Improve BW Performance, Control Data Growth and Build a Bridge to SAP HANA

The Business Challenge

For companies that run SAP, leveraging SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (BW) is the basis of your analytics and core to strategic decision making, giving you competitive advantages in business intelligence and insight. But the more data that goes in, and the more queries being made, the more data there is to manage. It wont be long before query responses slow, database administration is overwhelmed and costs begin to riseif they havent Case Study: Nearline Storage with already. Compounding the problem, your data is growing exponentially faster than ever because your company can track all manner of data more easily. The era of Big Data is upon us. The key to strategic data management for SAP NetWeaver BW is determining how to improve performance while controlling costs with minimal impact to your infrastructure and overhead. Applying Information Lifecycle Management or ILM principles allow you to establish a lifecycle for your data in BW just as you do in ERPlowering costs and improving online performance. In addition, better data organization can further improve your performance.
Columnar DB for SAP BW
Customer: International Consumer Products Co. The Test: Queries into a multi-provider data set with about 17M records and 2M customer master records. Comparison of Dolphin NLS solution with an Online DB with Aggregates and SAP BW Accelerator, and the same system without Aggregates. Results: Solution NLS with Columnar Speed 16 Secs

Database For many businesses SAP HANA, the companys new column-oriented, inmemory data appliance for faster data analysis, promises big results. Online DB Aggregates 71 Secs However, implementing HANA will be expensiveat least initially. Online DB w/o Aggregates 416 Secs Implementing HANA will further require you to be prepared with a stronger, leaner data management strategy. Companies cannot expect to simply dump all their data into HANA and not experience similar system-wide sluggishness. Effective data management is critical. A lean BW system minimizes the cost impact when migrating to HANA.

The Answer is Nearline Storage (NLS)

Dolphin recommends an innovative and cost-effective strategy to control data bloatand, an effective best practice strategy towards better leaner data management. As the SAP industrys leading provider for archiving solutions and the largest PBS Software reseller in North America, Dolphin provides best practices and proven strategies to help companies better manage Big Data. We implement PBS Nearline Storage (NLS) solutions, developed specifically for SAP NetWeaver BW, to deliver optimized performance and Fig 1: Data Growth Challenge leaner data management. The solution moves data from the active database to nearline storage, substantially compressing the data and making it accessible without having to reload it back into SAP NetWeaver BW. The results are measurable translating to immediate cost savings. The PBS BW NLS architecture, a certified SAP solution, delivers exceptionally high performance and robust data compression. Compression of 90% or more instantly reduces strain on the online database, making it easier to manage short- and long-term database growth. The cost savings by not adding expensive blade storage is significant, adding up to considerably lower total cost of ownership. Furthermore, the Dolphin NLS solution requires little to no indexing, reducing administrative costs even further.

The solution features: Column-based data organization which is ideal for static data Cost-efficient retention of very large data volumes Indexingindex lookup and queries for archived data offloaded from SAP Fast access via any field without traditional indices Very fast on-the-fly aggregation (no pre-calculated aggregates are required)

The Dolphin Advantage

Fig 2: Recommended Nearline Storage Solution: PBS

Dolphin helps you build the right strategy for archiving in your SAP BW environment to strategically manage performance, costs and long-term growth with little impact to your IT landscape. At the same time, it is also readying your organization for embracing the benefits of SAP HANA in the future. Significant reduction in data volume and growth in BW databasethe NLS solution removes eligible data from the online SAP BW database and compresses it by 90% or more, reducing storage costs and maintaining performance. Great query response for all data without administrative overheadVery fast on-the-fly aggregation; no pre-calculated aggregates are required, saving significant time from database administration and reducing overhead. Smaller BW Accelerator footprint needed due to lower online data volumeless data maintained online lets you get the most benefit out of your investment in Accelerators. Easier backup and disaster recoverysignificant compression in the nearline database means less data to backup and restore. Improve performance/cost ratio and lower Total Cost of Ownershipusing the right storage for the right data saves costs now and over the long haul. Dolphin has successfully implemented data and document archiving for all SAP platforms across multiple industries. The Dolphin team has extensive SAP archiving experience with R/3, ECC, CRM, SRM and all SAP BW releases. With PBS archive software, Dolphin provides solutions and services, including SAP data analysis, PBS proof of concept installation, implementation and ongoing support. Regardless of whether you plan to tame your Big Data by migrating immediately to SAP HANA, need an interim fix until you are ready to switch, or take a wait and see approach, you still need a strategy for leaner data management. Dolphin has the perfect solutionnowwith nearline storage.

About Dolphin
Focused on improving business performance through Information Lifecycle Management and transformative business process management, Dolphin produces the right solution for each customer, faster, through its unmatched experience in SAP technologies and its proven best practices, tools and SAP add-on applications. Dolphin solutions improve business and IT performance, lower total cost of ownership and deliver high return on investment. The company was founded in 1995 and has offices in Philadelphia, PA and San Jose, CA. Dolphin solutions are implemented across North America and around the world. Visit Dolphin online at www.dolphin-corp.com to learn more or send an email to contact@dolphin-corp.com. Download our White Paper about this topic!

Smart Adaptable ProvenTM

Dolphin, Philadelphia, PA San Jose, CA Phone: 1-888-305-9033 www.dolphin-corp.com Email: contact@dolphin-corp.com Dolphin 2013. SAP and R/3 are trademarks and registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and several other countries. Other product names are used only to identify the products and are registered trademarks of the relevant manufacturers.