SAP HANA is a real-time applications platform that provides a multipurpose, in-memory appliance. Decision makers in the organization can gain instant insight into business operations. As all the data available can be analyzed, they can react to the business conditions rapidly to make decisions. The following are the advantages of SAP HANA:

Now it's time to look at the differences between traditional and SAP HANA databases.

Let us also see how data marts exist in Business Intelligence today. We initially store the data in a staging area. Then, we store the same data redundantly in different layers. Data in each layer differs by the way it is stored such as operational datastores, after applying business logics, and aggregated data. In this case, data has to hop through multiple layers. So, it takes a lot of time to reach end users for decision-making. The data is useless when it is not available in time for decision-making.

Let's go through a detailed analysis of this scenario. Several layers exist between operational datastores and the application layers, in which reports are executed by the users. Based on these reports, decisions are made to run the business. All the middle-level layers, such as warehouses, data marts, cubes, and universes, are involved only in data copying and management processes. Data has to hop through all these layers to reach reports.

There are exponential changes in terms of memory, but not in terms of disk access. Disc access speed is almost the same as it was in the past as there are aerodynamic limits—disks would fly off the spindle at very high speeds.

Hence, data storage in the main memory helped reduce the cost of disk access. But the cost involved in storage memory is too high. With time, the cost of memory came down, making memory cheaper than in the past. So, databases are designed in such a way that all the data resides in the main memory.

Why choose SAP HANA only to reduce the costs involved with all the layers? As an in-memory database that supports the real-time processing of data, data is aggregated and processed in the memory itself, thereby getting the results at an amazing speed. Results can be shown on-the-fly so that middle-level management related to IT can be replaced for fulfilling the new requests from users.