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March21,2014
3 Major Reasons To Migrate To BW 7.4 on HANA
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(http://tfxz.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/naranjas.jpg)OnMarch25,in
thecontextoftheHANA2014conference
(hana2014.wispubs.com/Orlando/),thereisaspecialeventfocusingon
BW7.4onHANA (http://bit.do/bw74launch).Preparingforthis
event,Ivereflectedonwhattotell,say,aBW7.0customeronwhyhe
shouldlookatupgradingandmigratingthatsystemtoBW7.4on
HANA (http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC35096).Fundamentally,Isee3
majorreasons:
1. Itbecomessimpler.
2. Itismoreflexibe(thanpreviousversionsofBW).
3. Itperformsbetter.
SoletmequicklyjustifywhyIthinkthatthisisthecase.Pleasenote
thatall theargumentsarebasedonthecombinationofBWand HANA.
It becomes simpler.
Modern modeling environment
ThereisanumberofnewEclipsebasedmodelingeditors (http://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver
bwhana/blog/2014/01/29/sapbwmodellingtools),e.g.forthecompositeprovider
(https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC52329) orthenewquerydesigner
(https://twitter.com/tfxz/status/322677745937178624) (planned).Themodelingparadigmsare
harmonized withthoseoftheHANAmodelerwhichmakesitacoherentmodelingenvironment,
especiallywhencombiningBWwithHANAnativefeatures.
Less modeling objects
Thenewcompositeprovidercanreplacetheoldmultiproviderand(partially)theoldinfosets.Thein
memoryDSOissuitableformanyreportingscenariosmakingitobsoletetouseinfocubesinthose
case.TheadvancedDSO(plannedforSP8)willfurthersimplifythesituation.
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BPC unified
ClassicBPC,BWintegratedplanningincl.PAKbecomeone (http://scn.sap.com/community/data
warehousing/businessplanning/blog/2013/12/23/unifyingbpcnwandbwip) withthesame
softwarelifecycleandharmonizedmodelingenvironments.Thereisevensynergiesallowing
functionsfromoneend(approach)tobeappliedtotheother.ExamplesareBPCsbusinessprocess
flows(BPFs)andtheworkstatusbeingusedonBWIPmodelsortheperformanceboosts,especially
viaPAK,fortheBPCmodels(cubes).
It is more flexibe.
Ingeneral,BWprovidesamanagedapproachtodatawarehousing.Whilemanycherishthisbest
practiceguidancesomecriticsargueitisdifficulttodeviatefromthestandardapproachincaseof
specialscenarioswhereitmightbeeasiertoprogramoneortheotherfunction,forinstance,inSQLor
SQLscriptratherthanviacomplexmodeling.BW7.4onHANAprovidesanumberofoptionstodoso:
SQL BW
AnytabularHANAartifactthatisaccessibleviaSQLcanbeincorporatedintoBW,eitherfor
reportingoreventhedatawarehousinglayersthatharmonizethedataandcreateconsistencyacross
themanysources (https://twitter.com/tfxz/status/273016719650484224) feedingintothedata
warehouse.KeyfeaturesinBW7.4inthatrespectaretheopenODSview
(http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC50504) orthecompositeprovider (https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC
52329).BothcanbecombinedwithHANAssmartdataaccess (http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC52945)
(akafederation)feature.
BW SQL
ItispossibletoexposeBWmodels i.e.infoprovidersbutitisplannedtoextendthistoBWqueries
asHANAviewsthatcanbeconsumedviaSQL
(http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2014/01/23/sqlconsumptionofbwonhanadata
andmodels).TherebyBWsecurityisalsotranslatedintoHANAbasedsecurity.ThusBWdataand
(partially (http://www.saphana.com/docs/DOC3151))semanticscanbeconsumedviaSQLfocused
clients.Oradditionalmodelscanbecreatedontopofthegeneratedviewsleadingtomorerefined
HANAmodels.
Leverage highly specialized libraries
HANAprovidesnumerousspecializedlibrarieslikePAL (http://www.saphana.com/docs/DOC
3042),AFL (http://www.saphana.com/docs/DOC4267),R (http://www.saphana.com/docs/DOC
4049) tomenionafew.ViaBWsnewHANA Analysis Process (HAP) capabilityitispossibletouseall
oftheseontopofBWmodelsandconsumetheresultasaBWmodel.
It performs better.
Querying + Loading
ThisisthetraditionalstrengthofHANAandespeciallyitsunderlyingcalculationengine.Moreof
BWsOLAPfeaturesarenowcompiledintoexecutionplansinHANA
(http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2013/02/28/theolapcompilerinbwonhana).Alot
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ofloadingrelatedBWfeaturesareexecutedclosetothedatatherebyavoidingdatatransport
betweenapplicationandHANAservers.ExamplesaretheDSOactivation
(http://scn.sap.com/people/thomas.zurek/blog/2011/06/24/hanaandbw730part2#DSO) andthe
optiontocompiletransformationstobeexecutedinthecalcengine.Thelattermechanismisalso
usedforHAPs.
Hardly Any Tuning
Admittingly,performancetuninghasnotvanishedcompletelybutithasbecomesomucheasier.
Simplylookattheblog10 years of no aggregates in #SAPBW (http://scn.sap.com/community/data
warehousing/netweaverbw/blog/2014/03/06/10yearsofnoaggregatesinsapbw).Thedecreaseof
supportefforts(ontheSAPend)correlatedirectlywiththedecreaseoftuningandadminefforton
thecustomerside.ThisisrealworldproofforreducedTCO!
Big Data
Datavolumesarenoissue,notevenonthelicensingendthroughHANAsextendedstorage
capability.Havealookatthisdemo (http://scn.sap.com/community/netweaverbw
hana/blog/2014/01/22/bigdata25pbinbwonhanadashboarddemo) thatqueriesontopof2.5PBof
data.
Thisbloghasbeencrosspublishedhere (http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2014/03/25/3
majorreasonstomigratetobw74onhana).YoucanfollowmeonTwitter@tfxz
(http://twitter.com/tfxz).
PostedbyThomasZurek inBWonHANA
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