applications in-memory: Application deployment is now supported on Dell solutions for SAP HANA, enabling production  business applications to enjoy the speed and performance of in-memory computing, without the need for multiple compute environments.

The combination of Dell’s PowerEdge server platforms and SAP HANA software allows users to conduct analytics and operations in a single system. Together, the solutions help enable a business to react faster to events impacting operations.

Dell is your one source for all solution components, including SAP HANA software licenses, engineering, and Dell Services that provide end-to-end solution support and consulting expertise. Dell’s portfolio of SAP full life cycle services leverage industry best practices to offer better business outcomes for SAP clients, and Dell’s ProSupport™ and Mission Critical Services to help keep your SAP HANA solution running smoothly. Dell also offers SAP HANA Managed Services that provides comprehensive management and support for your SAP HANA  landscape.

Dell’s SAP HANA solution position an organization to identify and analyze data trends and patterns that can improve planning, forecasting and price optimization. Enterprise customers taking advantage of Dell’s SAP HANA platform get a cost-ffective, optimized in-memory computing solution that can increase availability and reduce risk.

Dell SAP HANA configurations - a complete portfolio

The Dell Solution for SAP HANA is offered in a wide variety of   pre-configured and optimized sizes to meet virtually any customer need. Dell and SAP have worked together to provide solutions that are right sized for each data analysis environment.

• Dell’s record breaking PowerEdge R920 server certified to run SAP HANA, providing major performance improvements over IBM and HP*
• New Dell PowerEdge scale-out solutions for SAP HANA gives customers the confidence that their infrastructure can keep pace with business demands

The Dell PowerEdge R920 server platform is the new flagship, a foundational platform for the Dell solution for SAP HANA. The R920 immediately replaces its generational predecessor, the PowerEdge R910, for all single server configurations and will be certified for scale out configurations later this year. Dell’s commitment to a consistent platform across all configuration sizes delivers a stable environment for SAP HANA that can evolve and adapt as customer needs grow.

The Dell PowerEdge R920 provides:

Performance and reliability in a scalable 4U, four-socket server, allowing large workload consolidation and scale for the SAP HANA in-memory database.

Integrated diagnostics and system management with the Dell LifeCycle Controller and iDRAC integrated management adapter.

Processing power using high performing Intel E7v2 Series processors, with up to 60 cores of processing power with Intel® Advanced RAS (Reliability, Availability, Serviceability) Technology.

96 DIMMs of memory (max.) that support up to 6 terabytes of  DDR3  RAM and providing a massive memory footprint with room to expand as SAP HANA capabilities expand.

SAS drives for internal storage with high capacity and performance to permit higher speed (multi spindle) data access and support all SAP HANA single server performance requirements.

Hot swappable, front load NVMe Express Flash drives for faster transaction rates for even better SAP HANA performance and reliability than earlier generations.

Scale-out HANA appliance configurations

The linear scalability of our SAP HANA software platform makes growing to meet larger workload demands, a very straightforward and non-disruptive process.

Dell combines the superior scalability and RAS features of the PowerEdge R910 platform into a multi-node configuration, utilizing 10GbE networking, and sharing data across Dell Compellent SAN Storage. Designing for modular scalability creates a system that grows seamlessly, without requiring a hardware change when expansion is needed, without disrupting the existing functionality. The coming certification of the PowerEdge R920 platform for scale out systems will allow for even larger and higher performing configurations.

Dell Compellent SAN Storage complements the power, performance, and manageability of the Dell PowerEdge servers and offers the additional benefit of the Fluid Data storage system — a virtualized environment that provides tremendous flexibility in storage management. Automated tiering of data — standard with Dell Compellent storage software — manages persistent storage to provide the quickest access to the data sets most needed for analysis, and high availability features that simplify backups, expansion, and data migration provide tangible enhancements to the SAP HANA analytics engine infrastructure.

Checkout SAP HANA Interview Questions

Dell engineered its scale out solutions for SAP HANA to provide resiliency and easy expandability. This modular scalability is an important feature for IT departments deploying a mission critical solution for their business. The Dell Active Infrastructure solution lets you start with high availability at 1TB, and grow your system as your data processing needs grow, 512GB at a time, without disruption to the operation of the system. Above all, there is no requirement to change architectures or remove existing system components to facilitate expansion.

Dell engineers each of these components, end-to-end, to provide a completely integrated and fully supported ecosystem for high performance data analytics, and the architecture design supports  additional applications as they are released by SAP. This model provides even more investment protection over the life of the SAP HANA implementation.

Dell PowerEdge R920 (with Intel E7 v2 processors) based scale-out certification is underway, and will enable configurations from 1-16TB RAM. The scale-out information provided is based on current Dell PowerEdge R910 server building block.

Dell’s SAP Single-Node HANA Appliance

The SAP Single-Node HANA appliance from Dell is fully contained in the PowerEdge R920 server, making use of fast internal disk and Dell PowerEdge ExpressFlash NVME PCIe SSDs for data and logs. Solid state PCIe storage technology offers high IOPs and low latency performance for maintaining the SAP HANA system logs, while an array of internal 10Krpm SAS disks is used to maintain a copy of the data image.

Dell offers several different sizes of HANA appliances that are all based on the Dell PowerEdge R920 server. These single server configurations also support SAP HANA Virtualized on VMware vSphere 5.5 to support the virtualization of multiple pre-production environments on a single server.

Dell offers a 2TB 4 processor server configuration that supports SAP Business Suite applications running on SAP HANA and supports the transactional capabilities in SAP HANA. This configuration allo

The SAP Single-Node HANA appliance from Dell is fully contained in the PowerEdge R920 server, making use of fast internal disk and Dell PowerEdge ExpressFlash NVME PCIe SSDs for data and logs. Solid state PCIe storage technology offers high IOPs and low latency performance for maintaining the SAP HANA system logs, while an array of internal 10Krpm SAS disks is used to maintain a copy of the data image.

Dell offers several different sizes of HANA appliances that are all based on the Dell PowerEdge R920 server. These single server configurations also support SAP HANA Virtualized on VMware vSphere 5.5 to support the virtualization of multiple pre-production environments on a single server.

Dell offers a 2TB 4 processor server configuration that supports SAP Business Suite applications running on SAP HANA and supports the transactional capabilities in SAP HANA. This configuration allows SAP BUSINESS SUITE environments as large as 4TB can take advantage of the acceleration offered by the SAP HANA in-memory database environment. Dell was one of the first SAP partners to certify a 4 processor configuration.

Built-in High Availability

The Dell PowerEdge R920 is designed for reliability and scalability for mission-critical applications. High availability features include:

• Built-in reliability features at the CPU, memory and hardware
• Intel advanced reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) capabilities
• Redundant power supplies
• Remote iDRAC6 connectivity
• Integrated systems management, Lifecycle Controller and embedded diagnostics to help maximize uptime

Dell’s focus on reliability starts with product design, and ends only when it has delivered a solution that meets strict testing and quality control standards.

Support infrastructure

Dell’s SAP HANA appliance is delivered as an all-inclusive solution that comes as a pre-integrated unit with all necessary hardware, storage and networking capabilities.

Additional software needed

Dell’s  SAP  HANA  appliance  is  an  end-to-end  and  all-in-one  solution that comes pre-loaded with all of the software and management tools necessary. SAP HANA Virtualized configurations also include pre-installed VMware vSphere 5.5 software.

Services and Support

SAP HANA services are also available to assist you with implementing the solution. Dell offers a complete solution to support your SAP HANA environment.

The Dell SAP HANA appliance is delivered with fully installed and configured with all the required software for Dell SAP Service engineers to connect it to customer source system(s).

Dell provides the following HANA services:

HANA Quick-Start Service that enables installation, configuration and validation of the hardware, software and post-install documentation.

HANA Managed Service provides ongoing management and support for SAP HANA landscape. This service includes 24×7 monitoring, ongoing remote health-checks, firmware and software upgrades, including application patching, as well as assistance with problem tracking and resolution.

Rapid Deployment Solutions for BW to HANA Migration that provide rapid database migration of SAP BW 7.3 to SAP HANA using SAP tools & best practices, as well as RDS services for profitability analysis and operational reporting on HANA.

Dell HANA Services coupled with Dell HANA Scale-Out Solutions provides the optimum in HANA capabilities, delivery and support.

Support Services — the Dell Assurance

Dell has announced new solutions, innovations and services developed in collaboration with SAP that deliver greater performance, insight and agility for organizations processing large volumes of data.

This new set of offerings can help customers optimize SAP solution environments running on clouds; deploy IoT enabled solutions; build on specialized healthcare applications; and streamline data migration and analytics with Dell’s world-class services.

Dell’s SAP HANA appliance comes with three years of Dell’s award winning ProSupport Mission Critical services and a 3-year extended  hardware warranty. Customers receive 24x7x365 phone support, escalation management and collaborative support leveraging Dell’s global ProSupport infrastructure of more than 30,000 technicians supporting more than 100 countries in 55 languages.

Dell’s ProSupport Mission Critical services are designed to accelerate rapid resolution by offering quick delivery of on-site parts and or labor and providing access to Dell’s Critical Situation Process.

Key support features:

• On-site Response — 4 hour on-site service with 6 hour hardware repair available 24×7, including holidays.
• CritSit Procedures — Severity level 1 issues will be reviewed by Dell and may be nominated for CritSit incident coverage through Dell Global Command Centers. During a CritSit incident, expert resource teams are mobilized to get you back up and running fast.
• Emergency dispatch — On-site service technician dispatched in parallel with phone-based troubleshooting when you declare a Severity level 1 incident.

Optional SAP HANA services

Dell offers optional SAP HANA services to assist with your implementation.

• SAP HANA Executive Workshop – This workshop helps to develop the Use Case and Business justification for an SAP HANA solution and helps organizations determine whether SAP HANA is a fit for their situation.
• SAP HANA Proof of Concept – Using Dell DIMCAM methodology and IMPROVE jump-start process, customers can see quickly the value that SAP HANA can bring to the decision making process.
• SAP Modernization Services – Dell has developed a portfolio of Modernization Service for SAP applications that features cloud computing, real-time analytics and mobile applications.
• Implementation – SAP HANA Implementation workshops facilitate planning and creation of the Business Justification for the rest of the deployment.
• Analytics Factory – Dell ofiers global business intelligence  consulting and support.