SQL Server and SAP HANA are competitors in the database management category. While SQL Server is known for its affordability and user-friendly interface, SAP HANA stands out with its rapid in-memory processing, particularly benefiting analytics and data-heavy operations.
Features: SQL Server is favored for scalability, robust security, and ease of integration with various systems, including older SQL Server versions. It appeals to businesses due to its strong backward compatibility and flexible deployment options. SAP HANA is recognized for its in-memory processing that ensures fast analytics and handling of large datasets, alongside its data compression capabilities that enhance storage efficiency.
Room for Improvement: SQL Server could enhance integration capabilities and improve performance with large datasets. Cost reduction relating to licensing and resource consumption is also desired. SAP HANA could refine its user experience and integration capabilities. Users call for better support, improved documentation, and more affordable licensing to increase accessibility.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SQL Server offers versatility with deployment options across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. While generally positive, customer service may face delays at times. SAP HANA also provides varied deployment methods but may seem complex due to its hardware requirements. Customer service is perceived as mixed, with some reliance on partners necessary for resolutions.
Pricing and ROI: SQL Server generally is more affordable, offering multiple licensing models suitable for different organizations. It’s cheaper than Oracle yet could benefit from reduced costs or simplified licensing. SAP HANA, while expensive, justifies the price through performance benefits, though this remains a hurdle for some. ROI heavily depends on efficient system integration and use.
We do not feel we're getting value for the investment due to the additional resources needed for integration and maintenance.
All applications need our repository to provide services for our online business or our customers, so the return is good.
The community support is better than the official SAP support.
While issues are resolved eventually, the first level of support is not as good as we would like.
When we raise a ticket for AWS or Azure issues, we find their support is very proactive, while SAP's support is quite passive.
When we created support tickets, the experience was very positive.
Our operations have grown from a hundred data operations a day to as many in a couple of seconds.
There is enough scalability offered by SAP to meet our deployment needs.
The scalability rating is based on the ability to expand.
The server where we installed it has grown from 64 gigabytes in RAM to 256 gigabytes, demonstrating significant scalability capabilities.
We recently faced customer data loss during the cluster handover or failover fallback.
We have not had any problems in the last seven to eight years.
Regarding stability, they are using legacy systems and have implemented SAP HANA.
The main issue is the ecosystem, which lacks the widespread support that SQL enjoys.
The setup process and deployment process for SAP HANA is complex.
Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high.
I would appreciate using Microsoft Pro as it can integrate with Excel or, with a simple query, consume information from the database using Microsoft Excel.
When we consider the price for replication in another site, the pricing becomes prohibitive.
It's a recurring subscription model, which is expensive compared to legacy systems with just a maintenance fee.
SAP is not a cheap company, and its licenses are expensive.
I would rate the price for SAP HANA as high.
This architecture allows for faster data processing and real-time analytics that were not possible with traditional databases.
The concept enhances speed, allowing the database to serve and move data quickly.
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.
I have been working with SQL Server for a long time, and it works well for me as I am using it in different applications, such as web applications, Windows applications, or the data warehouse reporting.
The best features of SQL Server are availability and stability.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| SQL Server | 15.8% |
| SAP HANA | 9.7% |
| Other | 74.5% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 25 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 11 |
| Large Enterprise | 60 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 120 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 58 |
| Large Enterprise | 110 |
SAP HANA, also known as SAP High-performance Analytics Appliance, is a multi-model database that stores data in its memory, allowing users to avoid disk storage. The product combines its robust database with services for creating applications. SAP HANA is faster than other database management systems (DBMS) because it stores data in column-based tables in main memory and brings online analytical processing (OLAP) and online transaction processing (OLTP) together.
The column-oriented in-memory database design allows users to run high-speed transactions alongside advanced analytics, all in a single system. This provides companies with the ability to process very large amounts of data with low latency and query data in an instant. By combining multiple data management capabilities, the solution simplifies IT, helps businesses with innovations, and facilitates digital transformation.
The solution is structured into five groups of capabilities, categorized as:
There are three more SAP products that work alongside SAP HANA and complete the experience for users together. SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a ready-to-run cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP). SAP BW/4HANA is a packaged data warehouse, based on SAP HANA, which allows users to consolidate data across the enterprise to get a consistent view of their data. Finally, SAP Cloud is a single database as a service (DBaaS) foundation for modern applications and analytics across all enterprise data. All three products can combine with SAP HANA to deliver to users an optimized experience regarding their data.
SAP HANA Features
Each architectural group of capabilities of SAP HANA has various features that users can benefit from. These include:
SAP HANA Benefits
SAP HANA provides many benefits for its users. These include:
Reviews from Real Users
According to a database consultant at a pharma/biotech company, SAP HANA is a very robust solution with good data access.
Bruno V., owner at LAVORO AUTOM INF E COM LTDA, likes SAP HANA because the product offers advanced features, helps reduce hours, and makes it easy to find what you need.
SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) by Microsoft. The product's main purposes are to store data and retrieve it as requested by other software applications - on the same computer or on another computer across a shared network. The solution is built on top of Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standardized programming language used for relational database management.
The product is tied to Transact-SQL (T-SQL), which is an implementation of SQL from Microsoft that adds several proprietary programming extensions to the standard language. SQL Server is built similarly to other RDBMS products, as its structure is a row-based table that connects related data elements in different tables to one another. One of its most important components is the SQL Server Database Engine, as it controls data processing, storage, and security. Beneath the Database Engine is the SQL Server Operating System, which is used for memory and I/O management, locking data to avoid unneeded upgrades, and job scheduling.
The solution has four editions with different sets of services and tools. They include:
The first two are available for free and are typically utilized by smaller companies, as they work with fewer functions and storage. The second two editions are generally used by bigger organizations and enterprises and offer more features.
The solution has several functions through which users can facilitate different data-related processes. These include:
SQL Server Services
SQL Server has a wide range of add-on services that provide additional benefits beyond database management. These services include:
SQL Server Benefits
The solution has many benefits for users. These include the following:
Reviews from Real Users
A president at a consultancy evaluates SQL Server as a veteran solution with critical log shipping feature.
Harkamal S., a user at a manufacturing company, rates SQL Server with a high mark because it is a stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything.
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