SAP HANA TDI stands for SAP HANA
tailored
data center
integration program that allows customers to leverage existing hardware and infrastructure components for their HANA deployment.
Compared to the SAP HANA appliance “all-in-one-box” approach in which certified hardware partners deliver HANA appliance with all necessary components pre-configured and pre-installed, HANA TDI provides customers with more flexibility and choices for HANA hardware infrastructure. With the HANA TDI approach, customers can choose their preferred hardware vendors and infrastructure components from a menu of supported SAP HANA hardware. By enabling customers to leverage existing hardware and operation processes in their data centers, HANA TDI can significantly lower the costs and allow for easier integration of SAP HANA into customers data center.
SAP HANA TDI further delivers on SAP commitment towards HANA openness. Initially, with the first release of SAP HANA in 2011, SAP offered only the HANA appliance delivery method. Since then, staying true to its commitment for continued HANA innovation and openness, SAP delivered several new generations of HANA appliance (each incorporating the latest Intel processors technology innovations), and at the same time rolled-out the phased HANA TDI approach – with each phase further opening HANA hardware infrastructure:
- SAP HANA TDI Phase 1: Shared Enterprise Storage was first introduced in 2013 to allow customers to leverage their existing enterprise storage for SAP HANA deployments. As of today, most of the major enterprise storage vendors have certified their solutions for SAP HANA, providing customers with a variety of choices for designing their HANA storage landscape.
With the HANA TDI shared storage approach, customers can combine any supported HANA compute server (either from HANA on Intel Xeon E7 Appliances site or from HANA on Intel Xeon E5 Entry-level Systems site), with the storage solution shown on the Certified HANA Enterprise Storage site, to maximize their IT landscape efficiency.
To learn more about HANA storage requirements and design options, read the SAP HANA Enterprise Storage white paper.
- SAP HANA TDI Phase 2: Shared Enterprise Networking shortly followed in 2014 to define requirements, reference architecture and best practices for SAP HANA networking. HANA TDI enables customers to leverage the existing networking infrastructure and network components in their data center, such as routers, bridges, and switches for HANA cluster inter-node and cross-site communication. Check the SAP HANA Network Requirements white paper for a detailed overview of HANA networking architecture and requirements.
- SAP HANA TDI Phase 3: Introduction of entry-level HANA E5 systems (announced with HANA SPS09) provides the more price-sensitive customers with a new choice for HANA compute nodes based on Intel Xeon E5 commodity hardware. These cost-optimized, HANA entry-level systems are based on 2-socket, Intel Xeon E5 v2/v3 family of processors and are only supported for scale-up deployment scenarios, with the maximum of 1.5TB of memory. Check the supported HANA on Intel Xeon E5 Entry-level Systems site for an up-to-date list of supported hardware vendors and configurations.
While HANA TDI provides customer with more flexibility saving IT budget and existing investment, customers choosing this approach also have increased responsibility. With the HANA TDI approach only hardware is delivered, finding a certified SAP HANA technologist to perform the installation of HANA software (including Linux OS installation) becomes the customer’s responsibility.
Customers that have chosen the HANA TDI delivery model are also responsible for the OS provider’s service contract and for end-solution validation, support, and safe guarding. Contrary to the HANA appliance approach, where SAP and HW partner(s) validate and provide on-going maintenance for the solution, with the HANA TDI approach - it is up to the customer to negotiate with the OS and hardware partners individual support agreements for solution maintenance and support.
Several tools and services are available for SAP HANA TDI customers to help them with the end-solution validation, go-live testing and on-going support:
- The HW Configuration Check Tool for SAP HANA (documentation attached to SAP note 1943937) provides self-managed tests for customers to determine if the hardware that they intend to use meets the minimum performance criteria required to run SAP HANA in production.
- SAP AGS provides go-live-checks and other support services for HANA customers, as part of their SAP support license (see SAP AGS IT Planning for more details).
In summary, while the SAP HANA TDI delivery model may provide additional flexibility, easier integration, and initial cost savings when deploying HANA into data center, customers should also keep in mind that this approach means increased responsibility for them and that coordinating multiple partners may prolong time-to-value period.
SAP understands that every customer has different use case and budget needs: That is why going forward SAP will continue to provide support for both HANA appliance and HANA TDI approach, providing customers with a variety of choices and options for integrating HANA into their data centers.
For additional information, please check this
SAP HANA TDI Overview presentation and the
SAP HANA TDI FAQ document.
