When it comes to choosing an infrastructure to support a big SAP HANA workload, you have choices.
By Jim Holland, country manager for Data Centre Group at Lenovo Southern Africa
The right solution can act like an invisible workhorse, allowing your IT team to focus on more important things. But the wrong solution can bring your whole billing system to a grinding halt, upsetting everyone from customers who have to endure long wait times on the phone to your CFO, who can’t access the financial data when they need it.
If your company faces a similar challenge, and you don’t want to end up with unhappy customers because you chose the wrong infrastructure for your SAP HANA database, keep these four things in mind as you shop for a solution:
* Start with the architecture – You can choose from a variety of architecture models for your infrastructure, and they each have their own pros and cons. The most important thing is that the architecture will work for you and what you want your SAP HANA database to do.
* Flexibility is important – As self-help guru Tony Robbins famously said, “Change is inevitable. Progress is optional.” How flexible is the solution you are considering? Baking flexibility and scalability into the design and configuration of your system will save you a lot of headache down the road when things inevitably change.
* Will the vendor support it after installation? – The number one pain point of the previous infrastructure at UGI was the lack of customer support. When considering a new solution make sure you get the support you need. Delivering the infrastructure and the initial installation is one thing. The key differentiator is the managed services post installation. Once you have a solution delivered, how effectively do the vendors support and maintain it? How will you get support to manage changes?
* Look for a good track record – At some point you will probably want help from the vendor. To make sure you will get what you need in a timely manner, make sure the vendor you choose has a good customer support satisfaction rating. It helps if they can prove a track record of reliability, not only with their support, but with their hardware platform.
By choosing the right infrastructure for your SAP HANA database you can access customer accounts faster, and respond more quickly after an outage. You’ll alsp spend a lot less time on maintenance, which will allow you to spend more time on security and patch updates, with proactive help from a supportive vendor.