The SAP HANA system combines SAP software components that are optimized on proven, SAP partner-provided hardware. Two models are available for on-premises deployment, as shown in the following figure:

Figure 1.                  SAP HANA appliance model and TDI model comparison

Appliance model

An SAP HANA appliance includes integrated storage, compute, and network components by default. The appliance is certified by SAP, built by one of the SAP HANA hardware partners, and shipped to customers with all its software components preinstalled, including the operating systems and SAP HANA software. Dell EMC provides preinstalled SAP HANA appliance solutions for a faster time-to-market and easy integration into an existing or new SAP landscape.

The SAP HANA appliance model presents the following limitations for customers:

• Limited choice of servers, networks, and storage
• Inability to use existing data center infrastructure and operational processes
• Little knowledge and control of the critical components in the appliance
• Fixed sizes for SAP HANA server and storage capacities, leading to higher costs from lack of capacity and inability to respond rapidly to unexpected growth demands

TDI model

With the TDI deployment model, customers can choose from a broad portfolio of SAP HANA certified servers that can be combined with SAP certified network and storage components. Different workloads can share the storage and network components to optimize total cost of ownership (TCO). Customers can seamlessly integrate SAP HANA into existing data center operations such as disaster recovery, data protection, monitoring, and management, reducing the cost, time-to-value, and risk of an overall SAP HANA adoption. For more information, see the following SAP documents:

• SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration – Overview
• SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration Frequently Asked Questions