HP brings SAP’s hosted HANA on-shore

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blog If you’re the sort of technologist who tends to do deep dives on big data and transactional processing, you’re probably aware that one of the most interesting new solutions in this area to come out in the past few years is SAP’s HANA package — an in-memory appliance which takes SAP’s software and mashes it up with server, storage and networking hardware to support real-time transactions and business intelligence. You might also be interested to know that SAP and HP announced this morning that they would be provided HANA as a service, and (for once), Australia is the first location globally to be able to access it. A media release issued by HP and SAP this morning states:

HP and SAP today announced the HP as-a-Service Solution for SAP HANA, a new offering that allows organisations to analyse big data and unlock real-time insight—without the burden of a significant upfront capital investment. The HP as-a-Service Solution for SAP HANA will be available worldwide with initial rollout in Australia and New Zealand.

The HP As-a-Service Solution for SAP HANA bundles the SAP HANA software license along with hardware and ongoing management into a complete solution provided in a cost-effective, as-a-service model. The as-a-service model allows clients to avoid capital expenditure and lower the total cost of ownership—clients simply pay a monthly subscription fee for the total solution.

“Today’s market pressures create the need for companies to know in real time what is going on with their enterprise, their clients and even their competitors, so they can stay competitive,” said David Caspari, managing director, HP South Pacific. “When HP and SAP innovate together, we raise the bar on what is possible for our clients by providing real-time insights.”

“SAP is laser-focused on our joint clients’ business challenges and technology needs, and with HP as our strategic partner we are delivering integrated solutions that enable them to become best-run businesses,” said Andrew Barkla, president and managing director, SAP Australia and New Zealand. “This new offering is part of SAP’s HANA Enterprise Cloud strategy to offer mission-critical end-to-end managed cloud services to its customers, both directly and through its valued partners such as HP. HP As-a-Service Solution for SAP HANA is a great example of the unique value both companies bring to consistently exceed our clients’ expectations to accelerate innovation with minimal disruption.”

The photo above is of Caspari (left) and Barkla (right) — two of the most important executives in Australia’s enterprise technology industry.

What this launch illustrates, coupled with other recent individual moves which SAP and HP have made into the Software-as-a-Service and cloud computing markets in Australia, is a growing realisation by these major vendors, which have traditionally been very wedded to on-premise deployments of their technology, that they are going to have to jump on board with the cloud computing revolution or watch their market share be eroded.

I am sure quite a few of the senior executives at both HP and SAP are aware of the 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. The book, by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, argues that companies who fail to jump on board with disruptive innovation — which the cloud computing paradigm is certainly an example of — will have their traditional business models disrupted whether they like it or not. What we’re seeing here from SAP and HP is an attempt to get ahead of the curve, before they have their lunch eaten for them by the growing cadre of cloud computing-based competitors.

Image credit: SAP/HP