Enhanced Features of SAP HANA 2.0 SP02

SAP has recently released HANA 2.0 SPS02 with some exciting enhancements; the intent of the blog is to document the update from HANA 2.0 SPS01 to SPS02.

SAP has come up with recent updates for HANA 2.0 in the form of SPS02 from the previous version of SPS01. This particular upgrade of HANA 2.0 is different since it needs certain pre-requisites to perform the update. The operating system release and patches need to be at a minimum level, giving the upgrade time to properly assimilate the latest SAP Release Notes.

From this upgrade, SAP has altered its maintenance strategy, with new capabilities and enhancements being introduced once every year in the form of SAP HANA Support Package Stacks (SPS), usually around the month of April. Such incremental, yet non-disruptive improvements are listed below according to type:

SPS 02: Database Enhancements

High availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR)

Flexibility has been achieved here in the form of the ability to copy or move tenant databases through various multi-tenant environments while system replication is still operational.

SAP HANA’s high availability landscapes come with the flexibility to deploy multi-tier system replication chains beyond two secondary systems.

Workload Management

Enterprises will be able to minimize administration efforts and ensure accurate resource allocation. This is possible through SAP HANA’s capability to manage incoming database requests automatically according to allocated priorities.

Administration and Monitoring

Efficiency and productivity can be greatly enhanced by assigning admins to individual user groups while leveraging a simplified way to manage user groups, database copies, and a whole lot more all within the SAP HANA Cockpit. Best practices can be enforced across all landscapes through the application of standard parameters through all SAP HANA systems for centralized control.

SPS 02: Advanced Analytics Processing

Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning

Users will benefit greatly from smart recommendations beyond what was previously thought possible. These will be made using fresh intelligence through more comprehensive support for real-time scoring and integration to external machine learning frameworks. This includes a trademarked technology named Tensorflow.

You will be able to speed up predictive application development with a simplified technique to invoke algorithms. The ability to use SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA is also worth noting here, which is used to develop predictive and machine learning models using SAP HANA Predictive Analytics Libraries.

Text Analysis, Graph, and Geospatial data processing

Text analysis assets can be deployed much faster with a highly simplified turnkey process. This is managed using SAP web IDE for SAP HANA. Also available for various data domains is custom configuration along with language-specific inflections for custom dictionaries which are automatically generated.

Connected data sets can now give accelerated insights with fresh GraphScript extensions in order to facilitate navigation of inverted and sub graphs along with necessary graph manipulations. You will also be able to enhance the accuracy and depth of insights obtained from geospatial data. This comes with enhanced validation of geometric objects.

SPS 02: Application Development and Tools Enhancements

Tools and languages

Enterprises will also be able to innovate at an accelerated pace with SQL Script and SQL functions which are new and enhanced. SQL hierarchies also come with more efficient support along with JSON document handling and simplified XML as well.

SAP HANA, express edition

One can get instant access to a modern platform for the development of real-time applications which integrate analytics with transactions for any data set. And this is made possible with no additional cost with the brand new SAP HANA express edition. This comes with high-speed data provisioning, bulk data movement, and federation through SAP HANA smart data integration.

SPS 02: Data Management Enhancements

Enterprise Landscape Management

You will be able to carry out simplification of data and process management across the enterprise landscape with the with SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer Edition for SAP HANA. Importing models from the SAP Solution manager is made possible, along with the representation of native Datastore Objects. One can also deliver comprehensive data movement views across data sources and targets as well.

Data integration and federation

Organizations can now gain a more comprehensive view of their enterprise with an enhanced integration of external data sources. This will in turn bring in enhanced performance for data provisioning adapters along with a configuration for third-party database adapters which are highly simplified. You will be able to streamline setup and management of federated data access to remote sources. This comes with automatic creation of virtual tables along with the guarantee of consistent and dynamic access to remote data with automatic system failover.

Multi-tier storage

Enterprises can now improve system availability while delivering continuous access to all enterprise data. This comes with the support for 2 and 3 tier system replication, and SAP HANA dynamic tiering.

One can gain instant access to the required business data at reduced costs with accelerated data transfers from memory to extended stores, managed with simplified and improved troubleshooting and enhanced diagnostic tracing.

Conclusion

The SAP HANA 2.0 SPS02 is a release to watch for, enterprises and employees alike. It comes packed with new, enhanced and disruptive features, even though the implementation of this upgrade can be carried out in a non-disruptive manner.