{"id":1924,"date":"2012-10-28T17:11:32","date_gmt":"2012-10-28T15:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/?p=1924"},"modified":"2012-11-05T22:15:19","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T20:15:19","slug":"book-review-sap-hana-an-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/book-review-sap-hana-an-introduction","title":{"rendered":"Book review: SAP HANA – An Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the most anticipated SAP books of 2012 is finally\u00a0here: SAP HANA – An Introduction<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0published by SAP Press (who else). I had the pleasure to see both authors Bjarne Berg<\/strong> and Penny Silvia<\/strong> at last year’s European BI2011 event in Amsterdam. Looking back at their sessions this should be a quality book so my expectations were high.<\/p>\n

My last attempt at diving into the HANA stuff was in August and\u00a0didn\u2019t end that well<\/a>. After successfully\u00a0setting up \u00a0our Amazon\/AWS HANA box and installing the tools I got stuck at SAP HANA Studio. So let’s see if this book will really show me how this thing works.<\/p>\n

SAP HANA – An Introduction<\/strong> is divided into two parts: First the What, Wh<\/strong>y and When<\/strong> and second the How<\/strong>. The What, Why and When part, which takes about a third of the 400 book pages, is all about explaining things. What is in-memory computing, what is big data and how does the HANA solution look like. Here I got some answers to some basic questions that I still had on HANA. For example what would happen with the data in case of a power failure<\/strong> (since all of your data is loaded in-memory). Another thing nobody could explain to me was the concept of working with column-based storage of data versus row-based storage, which is illustrated very well in this book.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SAP HANA comes in two versions: A Standalone<\/strong> version and a version for SAP BW<\/strong>. The book not only covers the technical requirements and differences on both versions, but also the required skills you’ll need in your project team to implement HANA for each option. About 50 pages are dedicated to HANA use cases for both versions and provides guidelines on how to fit HANA into your business strategy.This first part has got quite some text to get through, but there are a lot of bulleted lists, tables and graphics as reading support. Those tables are by the way a very easy to look things up fast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I was most interested in the second part: How<\/strong>. I like chapter 6 which shows you how to set up a connection to the\u00a0SAP BusinessObjects BI toolset. I’m happy to see that this is done with a step-by-step approach, supported with lots of screenshots. In the following chapters, which cover the Information Composer<\/strong> and SAP HANA Studio<\/strong>, this approach is continued. This makes it very easy to follow what is happening, so you can quickly learn the purpose and the characteristics of important concepts as the attribute view, analytic view and calculation view. Well done!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chapter 10 explains the four options to get data into HANA<\/strong>. This chapter shows the steps to set up each option, but it’s not as practical as the chapters 6 – 9. I think it would have been great if a step-by-step scenario showed how to use SAP Data Services<\/strong> to get data into HANA.<\/p>\n

The final chapter is about SAP HANA administration<\/strong> and covers the more boring but essential tasks as performance monitoring, updating the system and user\u00a0authorizations.<\/p>\n

So after reading this book cover to cover I can say that this book really is an excellent way to introduce yourself to SAP HANA, even if you don’t want\/have to work with the toolset yourself. It shows you what HANA is, how it works and what the several configuration options are. The How-part is really hands-on, so I’m sure you will be able to easily create your first data model in HANA with the help of this book.<\/p>\n

SAP HANA – An Introduction<\/a> by Berg and Silvia, ISBN\u00a0978-1592294343.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most anticipated SAP books of 2012 is finally here: SAP HANA – An Introduction published by SAP Press (who else). I had the pleasure to see both authors Bjarne Berg and Penny Silvia at last year’s European BI2011 event in Amsterdam. Looking back at their sessions this should be a quality book so my expectations were high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,56,158],"tags":[177,179,133,178,295,165],"class_list":["post-1924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-new-technology","category-sap-hana","tag-bwa","tag-information-composer","tag-sap-businessobjects","tag-sap-businessobjects-data-services","tag-sap-hana","tag-sap-hana-studio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pKaa2-v2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2225,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/sap-hana-studio-for-mac","url_meta":{"origin":1924,"position":0},"title":"SAP HANA Studio for Mac","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"June 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Who would have thought. 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Check this page for the download of SAP HANA Studio Developer Edition (version 1.00.56) for Mac OS X.","rel":"","context":"In "Featured"","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/featured"},"img":{"alt_text":"MacHANA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/MacHANA.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/MacHANA.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/MacHANA.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/MacHANA.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2122,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/getting-into-sap-hana-part-sap-hana-starter-book","url_meta":{"origin":1924,"position":1},"title":"Getting into SAP HANA (part 3): SAP HANA Starter book","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"February 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year I got a bit stuck when playing around with the SAP HANA Studio on our Amazon AWS HANA setup. In the meanwhile a great book (SAP HANA: An Introduction) has been published providing all the ins-and-outs of HANA. This book is on the #1 best-seller spot at SAP\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/books"},"img":{"alt_text":"saphanastarter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/saphanastarter.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3192,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/how-to-convert-sap-lumira-documents-using-local-hana-connection-to-managed-hana-connection","url_meta":{"origin":1924,"position":2},"title":"How to convert SAP Lumira documents using Local HANA Connection to Managed HANA Connection","author":"Martijn van Foeken","date":"March 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a guest post by SAP BI specialist Martijn van Foeken, Interdobs B.V.\u00a0 Since Lumira 1.29 it\u00a0is possible to connect to the SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform and this enables you to consume Managed Connections that are controlled inside the Central Management Console (CMC). 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I compared this new roadmap with\u00a0the previous\u00a0version (2015.10.23). 1. As\u00a0Design Studio 1.6 is now available, a 'further information' slide is added (slide #27). 2. The Future Direction slide now also makes a statement on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio"","block_context":{"text":"SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/sap-businessobjects-design-studio"},"img":{"alt_text":"dsrm1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/dsrm1-1024x588.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/dsrm1-1024x588.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/dsrm1-1024x588.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/dsrm1-1024x588.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2358,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/sap-bi-books-books-books","url_meta":{"origin":1924,"position":4},"title":"SAP BI books, books & books!","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"November 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a great era for those of us who like to learn about SAP BI topics by themselves, at your own pace and at a moment that is the most suitable. We have the openSAP online courses on HANA and BI4, there is Twitter, the blogs, podcasts and of course\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/books"},"img":{"alt_text":"3293-ImplementingHANA__47519_std-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/3293-ImplementingHANA__47519_std-1-86x90.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2393,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/ebook-bonanza-get-sap-businessobjects-dashboards-4-0-cookbook-for-only-5","url_meta":{"origin":1924,"position":5},"title":"eBook Bonanza: Get SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook for only $5","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"December 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Just like last year Packt Publishing\u00a0is having an\u00a0eBook Bonanza. The coming two weeks you can get any of their eBooks for only $5! So this is a good time to pick up\u00a0the\u00a0SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook\u00a0if you haven't done that already! Packt Publishing also has some other interesting (SAP) BI\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/books"},"img":{"alt_text":"hanaplusdashboards","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/hanaplusdashboards.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1940,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions\/1940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}