Driving innovation for SAP HANA workloads through IBM Power Systems Virtual Server

For enterprises and businesses running mission-critical SAP workloads, it’s time to make some important decisions. The 2027 deadline to migrate to SAP HANA and SAP S/4 HANA is looming. This date is when SAP will discontinue support for all earlier ERP applications and databases.

Meanwhile, across all industries, organizations are facing an increasing need to modernize and adapt to a hybrid cloud infrastructure, allowing enterprises to achieve new levels of speed, reliability and innovation. Strategizing and moving toward the future is a significant endeavor for a team of any size. The answer to this need? The only on-premises and off-premises certified IBM® Power® solution for SAP HANA and SAP NetWeaver — IBM Power Systems Virtual Server.

Let’s dive in to see how it all comes together to empower SAP HANA applications.

A history of driving benefits 

SAP and IBM have been working together to advance innovation for over 50 years. Our strong relationship has allowed us to collaborate on early development stages and upward, adapting each of our technologies to work together. In fact, harnessing the power of both IBM and SAP has never been easier or more effective thanks to IBM Consulting™ solutions. This offering allows businesses and organizations looking for an end-to-end solution from a managed service provider (MSP) to harness the power of SAP technology while working toward their individual goals.

We created IBM Power Systems Virtual Server as a seamless extension of on-premises Power Systems technology, where SAP HANA has been available since 2015. Yet this new hybrid cloud solution has been designed for our clients to take advantage of cloud-based efficiencies, industry-renowned security, reliable performance and the ease of having infrastructure managed by the experts at IBM. Plus, IBM Power Systems Virtual Server delivers low-latency capacities thanks to 15 data centers in 7 countries with even more on the way, augmenting high-availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) capacities.

When clients use the hybrid cloud solution of IBM Power Systems Virtual Server, they have access to over 50 SAP-certified production instances. Plus, they can also access customizable instances that can be specifically sized for their environment—encouraging an agile, flexible approach to today’s toughest problems.

IBM Power Systems Virtual Server is purpose-built to handle data-intensive workloads. Our SAP-certified solution follows the success achieved by IBM Power Systems for thousands of clients deploying Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 8.1 and 8.2 as well as SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12 and 15 Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) boot images.

Innovation with the power of Linux

For years, Red Hat and SAP have helped push innovation for clients with various needs in different stages of their transformation. Clients can get the most from their SAP workloads with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 and 8.2, thanks to a proven solution designed to bring flexibility and a solid foundation.

As multicloud platforms, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 and 8.2 are built to enable SAP clients to accelerate their hybrid cloud journeys without vendor lock-in. Features such as live kernel patching and Red Hat Enterprise Linux HA solutions for SAP HANA and SAP S/4 HANA help clients’ workloads stay running smoothly during migration.

Clients can also take full advantage of SLES 12 and 15 OVA boot images, specially optimized for IBM Power Systems Virtual Server. These solutions create even more possibilities for those clients looking to run SAP HANA workloads on SLES.

Adaptable and agile: IBM Power Systems Virtual Server in action

We’ve worked with BRF, a global leader in exporting pork and poultry headquartered in Brazil, to achieve a higher level of hybrid cloud capabilities for greater efficiency and flexibility. Harnessing the power of a hybrid cloud environment, 80% of BRF’s logistical routing, control and scheduling of products are now running on IBM Power Systems — something very much needed as the company distributes to more than 117 countries worldwide.

BRF decided to migrate to IBM Power Systems Virtual Server to become more agile and resilient. First and foremost, our HA and DR capacities helped bring stability by decentralizing the company’s operations through the multizone region within Brazil. We also helped support its migration efforts toward a virtualized environment while achieving the flexibility it needed. The company can now spin up various-sized SAP HANA instances as needed for logistics while handling the increasing demand for meat on a global scale. Moreover, while IBM Power Systems Virtual Server helped BRF reach new efficiencies, it also helped save costs.

Source: ibm.com