SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database management system developed by SAP. It is designed to process large amounts of data in real-time, enabling businesses to make faster and more informed decisions.
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What is difference between SAP HANA and S/4 HANA?
SAP HANA is an in-memory database platform that enables real-time data processing and analysis. It can be used as a standalone database platform or as the underlying technology for other SAP applications.
SAP S/4HANA, on the other hand, is a suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications that are built on top of the SAP HANA platform. S/4HANA is a next-generation business suite that is designed to help businesses run more efficiently by providing real-time insights and streamlined processes.
In summary, SAP HANA is a technology platform, while SAP S/4HANA is an ERP suite that is built on top of the SAP HANA platform.
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What are the main features of SAP HANA?
In-memory Database:
With SAP HANA, you can now store the complete database in memory. This means that disk movement is not needed and swapping can be eliminated. Hence increase in the speed of read-write access.
Multicore CPU and parallel processing:
To get the best performance from new advanced hardware, SAP HANA makes use of parallelism by using all the cores of a CPU, and several CPUs.
Column store tables are automatically processed in parallel.
Even the same column can be split up and processed by different cores at the same time.
Column and Row storage:
SAP HANA supports both col and row store tables.
By accessing data in column-store order, you benefit immensely from simplified table scan and data pre-caching. This can make all the difference in performance.
With column store, SAP HANA scans columns of data so quickly that additional indexes are usually not required.
It is easy to alter column store tables without dropping and reloading data.
Column store tables are optimal for parallel processing, as each core is able to work on a different column.
Data Compression
SAP HANA uses a dictionary per column Operates directly on compressed data using integers.
It reduces the amount of memory required.
It speeds up operations on columns because the columns can be loaded into the CPU caches faster and with fewer loading cycles.
Aggregates and Indexes.
Using the power of SAP HANA, you can aggregate on the fly from any line-item table. You do not need prebuilt aggregates. SAP HANA organizes data using column stores, which means that indexes are not needed. They can still be created but offer little improvement.
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What is the in-memory database?
Storing data in main memory rather than on disk provides faster data access, faster querying and processing.
SAP HANA uses Dynamic tiering, frequently accessed "hot" data is stored on main memory and less frequently accessed "warm" data is stored on disk.
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What is the difference between a traditional database and SAP HANA?
A: The main difference between a traditional database and SAP HANA is that SAP HANA is an in-memory database that stores data in columns rather than rows. This enables faster data processing and real-time analytics capabilities.
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Advantages of column store over row store?
You benefit immensely from simplified table scan and data pre-caching.
Only the required columns are loaded to memory, so you avoid using up memory with columns that will never be used the data is arranged efficiently with all values of a column appearing one after another. This continuous sequencing of the column values is preferred by the CPU.
It is easy to alter column store tables without dropping and reloading data.
