With the release of SAP HANA 2, we are reminded of how far SAP HANA has come since its first release in 2010. The in-memory computing platform has matured greatly and SAP continues to add new features.

As you would expect, SAP is consistently enhancing and improving the abilities of HANA. These developments or Support Package Stacks (SPS) packs are, for the most part, released twice every year. The most recent SAP HANA 1.0 release is SPS12; this will become the “stable release”. SAP will support the current release and the previous two levels. HANA 1.0 SPS12 will be supported for a longer period of time, in this case three years from the release date – until May 2019.

What is SAP HANA 2.0?

HANA innovation will continue to be delivered as SPS packs every 6 months, just as it always has. But now SAP has decided to draw a line in the sand at HANA SPS12; going forward, the product will be HANA 2.

As the customer, you have the option to remain on SAP HANA 1.0 SPS12 or upgrade to SAP HANA 2.0. If you decide to stay on SAP HANA 1.0 SPS12 you can:

• Run applications in a constant environment without disruption of SPS upgrades
• Obtain maintenance revisions (but no new SPSs) until May 2019
• Upgrade to SAP HANA 2.0 at any time

If you choose to upgrade to SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 00:

• Bring new ideas to life with technology enhancements delivered via SPS
• Get technology enhancements with SPSs twice a year
• Upgrade required after two SPSs are released to remain compliant with maintenance support (Ex: SPS 00 is supported until SPS 02 is released)

Since SAP HANA 2.0 is a continuation of the existing platform, you’ll have access to a stable, highly available, and secure data environment for your applications. However, HANA 2 changes database and information administration with upgraded high accessibility, security and workload administration, venture displaying, information reconciliation, and information quality.

What’s new in HANA 2.0?

These key enhancements in HANA can help IT organizations transform and thrive.

Database Management – ensure business continuity with high-availability, security, workload management, and administration enhancements.

Data Management – leverage all data regardless of where it resides, with enhancements to enterprise modeling, data integration, data quality, and dynamic tiers.

Analytical Intelligence – visibility into applications through enhanced analytical-processing engines for text, spatial, graph, and streaming data.

Application Development – build and deploy next-generation applications with enhanced capabilities for the application server and expanded development tool sets and language coverage

Transition to SAP HANA 2.0

Upgrade at any time to take advantage of new and compelling innovations for new business opportunity.

• Leverage SAP HANA 1.0 SPS12 for a no disruption path for mission critical applications
• SAP HANA 1.0 SPS10 or SPS11 can be directly updated to HANA 2 or to SAP HANA 1.0 SPS12 to use capture and replay to test SAP HANA 2 before upgrade. For all older versions, you need to upgrade to SPS12 first
• Upon Validation, dedicated SAP applications will run on SAP HANA 2

Contact Krypt to discuss your HANA roadmap, or read more about how Krypt consulting can help with your SAP HANA transition.