The revolution in how we are using data to build new services for our customers is changing the way business works. In leading enterprises, IT and technology is no longer an enabling support service but the driving force behind transformational change and business strategy.

1. Optimizing Your Data Infrastructure
By Running SAP HANA On
IBM Power Systems

2. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
The revolution in how we are using data to build new services for our customers is
changing the way business works. In leading enterprises, IT and technology is no longer
an enabling support service but the driving force behind transformational change and
business strategy.
Data is fuel for innovation and growth, but a large amount of the data that’s collected
goes unused, and many organizations don’t fully understand how to get value from the
data they do have.
Solving this problem is key for leaders trying to steer their business along a path of
digital-driven growth and innovation, and infrastructure choices are a critical part of the
process. In order to reap the rewards of real-time insights and data-powered decision-
making, it takes a powerful hardware platform and hyper-fast in-memory database
technology. And unfortunately, that doesn’t always come cheap!

3. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
A combination that’s becoming increasingly popular (and we can look at some
customer cases that explain why shortly) is SAP’s HANA database system in
tandem with IBM’s Power Systems server architecture. A report by Forrester
analysts found that enterprises that adopt this model can expect to make
savings of around $1 million due to reduced downtime, save close to $1.5
million that would be spent on alternative solutions, and reduce costs of
maintaining their infrastructure by over $300,000.
SAP’s HANA architecture can hold huge amounts of data – up to a petabyte –
in-memory for the quickest possible access during analytic processes. This
means it can be used for some of the most serious big-data-crunching projects
going. It’s used for both cloud and on-premises deployments and is said to have
around 200 million users worldwide.

4. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
This means that to realize its full potential, it needs a powerful and robust engine to push
it along. Businesses are increasingly choosing Power Systems to be this engine, not only
due to the fact it has the necessary grunt and proven resilience but because it has been
shown to be highly cost-effective when compared to other options. In fact, IBM tells us
that as many as one-third of SAP S/4HANA users are running their installations on Power
Systems hardware. Their claims of high-level resilience are also backed up by IDC's
independent analysis, which has rated Power Systems in its highest category of resilience,
called level 4, meaning that in practice, it demonstrates uptime of more than 99.999%.
The requirement to update and upgrade infrastructure is particularly pressing for many
customers right now as SAP is currently in the process of retiring its R/3 and ECC data
platforms. It means support for them is due to come to an end in 2027, and, unlike those
platforms, their replacement (Business Warehouse) will only run on SAP databases. This
means a migration to SAP HANA is critical for thousands of organizations that want to
continue working with SAP’s flagship ERP tool.

5. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
One customer success story that IBM puts forward as evidence of this comes from Swiss
packaging manufacturer Hoffmann Neopac. After reducing their overall energy
consumption by a factor of 15, their CIO Frank Werdermann said, "Deploying SAP
S/4HANA in the WAGNER AG private cloud based on IBM Power Systems will enable us to
digitize, automate, streamline and accelerate many of our core business processes,
helping us to build a leaner, greener packaging business.“
Another satisfied customer is carmaker Audi, which chose SAP S/4HANA running on
Power Systems as it overhauled its entire analytics operation in a drive towards cleaner
and more efficient operations. Reacting to growing consumer and business-driven
demand for electric and hybrid vehicles, along with greener infrastructure to support their
manufacturing and distribution operations, they credit their migration to Power Systems
with enabling a 66% reduction in the number of servers they are running while achieving
100% speed increases when loading data for analysis.

6. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
For another use case, we can look to the fashion world – where the importance of speedy
action based on insights into trends can never be overestimated. Long-established UK
shoemakers Clarks needs to have products and services in front of its customers within
weeks of identifying the latest shopping trends. Its inventory is comprised of over one
million SKUs that need to be matched with buyers across all its selling channels, online
and physical. Consistently evolving their data operations across SAP solutions has allowed
them to move towards real-time data processing, enabling instant stock-checking and
next-day delivery. Today their entire global supply chain is managed on one single SAP
instance. An example of the challenges that this is helping them to overcome is given by
systems manager John Caswell, who says, "If one of our products explodes in popularity
on social media, we need to make sure we can process a significant spike in orders in a
short window of time. Similarly, winning a new international distribution deal might hinge
on our ability to build the necessary B2B integrations in a matter of weeks.”

7. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Finally, let’s take a look at Swedish home appliance manufacturer Electrolux.
Their challenge was consolidating all the systems and processes the business
had inherited during a long history of strategic acquisitions of leading
manufacturers in their sector. Managing the interface between these disparate
and siloed resources became a distraction from the core growth strategy of
design innovation and customer service, leading to a search for a solution.
It turned to IBM Power Systems, backed up by the FlashSystem storage, offering
the fastest-available and most secure framework for its IT operations. It further
optimized storage capacity and use of maintenance resources by relying on
IBM’s Spectrum Virtualize virtualization solutions. This implements AI algorithms
to ensure storage capacity and bandwidth is being used as efficiently as
possible.

8. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
When setting infrastructure requirements, traditionally, there has been a need
for balance between power and performance versus financial cost. The
increasingly widespread adoption of SAP HANA on Power Systems shows that
power can also be a driver of efficiency and cost reduction, creating situations
where intelligent, automated maintenance and lower energy footprints result in
considerably reduced overheads. This is one simple reason that many IBM and
SAP customers have been able to successfully operationalize highly innovative
data initiatives with greater speed and accuracy than has ever previously been
possible while also staying in firm control of their budgets.

9. Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website
© 2020 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website

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