Feature Story

By Kat Rollin

May 6, 2008 — To increase profitability while controlling costs, you need the ability to search for new opportunities from within the huge amount of data your company collects and stores about every aspect of your business. SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) is an excellent solution to help you analyze mounds of data. However, the volume of data and number of BI users are growing exponentially, more sophisticated reporting tools are increasing response times, and users expect to execute both contextual and ad hoc analysis. All of these factors make it more difficult for IT to help the business realize the full potential of the solution. The SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator on Sun is an appliance-like solution that can help by accelerating queries to cube data.

Complex Environments Require Automated Processes

For many organizations, compliance is difficult simply due to the number of applications in an enterprise, as the proliferation of user identities multiply across the company. The processes for managing access are usually complex and rarely automated, while access to sensitive data and transactions is almost always controlled manually. In order to gain control of this complex environment, you need an automated solution that combines identity lifecycle management with compliance and corporate governance capabilities.

Super charge your queries with SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator on Sun

One way to handle increases in data volume, users, etc., is to simply upgrade to larger systems. Another way is to try to determine where the solution can gain the most performance at the lowest cost. To meet the challenges of growth with the most cost-effectively and efficient solution, SAP worked with Intel to co-develop the SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator, an appliance-like solution that leverages the prices/performance and advanced hardware design of Intel Xeon processors. Sun and SAP worked together to create a Sun and Intel solution for SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator using the Sun Blade 6000 system, Sun Blade 6250 server modules with 16 GB of memory running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1, a Sun StorageTek 6140 array with an Oracle Cluster File System, and Fibre Channel (FC) and Gigabit Ethernet switches. The solution is integrated, tested, and ready to deploy into existing SAP NetWeaver BI environments.

Accelerating your queries is easy. IT selects which cubes to supercharge. SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator software indexes these information cubes and they get loaded into memory whenever users request the data. SAP NetWeaver determines if new queries involve the information cubes that are indexed in the SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator, and if so, sends the requests to SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator to process — completely transparent to users. At query time, the software caches the information cube data and indexes the data into the memory of every blade, creating a powerful in-memory database. Querying and loading are executed concurrently, but independently, enabling queries to complete in a fraction of the time it would take on a single system. It also reduces IT support time by performing on-the-fly data aggregation and eliminating the need for query tuning. With SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator, users can browse detailed cube data without waiting for IT staff to fine-tune databases, providing the ability to ask questions at any time to gain better and timelier insights and make faster decisions.

Delivered together as an appliance

The SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence Accelerator on Sun is based on industry-standard hardware and open source software and technology to make it easier to implement into current environments without changing the infrastructure. The pre-tested, pre-configured, cabled, labeled, ready-to-install solution features the powerful Sun Blade 6000 system with Intel Xeon processor-based Sun Blade X6250 server modules, starting at $81,999 (prices as of April 2008, subject to change). The 10-blade, 10 RU Sun Blade 6000 system chassis supports up to double the memory and I/O capacity of competing blades — up to 80 Intel Xeon cores, 640 GB of memory, and 1.10 TB/sec. of I/O throughput per chassis, so you can start small and grow as your users, data, and query complexity increase. Shared power and cooling save 5 to 15 percent more energy than competing blades and the system reduces CPU and memory power during idle or low workload periods to save even more.

The SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence Accelerator on Sun is truly an appliance, with everything you need to get started, including SUSE Linux 24/7 service and SunSpectrum Platinum service (or optionally SunSpectrum Gold, or you can add the solution to an existing Sun service contract). Since SAP participates in the Sun Vendor Integration program, you make one call and Sun and SAP collaborate to resolve interoperability issues.

Sun and SAP

To deliver the flexibility required to be competitive, you look for partners who intimately understand your challenges and collaborate to provide solutions to address them. Sun and SAP have been doing just that since 1993 when they formed a powerful alliance to provide mission-critical enterprise solutions. As part of the alliance, Sun and SAP work together to develop joint solutions, like SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator on Sun, so you can get the most from your BI and analytics solution.

Formerly a systems engineer for Sun, Kat Rollin now reports on partner solutions for sun.com and develops technical marketing communications for the technology industry.