Getting HANA in the cloud

Big data and analytics continues to be in the news, not least because many users and industry observers seem to feel it has slipped high expectations to doubt and uncertainty rather quickly. This is, at least in part, due to the overall high cost for businesses looking to exploit its potential, coupled with the complexity of trying to work out just what question really need to be asked of the vast amounts of data businesses find they have.

One possible solution to part of this dilemma which is now starting to appear is the growing availability of cloud delivered big data analytics services in one form other another. And one of the early contenders in this sector of cloud services is SAP with its HANA analytics environment. Cloud-delivered implementation of this were announced earlier this year by the company.

Now Virtustream, one of SAP’s partners, has  been certified by SAP as a provider of hosting services for it HANA Enterprise Cloud technology. Virtustream is among the first SAP partners in the world to achieve this.

This certification recognises Virtustream’s ability to deliver services for HANA Enterprise Cloud with high-quality operation standards. Additionally, Virtustream provides enterprise-class cloud services, including assessments, onboarding, and operations.

The Enterprise Cloud offering also has the potential to take users beyond just Big Data analytics, as an increasing number of SAP’s core applications in and around ERP services are now available to run in the HANA in-memory environment. This includes a growing number of pre-packaged and engineered solutions geared to specific applications areas.

“We are extremely proud to have achieved this certification from SAP, and we're excited to set a high standard for how to deliver enterprise class cloud services to SAP HANA customers”

Virtustream has been certified to deliver HANA across the lifecycle of these Business Suite applications, from test and development, through QA and on to staging and production. Virtustream’s xStream cloud management software and its MicroVM technology enable application-level SLAs for critical SAP Business Suite applications running on HANA.

The company also provides embedded backup and disaster recovery services for all enterprise class applications, including the HANA Enterprise Cloud. The aim is to deliver hybrid cloud extensibility as its certified private cloud services provide reliable transportability of workloads across cloud environments, including SAP’s own HANA Enterprise Cloud.