SAP HANA is one of those demanding workloads that has been steadfastly contained within the clean walls of the core data center. However, this time last year VxRail began to chip away at these walls and brought you SAP HANA certified configurations based on the VxRail all-flash P570F workhorse and powerful quad socket all-NVMe P580N. This year, we are once again in the giving mood and are bringing SAP HANA to the edge. Let us explain.

Dell Technologies defines the edge as “The edge exists wherever the digital world & physical world intersect. It’s where data is securely collected, generated and processed to create new value.” This is a very broad definition that extends the edge from the data center to oil rigs, to mobile response centers for natural disasters. It is a broad claim not only to provide compute and storage in such harsh locations, but also to provide enough of it that meets the strict and demanding needs of SAP HANA, all while not consuming a lot of physical space. After all -- it is the edge where space is at a premium.

Shrinking the amount of rack space needed was the easier of the two challenges, and our 1U E for Everything (or should that be E for Everywhere?) was a perfect fit. The all-flash E560F and all-NVMe E560N, both of which can be enhanced with Intel Optane Persistent Memory, can be thought of as the shorter sibling of our 2U P570F, packing a powerful punch with equivalent processor and memory configurations.

While the E Series fits the bill for space constrained environments, it still needs data center like conditions. This is not the case for the durable D560F, the tough little champion that joined the VxRail family in June of this year, and which is now the only SAP HANA certified ruggedized platform in the industry. Weighing in at a lightweight 28 lbs. and a short depth of 20 inches, this little fighter will run all day at 45°C with eight hour sprints of up to 55°C, all while enduring shock, vibration, dust, humidity, and EMI, as this little box is MIL-STD 810G and DNV-GL Maritime certified. In other words, if your holiday plans involve a trip to hot sand beaches, a ship cruise through a hurricane, or an alpine climb, and you’re bringing SAP HANA with you (we promise we won’t ask why), then the durable D560F is for you.

The best presents sometimes come in small packages. So, we won’t belabor this blog with anything more than to announce that these two little gems, the E560 and the D560, are now SAP HANA certified.

Author: David Glynn, Sr. Principal Engineer, VxRail Tech Marketing

References:

360° View: VxRail D Series: The Toughest VxRail Yet 

Video: HCI Computing at the Edge

Solution brief: Taking HCI to the Edge: Rugged Efficiency for Federal Teams

White paper: ESG Technical Validation: Dell EMC VxRail and Intel Optane Persistent Memory -- Enabling High Performance and Greater VM Density for HCI Workloads

Press release: Dell Technologies Brings IT Infrastructure and Cloud Capabilities to Edge Environments

SAP Certification link: Certified and Supported SAP HANA® Hardware Directory 

Infrastructure is not the only thing that may be more expensive in the public cloud than on-premises.

Organizations have found value with their investments in Public Cloud; however, we've also heard the stories about some workloads or use cases that were moved to the public cloud that led to buyer’s remorse as their public cloud infrastructure costs were demonstrably higher than on-premises. The initial allure of the public cloud was quickly offset by higher costs, but also hidden costs that many don’t realize until they make significant investments that include systems integrators and consultants.

 Software licenses for many popular business applications are not cost-optimized for public cloud environments. In addition to potentially high cloud infrastructure costs, they may also face software true-ups in cases of resource inefficiency. One way to solve for this is to abandon traditional software licenses in favor of a new software subscription with a new metering method that is more conducive to cloud environments. However, this has the potential for a higher overall software TCO, the license conversion exercise may be confusing because metering methods are typically different, usage forecasting may not be as predictable, and there are hidden depreciation costs of the old licensing which may further drive the TCO upside down.

 To better understand the costs of running a steady-state workload such as SAP in the public cloud vs. on-premises, Dell Technologies commissioned Krystallize Technologies to conduct an evaluation. Many studies have already been carried out on Private vs. Public cloud costs as well as data egress charges, cloud support, and staff retraining. Instead, Krystallize focused on comparing the hardware costs depreciated over 3 years to the 3 year cost of public cloud IaaS services, even though the useful on-premises server lifespan is 5 years.

 The evaluation found that the cost-performance of SAP HANA running a benchmark load on Dell Technologies PowerEdge server was an average of 30% less expensive than two major cloud providers.

The full report: Krystallize Technologies SAP HANA PowerEdge Whitepaper

 While the cost savings in infrastructure between public cloud and on-premises is significant enough to attract any CFO's attention, consider also license efficiency. Many customers have invested significant CAPEX dollars into enterprise applications that are licensed by the core and, as a result, need to be deployed efficiently.

 Krystallize Technologies found that with a similar amount of memory, a 72 vCPU (36 core) PowerEdge server and a 96 vCPU compute instance from a public cloud provider were able to accomplish the same amount of work¹. This finding could illustrate that the cost of running comparable workloads licensed by core, such as SQL Server, Oracle and in some cases SAP, may require 33% to 167% more software licenses to run in the public cloud.²

 Take for instance, an Oracle Enterprise Edition workload deployed on the PowerEdge server - it would cost $521,550 USD for acquisition and first year support. The same workload deployed on the 96 vCPU instance would require potentially spending up to 2.6 times as much, $1,390,800 USD for the acquisition and first year support!³

 Public Cloud may be the right choice for organizations looking for temporary capacity, whether it’s an unexpected computing demand or an unproven DevOps environment; however, to steal a phrase I heard a colleague use, it is cheap to fail in the cloud but expensive to succeed.

 When an organization has a workload that has moved past the POC phase and is in production, that workload provides a valuable outcome or business function and must run 24/7/365. Workloads, such as SAP or Oracle, that are always-on and have a steady state performance profile no longer benefit from the elasticity of public cloud.

 Organizations that have invested considerable capital in software licenses may find they cannot be efficiently deployed in the Public Cloud. The good news is that there are multiple avenues, such as hybrid cloud, for organizations to explore in order to maintain applications and associated licensing where they can keep costs low, while using public cloud for the right workloads. Customers seeking a pay-for-use model can achieve this on-premises with Dell Technologies on Demand and will soon benefit from Dell Technologies Project Apex as well.

To Learn More

• Krystallize Technologies SAP HANA PowerEdge Whitepaper
• Krystallize Technologies SAP HANA PowerEdge Infographic 
• Dell Technologies Solutions for SAP
• Dell Technologies PowerEdge Servers 
• Dell Technologies on Demand
• Dell Technologies Project Apex 
• Dell Technologies Competitive Advantage

¹ Based on the Krystallize Technologies whitepaper commissioned by Dell Technologies, “Krystallize Technologies SAP HANA PowerEdge Whitepaper”, comparing cost-performance of SAP HANA running a benchmark load on a physical and cloud provider environment over a 3-year period, Nov. 2019. Actual results may vary.

² Based on Dell analysis, January 2021, comparing the number of licenses required to run the same SAP and Oracle load with similar resources on-premises on a Dell EMC PowerEdge R940 vs a Cloud Service Provider. Actual results will vary based on configuration, environment, and other variable factors.

³ Based on Dell cost analysis, January 2021, comparing the number of licenses required to run the same workload with similar resources on-premises on a Dell EMC PowerEdge server vs a Cloud Service Provider. Oracle Enterprise Edition licensing costs are in US dollars obtained from a publicly available price list. Actual costs will vary based on configuration, environment, and other variable factors.