APO LiveCache

SAP LiveCache – The backbone of SAP-SCM-APO.

From the technical point of view the major difference between R/3 and APO programming is the data manipulation in the LiveCache, as it is not stored in tables which we use to do in R/3.

SAP LiveCache technology can be characterized by a hybrid main-memory database with

intensive usage of database procedure. It is based on MaxDB, a relational database owned by SAP, LiveCache technology can be only used using MaxDB other databases like Oracle etc. do not support LiveCache technology.

It is a combination of in-memory data storage with special object-oriented database technologies supporting the application logic. This hybrid database system can process enormous volumes of information, such as planning data. It significantly increases the speed of the algorithmically complex, data-intensive and runtime-intensive functions of various SAP applications, especially within SAP Supply Chain Management (SCM) and SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO).

The major components of LiveCache architecture consists of :-

1.         ABAP code in APO, which deals with APO functionality i.e. FMs & BAPIs

2.         Application functions providing extended database functionality to manipulate business objects

3.         LiveCache’s special MaxDB implementation, providing a memory resident database for fast data processing

LiveCache provides a native SQL interface, which also allows the application servers to trigger object-oriented functions at the database level. These functions are provided by means of C++ code running on the live Cache server with extremely fast access to the objects in LiveCache memory. This is the functionality, which allows processing load to be passed from the application server to the LiveCache server, rather than just accessing database data. This functionality, referred to as the COM-Modules or LiveCache

Applications, supports the manipulation of memory resident objects and datacubes, and significantly increases the speed of the algorithmically complex, data-intensive, and runtime-intensive functions.

SAP APO transfers performance-critical application logic to the SAP LiveCache. Data needed for these operations is sent to SAP LiveCache and kept in-memory. This ensures that the processing happens where the data is, to deliver the highest possible  performance. The object-oriented nature of the application functions enable parallel processing so that the data processing can be at extreme speed supporting the multi-core technology of processors.