SAP HANA Reviews

The main use case for SAP HANA is that I mainly support the S/4HANA system, which is SAP's ECC successor to the Enterprise Resource Planning Software. Apart from that, it is used in Business Warehouse, so these are the main uses.

The most valuable SAP HANA features are that, compared to Oracle, there is less administrative work and less complex work to handle, making it very straightforward. The tool itself takes care of the backend work.

The main benefits SAP HANA provides to users include its architecture, which combines both column store and row store capabilities. Some places find the row feature important, whereas others find column store important. It allows some tables to be stored in a column base, others in a row base, and the In-Memory functionalities are mostly the highlight of SAP HANA, especially compared to disk-based memory users. This was the main reason SAP HANA was introduced initially.

Based on my experience, SAP can improve SAP HANA in terms of customer preferences. Many customers still prefer Oracle, possibly due to cost or familiarity, despite SAP mandating that they have to go to SAP HANA. I have recently seen some newer implementations where customers are still happy with their current SAP and Oracle combination, and they are moving to SAP HANA only because their Oracle support will be ending soon.

I have been working with SAP HANA for more than five years.

The initial setup for SAP HANA is simple, too simple.

I would rate the stability of the product at eight because recently we faced some issues in SAP HANA replication. However, I do not believe it is a SAP HANA issue. It could be the tool managing the replication that might be at fault, though we are not sure because the root cause is not yet confirmed. We believe that the issue is likely with the Pacemaker Linux cluster managing the replication, since we recently faced customer data loss during the cluster handover or failover fallback.

The scalability for SAP HANA is generally rated as either a ten or a nine issue.

I would rate technical support from SAP as somewhat unsatisfactory compared to other peers. For instance, when we raise a ticket for AWS or Azure issues, we find their support is very proactive, while SAP's support is quite passive. We often do not know when our ticket will be handled or who is handling it, and we can wait from one to four days for a reply, which is unexpected.

Neutral

When I compare SAP HANA to Oracle, I find that SAP HANA is better and easier to manage. However, Oracle has released a newer version called 19C, which I have never used because now SAP promotes SAP HANA. I see that Oracle is also starting to catch up with Cloud or other new technologies, so in time, they will have additional features that are competitive.

The initial setup for SAP HANA is simple, too simple.

I recommend SAP HANA mainly for large companies. I believe the licensing cost is on the higher side, but for those companies whose performance is crucial, it does not matter as much at the cost of high pricing. Other alternatives might be possible for smaller companies.

I would rate the price for SAP HANA as high.

Real-Time Analytics capabilities in SAP HANA are mostly used by the development team, not as an administrator or support team. I believe Real-Time Analytics is beneficial mostly because of the development team; however, I don't have any exposure to their analytics capabilities.

Regarding analysis and ML features, I do not have experience with predictive analytics.

When it comes to how SAP HANA supports both structured and unstructured data, I am unsure about what is meant by unstructured data. However, I think there are other databases that also support this kind of data. I don't find anything unique in that regard because, for example, Oracle also has File Store or something for PDFs; unstructured data has been common for ages.

I cannot recommend this product to users. I feel that SAP's approach of mandating customers to go with SAP HANA is not a good point; they should make SAP HANA so good that customers willingly choose it. Since SAP HANA was introduced, SAP seems to be forcing a monopoly by not giving options, leading customers to have to choose between staying with SAP or moving away entirely. Thus, I rated it eight out of ten; otherwise, it would have been a ten.

SAP HANA serves as an ERP system that covers all modules in the firm, such as the financial process, inventory management, sales and distribution, plant maintenance, and human resources processes. It is comprehensive and also covers quality management, depending on whether the organization's business process is retail or manufacturing, so you will select the needed module for this process.

Implementing SAP HANA offers financial benefits to the organization. Any return on investment (ROI) will be defined before implementing SAP, as if there is no ROI, the organization will not move to SAP. It also relates to the business process performance, and if it improves or solves some issues in the process, it will benefit the firm moving forward.

Whether I or my customers utilize SAP HANA's real-time analytics depends on the data needed to be displayed, and then choosing how to transfer the data to the analytic object, data source, or database to be displayed in the reports. It may be near real-time, real-time, or running batch every day.

There are tools for integration between third-party systems, such as OData or APIs from SAP to get in or push data to other systems.

Support for both structured and unstructured data helps organizations unify data sources depending on the needed data to be displayed. There are many ways to store it for report displays, but structured data will be better than unstructured data.

There is room for improvement in the deployment process as it takes much time and is time-consuming and complex.

I have been using SAP HANA for five years.

Regarding the scalability and flexibility of SAP HANA in adapting to changing IT infrastructure needs, sometimes it may be difficult and sometimes easy. It depends on what needs to change in the structure, as some entities cannot be changed and require a new implementation, while others can be modified.

My thoughts about SAP's technical support are that the first line will be the vendors supporting or providing SAP. If they cannot resolve the issue, I will need to contact SAP with tickets, which will depend on the severity. For standard T-codes or customizing issues, they might direct me back to the vendor who made the customization, but for standard issues, they can support or start working on it.

The number of people from my side usually involved in the deployment process depends on the scale of the organization and the business process, but it is almost a minimum of 22 to 25 persons. It is a combination of engineers and administrators.

Deploying SAP HANA is not difficult. It will always be the gathering of the process or business process from the client and making every point clear and defining it to make the implementation as the best practice.

SAP HANA implementation usually or always takes a minimum of eight or nine months if everything goes okay. The reason it takes so long for SAP HANA is that it depends on the needed modules to be implemented and may be split into many phases to make a smooth transition for the employees to accept these changes and learn how to use the system.

The whole project is quite complex, starting from gathering information, preparing the configuration system, training the team, to the go-live time, and making the go-live process, followed by post-implementation support. All this process may take from eight to nine months or more. I would rate this solution a 9 out of 10.

For SAP HANA, my first project involved migrating from SAP HANA to BW due to cost concerns. The client requested replacing SAP HANA tables with BW tables. I started working on this in 2015.

SAP HANA's best features include the ability to connect to any database, including SQL legacy systems and ECC S/4HANA. We have built dashboards using legacy systems and SAP. We replicated data from legacy systems and ECC, created calculation views on top of the databases, and developed Power BI reports, Excelsius dashboards, and recently started Power BI dashboards using SAP HANA.

We have developed C-Store dashboards on top of calculation views using Power BI and Excelsius. For example, we recently created dashboards for tickets and CRs, showing how many tickets were resolved, which tickets were sent to which employee, and how many CRs have been closed. Using this dashboard, they can make useful decisions to improve their business.

The database loading performance is high using SAP HANA, and in BW, the loading and reporting performance is superior based on my experience. One of our dashboards using Excelsius was previously developed on normal BW on Oracle data, which took 10 minutes to open. After developing the same calculation views using those tables and replacing them with calculation views in Excelsius, the dashboard opened in seconds.

The benefits include high database loading performance, superior reporting performance, and ease of use. We can connect legacy systems and create reporting. There is inbuilt functionality such as SSC, and we can create easy reporting. End users can create their own dashboards using SSC and Power BI.

We face difficulties replicating the AC DOCA table, which is a huge table, from S/4HANA to SAP HANA BAS, Business Application Studio, or HANA Studio using SLT.

For developing Power BI reports using the AC DOCA table, we are replicating full data daily. We want to implement delta load, and while we used OData service for one client, the delta OData service link is not properly updating delta records.

Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high. Due to high pricing, many clients are moving from BW on SAP HANA and S/4HANA to Azure SQL. I have worked with several clients who have moved all data flows to Azure and developed Power BI queries on top of Azure. Many clients are also using Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The certification costs are also very high, more than ₹1,40,000 INR. Previously, it was ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. I want to pursue three certifications but am unable to do so due to the cost.

I have been using SAP HANA for 10 years.

Regarding stability, they are using legacy systems and have implemented SAP HANA. They have installed Business Content, BW data sources, and we have built new data flows and new reports for them, including functions.

The SAP support experience has not been satisfactory. When we raise an incident, they take more than 25-30 days to respond. In the meantime, we search for SAP notes and resolve issues ourselves.

For documentation, we use the SAP portal where we search for existing documents and solutions posted by others to resolve similar issues.

The community support is better than the official SAP support.

Neutral

We recently worked with a pigmentation company where one of their plants was using SAP HANA. When they acquired another plant, we implemented SAP HANA in that organization with a team of approximately 15 members, including basis persons, functional staff, and the BW team.

I have worked on both SAP HANA and Azure projects. I am more comfortable working with SAP HANA than Azure. Clients choose Azure mainly due to pricing considerations, and it requires more coding which is more difficult for me. I prefer to work with SAP HANA as it is easier to use than Azure.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate SAP HANA an 8 out of 10.

SAP HANA is one of the top-tier solutions in the market. The reporting and analytics capabilities are essential features of the platform.

SAP HANA is a cost-saving solution that helps save money and serves as a time-saving solution that helps save time.

Positive

I have worked with various SAP solutions, including SAP HANA.

The flexibility of SAP HANA in terms of adapting to IT infrastructure needs is fair, not particularly good.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate SAP HANA an 8.

SAP HANA is my main background as a technical consultant. I have worked with SAP HANA from planning the implementation itself, installation, upgrade, and working in analytics on SAP HANA, Data Warehouse architect with SAP HANA itself on-premise and on-cloud.

I also built development on SAP HANA, not even in ERP on SAP HANA. We build native Fiori applications on SAP HANA itself.

For enterprise customers and big customers, I rate SAP HANA as nine.

The best feature in SAP HANA is that it works in-memory, with data processing in-memory itself. It saves a lot of time and is very quick, supporting decision-makers for strategic decisions.

The processing data in-memory itself enables SAP HANA to support real-time operations.

SAP HANA and SAP have many tools that integrate with different source systems which virtualize the data into SAP HANA, performing real-time operations from other source systems plus the SAP source system with high speed.

SAP HANA is very flexible and supports many different scenarios. It can work with analytics, GenAI use cases, and also supports transactional applications.

This is a critical aspect. SAP HANA supports structured data very effectively. For unstructured data, it is difficult. It requires another solution besides SAP HANA to extract the data from unstructured sources, and then transform this unstructured data into structured format so SAP HANA can process it. This is one of the negative factors of SAP HANA as it cannot process unstructured data itself.

It depends on the use cases of the customer and the business needs. If the customer needs real-time operations, which is one of the main features of SAP HANA, and needs quick decisions, plus integration with many structured source systems simultaneously, SAP HANA can support it.

For the customization part, it is applicable, whether in cloud or on-premise. It is easy to adapt. However, for the pricing part, this is the main issue. SAP has to do much more on SAP HANA pricing because it is quite expensive.

I started using SAP HANA around 2014, so it has been 11 years working with SAP HANA.

SAP HANA is a stable solution. Now, SAP HANA's age is around 15 years, since 2010. It is flexible, stable, and implemented at many customers with big data.

Technical support from SAP nowadays is not at the same level as in the old days. I can rate it as six.

Positive

Business Objects will become obsolete after maybe one year. In 2027, it will be obsolete and should be replaced by SAC.

I started SAP in 2003, accumulating 22 years of experience in SAP. I have worked in different solutions and industries such as Oil and Gas, manufacturing, food and beverage, real estate, and defense industries.

I started my career with SAP ERP R/3, then ECC 5, then ECC 6, all its eight enhancement packages, EHP1 till EHP8. I have worked with S/4HANA, different landscapes and different cloud solutions for SAP. I have worked with SAP on Oracle, SAP on HANA, SAP on DB2, SAP on SQL, different databases, and different hardware including Dell, IBM Power Machine, and mainframe.

In cloud solutions, we have deployed SAP on IBM Cloud, Azure Cloud, AWS Cloud, GCP Cloud, and a domestic cloud in Egypt called Raya Data Center. I currently have around 12 to 15 SAP RISE projects between Brownfield and Greenfield. I have experience in analytics, Data Warehouse on-premise on SAP HANA, and HANA Cloud as a Data Warehouse. I have worked with Business Objects, SAP Data Services, SAP Data Intelligence on-premise and on-cloud, SAP SAC analytics, and SAC planning. I also have experience with SuccessFactors and Ariba integration.

My customers are usually enterprise businesses. For example, in Oil and Gas, some of the biggest companies in the Middle East such as Aramco, ADNOC, Qatar Petroleum have big data and have implemented S/4HANA on SAP HANA database. Multinationals such as Mercedes, BMW, British Petroleum in Oil and Gas all use SAP HANA. Orange, a telco operator, uses SAP HANA in France, and Vodafone in Germany also uses SAP HANA.

It is straightforward, similar to any relational database such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL. There are only some differences in structure and data processing. It is easy to learn.

I rate SAP HANA a 9 out of 10.

HANA is used to analyze data quickly and build real-time dashboards, which allows us to track data live and monitor alerts. This helps in decision-making and responding to changes promptly.

We are able to perform read and write operations much quicker, which saves us significant time and resources. Additionally, it allows for real-time monitoring and reporting, which was previously delayed.

The data in HANA is stored in columns rather than rows, which speeds up searches and aggregations. This architecture allows for faster data processing and real-time analytics that were not possible with traditional databases.

The main issue is the ecosystem, which lacks the widespread support that SQL enjoys. Finding plug-ins or third-party tools to integrate with HANA is challenging, and this necessitates additional developmental efforts.

I have used SAP HANA for about a year and a half.

We have found it to be extremely stable with no major issues. However, there is always a fear factor because it is newer and not as battle-tested as other products.

HANA is highly scalable. Our operations have grown from a hundred data operations a day to as many in a couple of seconds. We have gone from a single server to multiple instances, both on the cloud and on-premises.

The support is lacking and not worth the premium price. If support was just a nominal fee, it would be perceived differently. We feel we should be getting better service for what we pay.

Neutral

We previously worked with Oracle and Microsoft. We switched due to the overall business suite applications offered by SAP were more beneficial.

The initial setup for the S4 HANA Cloud took seven months mainly due to custom development work.

We employed a team of fifty consultants who worked on different modules and aspects of the system. They are also involved in maintenance and troubleshooting activities.

We do not feel we're getting value for the investment due to the additional resources needed for integration and maintenance. We might have negotiated a better deal if we'd known the extent of the challenges.

We find the pricing to be not cost-effective, especially given the extra resources required for integrations. It's a recurring subscription model, which is expensive compared to legacy systems with just a maintenance fee.

We evaluated Oracle and Microsoft before settling on SAP.

I would recommend SAP HANA only to organizations planning to use other SAP platforms in the future. If you're dealing with legacy systems and integrations, HANA might not be suitable due to the ecosystem challenges.

I'd rate the solution five out of ten.

We are a consulting company, and we use SAP HANA mainly to understand and recommend to our customers.

It's an ERP system. Everybody needs an ERP system. You either have SAP HANA, Microsoft Navision, or you need an ERP system to do the accounting, production planning, purchasing, and sales.

SAP HANA has everything, and that is the advantage of SAP because you can get everything in one suite, whatever you need for your company. If it's from finance up to packaging, warehousing, everything is in there. The advantage of SAP HANA is not a special feature; the advantage is that everything is there. It's a complete stack.

They also have analytics features such as real-time analytics, some predictive analysis, and they have Signavio.

SAP has actually too much with SAP HANA. They should rather let others do the specialty works, and SAP wants to do the whole business for themselves. The problem is the price; it's too expensive for what it actually delivers.

The deployment of SAP HANA is far too complicated and takes far too long. The typical implementation time is between six months and two years.

The deployment of SAP HANA is far too complicated and takes far too long. The typical implementation time is between six months and two years.

Unlimited scalability is one of the strengths of SAP HANA.

I hope they are satisfied with SAP technical support, because we do the support. We are the ones who do the support for them.

It's a very big company, and it takes a while until you get real help from them. If it's really urgent, people pay expensive money for the maintenance, but technically speaking, the support is very difficult with every big company.

SAP support would rate a three on a scale from one to ten.

Time to respond to SAP support is an issue, and finding the right person and handling the whole process are problems too.

We can handle most things ourselves. We contact SAP only if it's really in the core and needs fixing.

Neutral

If you're a big concern, if you're a BMW, Volkswagen, or Airbus, then it's fine because that is what you need. But if you're a mid-sized business, then you really should look if the cost is really bringing you a return on investment.

If I compare SAP HANA with Oracle, it's quite similar, although Infor is doing a little bit better. Microsoft is easier to implement, and Odoo, the open-source variation, is the best, but it lacks features. It's more a CRM tool.

On average, the prices for Oracle and SAP HANA are quite the same.

The customers who purchase SAP HANA range from top to the middle because it's so expensive. It is either the higher mid-sized businesses or the big concerns that are using it.

Pricing might be an issue regarding SAP HANA.

Everybody adopts it. If you cannot work with SAP, you're out of the business. Power BI is the most popular one in this context, and SAP itself is selling Signavio, which is their own product, but it's too expensive.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate SAP HANA a seven.

My main use case for SAP HANA is financial close and income statement analysis, which my team typically uses it for. A quick specific example of how we use SAP HANA for financial close and income statement analysis is HANA-based GL line item reporting, which made things easier and faster.

Using SAP HANA helps our workflow and decision-making as it saves time.

Multiple users can post, analyze, and validate data at the same time with SAP HANA, leading to no system slowdowns during peak close activities.

In my experience, the best features SAP HANA offers include no need to wait for batch jobs or data replications, allowing for real-time P&L and balance sheet during month-end close. Having real-time access to those reports significantly changes our month-end process and our team's workflow.

Access to live dashboards and drill-downs means questions are answered instantly during review meetings, shifting the focus from 'Is it correct?' to 'What should we do about this?', thus moving the conversation to margin, cost control, and performance drivers.

In practice, SAP HANA is very powerful, but I see areas where it could be improved to make life easier for users and teams, such as having too many Fiori apps with overlapping functionality, navigation not being intuitive for finance users, and users still needing to switch between Fiori and SAP GUI.

I have been using SAP HANA for four and a half years.

SAP HANA is stable in my experience.

The scalability of SAP HANA is very high because it supports both vertical and horizontal scaling and handles large data volumes efficiently, allowing for adding more modules or users without performance issues.

The customer support for SAP HANA is good.

I have seen a return on investment with SAP HANA as it typically delivers measurable ROI, especially in finance and month-end close processes.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for SAP HANA is that I did not encounter any challenges.

My advice for others looking into using SAP HANA is to not choose SAP HANA only for speed; plan for data growth and housing, invest in training earlier, start with a strong use case, and prepare for migration effort. I rate this review eight out of ten because many reporting changes still require IT or technical support, and CDS views and advanced analytics are not easily configurable by finance users.

My clients use SAP HANA mostly for data virtualization and relational database tools.

Data virtualization is the core function when discussing the use case for SAP HANA.

I have done some integration of artificial intelligence technologies with SAP HANA.

The main benefits SAP HANA provides to my clients include saving time and money, as these are measurable benefits that their product provides.

I have found the data processing capabilities in SAP HANA to be the most valuable features.

Real-time processing capabilities are also very helpful for many use cases.

Based on my experience and my clients' feedback, one point for improvement for SAP HANA is to make the AWS pricing model more flexible.

The setup process and deployment process for SAP HANA is complex.

I don't have a suggestion for additional functionality in SAP at this time.

I had a conversation with my colleague Tatiana approximately two years back, but I'm not sure about the details.

The setup process and deployment process for SAP HANA is complex.

I would rate the stability a 10 out of 10, and it absolutely deserves that mark.

The scalability rating is based on the ability to expand.

My clients who use SAP HANA are enterprise companies, not small businesses.

For technical support from the vendor SAP, I would rate them based on their responsiveness and effectiveness.

Positive

I'm currently working with Oracle Linux, and I haven't moved to another Linux OS.

I purchased it from the client side, and regarding Oracle Linux, I didn't buy it on AWS marketplace.

We can compare SAP HANA with various products when discussing competitors in the market.

I'm mostly working with SAP products.

I work with solutions such as Identity Management, PowerDesigner, and Business Objects.

I'm purely focused on SAP, and I can provide expert opinions about PowerDesigner.

SAP HANA is mostly related to S/4HANA, and there is also SAP HANA or HANA Enterprise.

I would give SAP HANA a final rating of 10 out of 10.

I am a Program Manager and SAP partner.

I would prefer to keep my review on PeerSpot anonymous, without any contact details and company name.

SAP HANA is an integrated solution to improve our organization's real-time data analytics. It's a cloud-based solution, and it's fantastic for us. We serve various businesses, especially in the Gulf area, such as Saudi Arabia, across different production, manufacturing, sales, and distribution sectors. Everything, including SAP analytics and business intelligence, is available within SAP HANA.

The tool is an in-memory database that stores and retrieves data very quickly. This speed makes it faster to use and maintain data, as no additional processes move data between memory and disk.

With SAP HANA's in-memory technology, accessing your data is exceptionally fast. You don't need to retrieve it from disks or other media. Everything you need is already in memory, making data retrieval and report generation quick.

In certain instances, decisions must be made within 90 minutes. For instance, ideas that require data to support them are proposed during support meetings. This analysis involves comparing various data sets and dashboards to inform decisions. Integrating our infrastructure with the tool allows for connectivity between different functions, such as material management, manufacturing, human resources, and finance.

One notable issue is the difficulty in finding consultants with experience in the SuccessFactors product, a human resource management tool part of SAP's cloud-based solutions. For example, learning the Oracle database is straightforward. You can easily go to the Oracle website, download the database, install it on your laptop, and access technical resources and books.

However, SAP HANA presents a different scenario. The huge and solid software makes it difficult to install and use without proper training. Mastering SAP HANA often requires attending training centers, which can be costly.

The solution's support also needs to be faster.

I have been working with the product for seven years.

I rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten. 

My company has 1000 users for SAP HANA. We follow an offshoring and outsourcing model for our technical team. For support, I have around 50 consultants. I rate its scalability an eight out of ten.

Previously, we relied on the Oracle database, but now, with SAP HANA, our applications run on a more stable database platform. I have worked with Oracle and Microsoft. However, SAP HANA is the most stable.

The tool's deployment is straightforward. During the blueprint phase, we discuss the customer's requirements and obtain their approval. Deploying SAP HANA within a business usually takes six months to one year. Some implementations may take less than six months, depending on the customer.

SAP HANA is affordable. I rate it a seven out of ten. 

I recommend the product to others since it is stable and reliable. I rate it a nine out of ten.