Paul Marriott, Vice President, Platform & Technology, SAP APJ, discussed SAP’s strategy for HANA and in-memory’s potential in India with Mehak Chawla
What are the data processing and analytics trends across the APJ region?
CIOs are looking at new sources of data that give them a 360 degree view of their customers, business, the competition and trends in the market. The ability to access data in real-time by leveraging technologies such as in-memory computing, via devices such as smartphones or tablets and to manage a large volume of varied data is gaining momentum. There is also growing demand for predictive analytics and an increased focus on ROI. Japan is the fastest adopter of newer technologies while China is catching up.
What’s been the impact of in-memory computing on data processing and analysis?
Traditional databases are disk-based solutions where performance is achieved by optimizing how the fast the data is read from the disk. This was achieved by either using high end hardware or software techniques such as indexes, materialized views, etc. or a combination of both. However, it’s an established fact that accessing data from memory is always faster. This is the basis of HANA, which is a memory resident and ACID compliant solution. HANA is revolutionizing how data is processed and analyzed. It allows faster and better decision making with new ways to look at your business based on instant access to relevant information, along with greater ease of collaboration. It enables innovative new applications combining high volume transactions with analytics. A key focus of HANA is on accelerating business performance while reducing TCO with less hardware, maintenance and testing.
Is India showing a healthy appetite for in-memory databases?
We have seen our pipeline grow in triple digits during the last four months. Additionally, the market opportunity of our current solution offerings on HANA with regards to the India market is among the biggest in the APJ.
Indian customers are frustrated with the lack of real-time information. This is a big problem area that in-memory can address. The Essar Group and Usha International are two big organizations that are utilizing HANA.
Big Data is something that companies are grappling with today. What are the analytical trends around Big Data?
Today, most organizations are working towards a strategy on how to adopt big data and leverage it to empower their business decisions. The insight delivered by Big Data analysis, offers massive competitive advantage to an organization. The value is huge, especially given today’s market conditions. However, there are a few areas that still need to be addressed to capture the full potential of Big Data. Some of these are policies related to privacy, security and intellectual property that need to be formalized. Lack of resources is also a key concern that need to be addressed. Organizations will need to work out how to embrace Big Data and make it part of the corporate strategy.
What is SAP’s strategy for HANA in India and can we expect any innovations in the in-memory space from SAP?
The uptake for HANA in India has been positive with reference customers such as Essar and Usha already realizing benefits from its adoption in their key business processes. As we start to see more applications rolling out on HANA as well as establish partnerships with key ISVs, we will see HANA being adopted in verticals such as banking and telecom where the potential for in-memory is big. The verticals where we hope to see traction in the future are government, retail and healthcare.
SAP’s strategy around HANA in India is three-pronged. The three pillars are analytics around Big Data, leveraging a variety of applications by utilizing HANA as a platform and the simplification of complex data for enterprises.
