Provides us with predictive capabilities for asset maintenance and real-time forecasts.
Provides us with predictive capabilities for asset maintenance, and real-time forecasts
Pros and Cons
- "Provides us with predictive capabilities for asset maintenance, and real-time forecasts."
- "Needs graphical programming without coding."
How has it helped my organization?
What is most valuable?
Real-time database, near zero downtime for production business.
What needs improvement?
Graphical programming without coding.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
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SAP HANA
January 2025
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
System recovery in version 1.0 failed due to corrupt log files. Version 2.0 is stable now.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Should have scalibity from terabytes to petabytes/zetabytes/yotabytes for both scale-up and scale-out, multi-tenancy approach.
How are customer service and support?
Excellent.
How was the initial setup?
Gradual deployment from straightforward to complex, on-premise and then to cloud platform.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Set up a consortium of consulting partners and hardware vendors to define your tech. Landscape TCO (total cost of ownership) and then approach the OEM for pricing (on-premise or on cloud or a hybrid model).
Check if you can bring your own licenses for some of the existing application licenses on the new platform, to reduce TCO.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Product was the first of its kind for us. However, we later evaluated other products: Oracle Exadata, Exalytics, Teradata, Hadoop, MongoDB.
What other advice do I have?
- Check out the cloud option to reduce your initial cost of deploying the dev/test system.
- Strategize on side car approach, remember to try out the best practice model company to get look and feel for your business users.
- Maintain non-disruptive approach while migrating via demo.
- Try out the rapid deployment solutions (RDS) for industry-specific modules.
- Start end-user training/simulations early on to reduce pushback.
- Split go-live into two (technical go-live and then business go-live) to maintain stage-wise roll-out.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
SAP Technical Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Great database that saves data easily and good reliability
Pros and Cons
- "We can save data very easily."
- "The pricing is expensive."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is mainly for in-memory computing and past data processing, both columns or databases. It's a very good database.
What is most valuable?
The solution offers very good in-memory computing.
We can save data very easily.
It is easy to set up. The implementation process is quite straightforward for us.
The solution is stable.
What needs improvement?
There are limitations on tables. There is a two billion record limitation on a table. We'd like it if there could be more. If a table passes two billion records, SAP goes down.
The pricing is expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've dealt with the solution since 2012. It's been about ten years or so. We've used it for around a decade now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. We've been using it for almost ten years and haven't had any issues. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is very straightforward and simple. It's not overly complex or difficult.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's quite a costly product. It is expensive. I'd rate it four out of five in terms of the level of expense.
What other advice do I have?
I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. It's one of the best databases in the world.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Buyer's Guide
SAP HANA
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about SAP HANA. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
CEO at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
A feature-rich product that is easy to set up, stable, and scales well
Pros and Cons
- "This is a feature-rich product and I like all of them."
- "Technical support should be more customer-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
We are system implementers and we have many clients who use SAP HANA. Some examples of our customers are factories, hospitals, and other businesses.
What is most valuable?
This is a feature-rich product and I like all of them.
What needs improvement?
The price of this product should be reduced.
Technical support should be more customer-friendly.
We would like to see better CRM functionality in the future because there are other products that are better and more effective.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SAP HANA since they first launched the HANA database, several years ago.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SAP HANA is scalable and we have a lot of clients who use this product. We have installed it for perhaps 15,000 users, and plan to increase our client base.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support from SAP is medium. I'm not fully satisfied and it could be improved.
It isn't always a matter of them needing to being faster. Sometimes they cannot answer our questions, whereas other times, the answers come so late that we have already solved the problem.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used to implement our own product that we had developed. However, after engaging with SAP, we substituted our own product for SAP HANA.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We have a team of about 200 consultants who implement, deploy, and maintain solutions such as this one.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SAP HANA is an expensive product.
What other advice do I have?
SAP HANA is a good product and I can recommend it.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
Consultant at a mining and metals company with 5,001-10,000 employees
A fast solution with good functionality that's relatively stable in production
Pros and Cons
- "The functionality is of the solution is very good."
- "The challenge right now is all databases are on S4 HANA architecture. You're running it for HANA, but not all the functionalities are available. If they can speed up getting all the databases on S4 HANA that would help."
What is most valuable?
The speed of the solution, and the clarity offered are the solution's most valuable features.
The functionality is of the solution is very good.
What needs improvement?
The challenge right now is all databases are on S4 HANA architecture. You're running it for HANA, but not all the functionalities are available. If they can speed up getting all the databases on S4 HANA that would help.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The production seems to be stable, but outside of that some of the QA doesn't show as 100% stable. Currently, we're still assessing whether it's a network issue or it's a server problem. That said, it is pretty stable in production.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have been in touch with technical support, but not for any major issues. I'd rate them seven out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was a bit complex for us because we had a lot of other add-on solutions, like the Open Expanding Invoice Management solution. We had to upgrade it because the current version we had, 10.5, wasn't compatible with the upgraded S4 HANA.
I found the process complex because I had to re-implement all open expanding invoice management. We were using ICC and ICC also wasn't compatible either. We had to then switch over to BCC, which I had to re-implement and reconfigure the whole system again.
What other advice do I have?
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Right now, they say the solution is S4 HANA, but, not everything on there is S4 HANA, so it is kind of confusing that they say that they're moving us to S4 HANA, but we are not really on it. Because of that, we're not 100% happy. Once everything is properly moved over, it might be better.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Section Head at a energy/utilities company
Offers great integration and has bettered our procurement process
Pros and Cons
- "Integration is the most valuable feature we use SAP HANA for."
- "FI, or the financial module of SAP, has room for improvement. It has to have some better localization for the Middle East, especially in regards to taxes and the letter of credit cycle. I would like to see better localization from the HCM."
What is our primary use case?
We're using the on-premises deployment model.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution did improve my organization. We had some changes to better our organization, especially in the procurement process. Here in the Middle East, we have some processes that are not according to standard business processes. Through our change management processes, we had to re-change or resend our process to adapt it with SAP.
What is most valuable?
Integration is the most valuable feature we use SAP HANA for.
What needs improvement?
FI, or the financial module of SAP, has room for improvement. It has to have some better localization for the Middle East, especially in regards to taxes and the letter of a credit cycle. I would like to see better localization from the HCM.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We are satisfied with the solution's stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is fine to scale. It converted great.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have a technical support contract with a subcontractor from SAP in the from of an SLA, a service-level agreement, divided into four categories. First, second, third, and fourth lines of support. We are satisfied with the technical support.
How was the initial setup?
It was a little bit complex in the beginning, but after gaining experience training through business structures, now it is straightforward for us. Especially, as we are building our internal team now, it is becoming easier and easier.
It took us eight months to deploy because we are running five modules. In some cases, it may take even longer than that.
What other advice do I have?
The biggest lesson learned was that we started late. We all should have started earlier.
Out of ten, I would rate this solution as eleven.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
SAP manager at Ankutsan
Highly programmable and customizable
Pros and Cons
- "SAP HANA's best features are its programmability and extensibility - you can size and shape the software however you need."
- "The initial setup was very, very complex, tedious, and costly and required someone with great expertise to complete it."
What is most valuable?
SAP HANA's best features are its programmability and extensibility - you can size and shape the software however you need.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using SAP HANA for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAP HANA is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SAP HANA is very scalable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very, very complex, tedious, and costly and required someone with great expertise to complete it. The deployment took two years.
What about the implementation team?
We used an external team.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend SAP HANA to others and rate it eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Assistant Vice President at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Provides great in-memory computing with very efficient response times
Pros and Cons
- "The in-memory computing and the efficient response time are very good features."
- "Uses a large amount of RAM and is costly."
What is our primary use case?
We are end users of SAP HANA and I'm assistant vice president of our company.
What is most valuable?
The solution's in-memory computing and the efficient response time are very good features. It's a good solution.
What needs improvement?
Because SAP HANA is completely in-memory, it requires the use of bigger systems which have a higher amount of RAM. If the system does go down then coming back up is difficult and can take 30 to 40 minutes. It's a big drawback of the solution and one they ought to solve because the multiple downtimes are a problem.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for six years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable so if you want to increase your node capabilities, it's very easy to scale out. You just have to add the node and it gets started.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support people are very competent.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and there were no problems with deployment.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution but running SAP HANA requires deep pockets - it's costly.
I rate this solution eight out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Consultant Application Manager at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Good performance, and data compression reduces storage requirements
Pros and Cons
- "The data storage requirement is reduced from the original database to the HANA database."
- "I think that the pricing is high and it needs improvement."
What is our primary use case?
The deployment model used was on-premises.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the unique style of this solution, on the performance side and then the data.
The data storage requirement is reduced from the original database to the HANA database.
Previously the data takes 100% storage space, but when moved to HANA, the data was 70% to 75%. The data compression is very high.
If you are using SAP applications, HANA is suitable.
What needs improvement?
I think that the pricing is high and it needs improvement.
In the next release, they could separate the modules from the costing of the database. If they bundle it together with a new affordable price then customers will be ready to purchase it.
They need an affordable price to achieve most of the minimum requirement assets.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable.
They keep upgrading to new versions and keep adding new add-ons to this solution. It is helpful to the customers who are ready to run HANA.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not complex to install. Anyone with Windows or a Mac would know the process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is expensive and it should be broken into two products.
People who are technical will accept the cost, but financially they will assess whether this solution will bring them revenue or not. People often ask, how will I profit when the cost is so high?
If you value a good product and can afford it, then add it to the business.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: January 2025
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