SAP Lumira, Edge Edition Webcast Notes with Question & Answer
This was an SAP webcast today – the usual legal disclaimer applies that things in the future are subject to change.
SAP’s Thomas B Kuruvilla said they wanted to show “how easy it is for a line of business user to use solution”
Figure 1: Source: SAP
Lumira Edge was released Jan 19 – see It’s here! SAP Lumira Edge Server by Henry Banks
It is for small teams not to rely on IT
You can be up and running in 15 minutes as shown in Figure 1
It uses Lumira Desktop, share it to Edge Server
Colleagues can review and refresh in browser
Embedded in memory solution to give speed in browser
It has a single portal for admin and end user workflow
The aim is to roll it out to BI project
In future releases it will be Lumira add on to BI Platform (planned)
Figure 2: Source: SAP
It supports SQL 2008 & 2012; plan to increase number of providers, universes, BW
It starts with basic operating system – Windows 7 or 8.1
It can use server systems as shown in Figure 2
It supports Enterprise authentication
SAP is working on a sizing document now
Figure 3: Source: SAP
Figure 3 shows the key capabilities including view, refresh, and quick installation
Refresh is only supported for SQL 2008/2012 – will be enhanced for other data sources in coming releases
Question & Answer:
Henry answered most of these questions:
Q: App server bundled is tomcat with Apache webApp server?
A: It’s bundled with WACS , not Tomcat
Q: Is Lumira Desktop analogous to DESKI and Lumira Edge analogous to WEBI?
A: Edge server is an online data visualization/sharing portal; the desktop is a desktop solution for the same.
Q: Is Lumira Desktop required to create docs for Edge?
A: yes – on prereqs slide
Q: Should “Administrator” eventually have super user revoked and have another non-default user as Super User?…w/r/t security best practice?
A: the install Administrator is used for initial setup & config after that, you can set other named users as Admins
Q: Can the user “Administrator” be demoted?
A: Need to keep as super user because would need it as a super user. Not possible to demote
Q: Do users need to be added manually or is there a way to create group creation and population?
A: currently it’s all manual and logins will need to be communicated manually
Q: Is Edge totally standalone or is there any integration with BOBJ via Add-on for example?
A: Currently totally standalone; can’t be installed side by side with BIP
There will be a forthcoming Add-On for BI Platform which will integrate this “Velocity” engine with compatibility with BI Platform 4.1 SP5.x (without any need for HANA to Publish to BI)
Q: Edge relies on 3rd Party DB for data storage and performance? SQL Tabular for example?
A: No, it uses an in-house SAP developed database codenamed Velocity, which is like HANA-lite without the platform/infrastructure requirement
Q: Can we call Lumira from within BOXI R4?
A: not really! Lumira is becoming a first-class tenant of the BI4.1 Platform
Q: How many users can Lumira Edge work with?
A: I think the metrics shown earlier in the session were ~ 100 CAL + 50 NUL
Q: Is there a limit on the volume of data that can be published to Lumira edge
A: Depends on memory/RAM
Q: Can you expand on “first class tenant”?
A: Lumira was starting off as a new brand and then SAP realized that this would be neglecting our BI install-base
Q: But can another user be promoted to Super User without the world knowing I have a supre user named Administrator?
A: no
Q: Trying to locate Edge Server download on Support Portal. I see SAP LUMIRA (Desktop) and SAP LUMIRA SERVER but no Lumira Team Server (Edge)
A: It is on SMP – need to be licensed to see it
Q: Can we expect a quarterly release cycle for this product?
A: Yes, but it is subject to change
Q: When refreshing data from Edge edition, is the data pulled into the server main memory or kept in the database it is stored in?
A: When refreshing in Edge, data is mostly offline so it gets pulled into Velocity/in-memory engine and kept there for calculation purposes
Q: Is there a PAM for LUMIRA Edge Edition (OS, Browsers, etc.)?
A: Yes – go to support.sap.com/pam
Q: are the Lumira Edge keys provided inside the BI Suite Edge?
A: It is a separate purchase
Reference
Link to request trial version:
http://saplumira.com/products/sap-lumira-edge.php