Enterprises are in search of differentiators that help enhance efficiency and increase cost-effectiveness. The combination of SAP HANA and IBM Power Systems is exactly the type of potent platform that organizations require. Additional to the exceptional features, the combo ensures a high return on investment.
The significance of IBM Power Systems + SAP HANA
Leaders are already cognizant of the fact that IBM Power Systems are exceptional at powering larger computing workloads. They can turn the tables in their favor with the large volume of system memory. The need for logical partitioning makes them the perfect choice for implementing SAP HANA.
If users need a solution that can take advantage of 64 TB memory on-board and also host nearly 16 production SAP HANA LPARs, the high-performing Power E980 is an ideal choice. In early 2020, SAP had announced the availability of support for Virtual Persistent Memory on IBM Power Systems for SAP HANA workloads. It means that utilization of PowerVM hypervisor present on the firmware is possible to support up to 24TB for every LPAR. Virtual Persistent Memory is present only on IBM Power Systems for SAP HANA.
Many advantages can be accumulated after adapting Virtual Persistent Memory on IBM Power Systems and SAP HANA. For eg: it offers faster shutdown and faster restart processing, which extends the outage window for change control, therefore possibly allowing more work to be completed during the outage. On the other hand, the period of the change control window may be reduced, therefore decreasing the outage to make changes.
Also let’s not forget to bring forward the SMT8 feature of IBM Power Systems that will better the cache per core, hence increasing SAP HANA performance on a Power machine as compared to other machines.
Additionally, there are also midrange IBM Power Systems like the E950 that can be used if your demands are not of the high-end.
The cost of implementing the solutions
We are aware that servers can be efficient and powerful, but if it is not cost-effective the solution will be inefficient for organizations to embrace. A three-year financial impact study conducted by Forrester Research concluded that IBM Power Systems for SAP HANA provides a cost-effective solution. The study published the major benefits of deploying SAP HANA on IBM Power Systems as compared to different platforms.
- Decreased cost of power and cooling (4%)
- Steer clear of the cost of system downtime (36%)
- Bought down the cost of maintaining and managing infrastructure (11%)
- Avoided the cost of alternate server architecture (49%)
It is crucial to realize that IBM provides subscription-based licensing for Power Systems that ensures you pay only for the features that use.
Conclusion
The combination of IBM Power Systems with SAP HANA can enable a high-performance, cost-effective environment for your ERP and other workloads, whether implemented on-premises, in the cloud, or as part of a hybrid multi-cloud environment.
