Business Intelligence Accelerator (BIA)

Business Case Justification

Presented by:

Michael Briles, Product manager, SAP Labs

Dr. Bjarne Berg, Director SAP BI, Comerit
SAP BIA – Field Experiences

7 Hints from the Field:

How to make SAP BI Accelerator

work for you



•Sizing and Implementation

•Management and Costs


 Dr. Bjarne Berg

Director of SAP BI Michael Briles
MyITgroup
SAP NetWeaver Product
Bberg@myitgroup.com Manager

SAP Labs, LLC
3410 Hillview Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94304
M 206.355.6059
E michael.briles@sap.com
 Customer Experiences - BI Accelerator is simple
to install
BI Accelerator has been

SAP Any
simple to install and BW tool
operate for established
SAP BI teams


You use process chains

to maintain the HPA
engine after each data
load

IBM, Sun, HP & Fujitsu have standard

solutions ranging from $32K to $250K+ Breaking news:
that can be installed and tested in as little 32 GB Blades are now
as 2-4 weeks (+ SAP license fees) certified by SAP (July 2008)
Performance is Near-Linear: Benchmarks

BIA’s strength resides in its

near-linear scalability

Performance is measured in
terms of:
1.BI-A index creation time
2.Multi-user throughput per hour
3.Average report response time
4.Average number of records
touched by each report

BIA Currently reads data from

InfoCubes. DSOs & InfoObjects are
still read from base/physical tables
(even when the InfoObject is
indexed as part of master data).
A Real Customer Example from September 2008

Environment
Production Blad
Production Mem
Production Proc
The BIA should be sized for critical applications. Most companies use BIA
only for Production, while others have a complete landscape
Sizing is critical, but good tools are available
to help

SAP has integrated key sizing parameters for BIA in the new QuickSizer.
You can give it a try at: http://service.sap.com/quicksizer

Customer with existing BI systems and data loaded can get good sizing
estimates by running the SAP program available in SAP Note: 917803
How does it work in reality??

Currently, the BIA performs aggregation and data selection for the
query, all other processing is done by the OLAP analytical
engine. Not all query processing will be dramatically faster…

In the next SAP NetWeaver release the BIA will handle more of the
analytics processing such as “top-5 products sales” which is
currently done in the OLAP analytical engine.

SAP BIA is not used when the result set exceeds 3 million records (max.
default). When the result set is less, the data is sent as one
large data package to the application server (need fast
network).
Most customers have found BIA Admin to be minimal

The training & admin

to run BI Accelerator
has proven to be
minimal. Training is
included in the SAP
courses: BW310, BW360
and in the online
course BW361

Many companies, have spent 2-5 days in BIA

training (total for 1-2 administrators) and a
work through a single interface: RSDDBIAMON
(Checks available at: RSRV)

In the past , SAP has also

offered a 2 day workshop
called “ BI Upgrade &
Accelerator ” ( WNABIA )
BIA is becoming mainstream

Some of SAP reference clients

BIA is no longer
something exotic.

Many of the large BI

systems have already
implemented BIA and
many more projects are
under way in Europe and
Nike
in the Americas.

Once you exceed a few hundred critical users and/or 3-4 TB of

data you should seriously consider SAP BIA
 Agenda

1.Business Case
2.Value Proposition
3.Technical Offering
4.Outlook
 Opportunities not Harvested
Traditional methods too inflexible, unreliable or not economical

THE TRENDS THE CHALLENGES

Increased adoption of analytics
n Data explosion, growing 50% p.a.
n Frequent need for change
n More users / usage of analytics
nUsers create queries despite having no
knowledge of BI technology
Traditional BI platforms are bottlenecks
n Unpredictable response times
n Inability to meet demand for change
n € (tuning or boutique hardware)
Daily Business Processes Require Intelligence
It’s 12/23, and You Are on the Phone with Your CEO...

800,000

600,000

400,000

200,000

Last week’s sales in Chicago 0

Cat 1 Cat 2 Cat 3

HOURLY DATA

Hourly data available

Last hour’s sales in Chicago after store close

Processing Request
This year’s sales in Chicago, by retail store 60 minutes remaining

Last 5 year’s sales in Chicago, Special Query

Required
by retail store, and comparable sales
Operational Business Intelligence Is Not Easy
Conflicting demands are difficult to reconcile

3 second response Fresh data

time every 3 minutes

Mine my 10
terabytes O Within
budget

p
I
er
d
at
e
io
 You Can Have Some of What You Want: Special
Tuning

3 second response Fresh data

time every 3 minutes

5 hours
to update
aggregates

BI
S
Mine my 10
terabytes S Within

C
budget

p
p
o
Need IT

e
to build
special
aggregate e
m
ci
ci
pr
al
al
 You Can Have Some of What You Want: Custom
Database

3 second response Fresh data

time every 3 minutes

3 minutes to 5 hours
read to update
database aggregates

Mine my 10
terabytes
BI
S Within

C
budget

p
o
€2 million

e
equipment,
& €500.000
annually

m
ci
pr
al
Traditional Databases Built for Transactions

ERP
Traditional Databases Built for Transactions

Optimized for Record

Read / Write
Transaction
Screen

ERP
Traditional Databases Not Built for Analytics

BI
∑
nLoading aggregated data will only satisfy some
queries
nLoading detailed data and keeping the
reporting performance , will need multiple
aggregates within the BI

∑ ∑ ? ∑

ERP
 Free Your Information

Technology Drivers Architectural Drivers

1990 2006 Improvement 1990 2006

Disk based In-memory

CPU 0.05 7.15 143x data storage data stores
MIPS/$ MIPS/$

Simple Multi-channel
Memory 0.02 5 consumption of UI, high event
MB/$ MB/$
250x apps volume, cross
(Fat client UI, industry value
EDI) chains
Addressable
Memory 216 264 248 x General- Application-
purpose, aware and
application- intelligent data
Network Speed agnostic management
100 10 100 x database
Mbps Gbps

Disk
Data Transfer 5 130 25x
MBPS MBPS

© SAP 2007 / Page 19

The physical limits of a database

BI
The physical access to the data
is limiting the speed of reporting
New Approach: “In-Memory” Technology
Columnar, memory-based, compressed

BIA
Calculation on the fly
n Lighting fast
n Always same performance
n Any query

Compression, columnar optimized for analysis

n Agile,
∑ n low TCO
n Fast to upload

BI
 BI Apps Benefit from “In-Memory” Technology
Gartner confirmed growing market trend

d detailed data into memory as the primary method to optimize BI application perform

* Source: Gartner, 2006

SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator Delivers
… faster and deeper insights, more value

3 second response Fresh data

time every 3 minutes

O
Mine my 10
terabytes w Within

p
budget

it
er
h
at
B
io
I
 Agenda

1.Business Case
2.Value Proposition
3.Technical Offering
4.Outlook
 SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator
Value Proposition

Cost of Operation Performance / Scalability

nSave time to build and maintain nReady for high data volumes (retail,
aggregates utilities, banking etc.)

nSave disk space nChallenging response time SLA

nTake load off BI hardware nAd-Hoc reporting / stable response

times
nConsolidate BI landscape
nScalable blade server platform
n

IT Time for Development

nLess focus on performance aspects

(aggregates, caching strategies,
DB tuning etc.)  Faster
development of new models and
queries

Business
Data Latency
New Business Scenarios
nExtremely shortened roll-up and
nGet more detailed insight into your change run times
business
nOpportunity for more frequent data
alignments
nCompression not always needed
 SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator
• SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator for high performance BI at
lowest operation costs
A new transparent approach to boost BI query
performance
• Performance speedup factor between 10 and 100 - also for
BusinessObjects clients
• Without changing the BI user experience (transparent to
users)
• Ensures low cost of operations Compressed and Column-based
Calculation on the fly
• Prerequisite: BI in SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Optimized for Analysis
nAgile
nFast as Lightning
nLow TCO
nPredictable query performance
nFast to Upload
nAny query

Calculation
DBMS ∑ BIA
Business
Warehouse

Bypassed SAP NetWeaver BI

for queries
 Query Execution

1 Information Broadcasting / Information Broadcasting /

Precalculation Precalculation

2 Query Cache Query Cache

SAP NetWeaver BI
3 Aggregates
Accelerator

4 InfoProvider

Query Execution Query Execution

Without BI Accelerator With BI Accelerator

SAP NetWeaver BI checks the listed repositories (in the order shown) to obtain the
query result.
© SAP 2007 / Page 27
Value Overview

User Experience
nFast Query response times (also for BOBJ usage)
nHighly consistent response times
nHigher usage of BI and deeper analysis of company data or less time for BI
interaction
nMore flexibility in Query definition

Maintenance
nNo more need for maintenance of aggregates
nReduced time for data loading (up to 80%)
nReduce time for change runs
nReduce times of SEM Consolidation runs

Hardware
nNo more need for storage in aggregates
nLess Hardware needs on application server level
nLess Hardware needs on the DB server level
nPossibility to consolidate different BI system landscapes

n
n
 Agenda

1.Business Case
2.Value Proposition
3.Technical Offering
4.Outlook
Appliance Shipment – 1 –

• SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator will only be

available as an appliance (“in a box”)
• Complete SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator preinstalled
• Only little configuration effort by the customer, e.g. indexing
relevant InfoCubes
• Advantages
• Rapid Deployment
• Performance-optimized
• Minimized Maintenance
• Premium Hardware Partners (as of Q2 2008)
• Hewlett-Packard
• IBM
• Fujitsu-Siemens
• SUN
•
 SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator Architecture

Business Business Any Client

Objects Explorer Tool In-Memory
Processing
Analytic Engine

Indexin
InfoCubes g

Any Data Acquisiton

Source

SAP NetWeaver
SAP NetWeaver BI BI Accelerator
 Benefits of Appliance Shipment

Reduced Costs of
Rapid Deployment Appliance Operation
nInstantaneous operation nMinimized maintenance
nPre-Installed by nCentralized
hardware vendor monitoring
through CCMS
nMinimal pre-defined
configuration nEasy scalability through
requirements for
the BIA software
blade server architecture

nSimple purchase nAffordable commodity

Performance & hardware
nLimited variations
based on standard Integration nReduced license costs for
components nOptimized hardware/software 3rd party components
efficiency
nQuick Time-to-market nMinimized upgrade risk
nCombination of hardware
n components and nOptimized HW/SW
configuration optimized for support offers
high-end performance and
high availability
n
nAssured quality of functionality

nReduced integration effort with

hardware and software
Shipment and Availability

Availability
BI Accelerator is functionality of SAP NetWeaver 7.0
Available for SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 and above
SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator is only available as an appliance (“in a box”)
Complete SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator preinstalled
Only little configuration effort by the customer, e.g. indexing relevant InfoCubes

Operating Systems and Storage

SUSE Linux 64-bit, Intel based
Memory based and file storage (no database for Accelerator)

Available Hardware Platforms

HP (HP ProLiant and HP StorageWorks)
IBM (IBM Blade Center and IBM Total Storage)
FujitsuSiemens (FSC Blade Server and EMC Storage)
SUN microsystems (SUN Blade Server and StorageTek)
 Resounding Success with BI Accelerator
With Early Adopters and Market Analysts

n10 million records n650 million records

nQuery up to x102* faster nQuery up to x300* faster
nIndex update in 1min /day nIndex update in 1min /day

n“we are absolutely happy” nLive since September ‘06

nMeasurable TCO reduction n800+ users
n527% (avg.) performance nAcross SAP- & non-SAP data
increase

n1.3 billion records

ers will benefit from SAP raising the bar with its new BI accelerator
nQuerysolution.”
mean 0.9 sec (± 0.8)
nIndex built at 200 million rows per hour

* = as compared to traditional query without aggregates

 Agenda

1.Business Case
2.Value Proposition
3.Technical Offering
4.Outlook
 SAP NetWeaver BI –
Roadmap for BI Accelerator

High Performance BI

Existing Solution 2008 2009/2010

SAP NetWeaver nOptimized BusinessObjects nAnalytic Capabilities (e.g.

nAccelerator for InfoCube Webl integration on top of
BI Accelerator top n)
Read Times SAP NetWeaver BI/BIA nDataStore Object
nLow Cost of Operations nBusinessObjects Polestar
PREMIUM

Acceleration
nHigh Availability / Backup integration: Self-Service BI nStandalone BIA for
& Recovery based on search paradigm source-independent
n acceleration via
Business Objects
nAgile BI: Local and
source-independent
innovation space for
departments

Key Points
nTurn-key solution for BI performance
nBreaking down the barrier between structural flexibility and performance
nCommodity hardware based appliance
 SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator Roadmap – 1 –
BusinessObjects Polestar

BusinessObjects Polestar and SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator – a perfect match

nEasy, intuitive information exploration and analysis for business users
nBring self-service BI for business and casual users
nGet fast facts and answer investigative questions
nExplore and understand new data sources and unexamined parts of the
business
nNo need to understand the data,
where it's located, or how it's structured
nRely on proven performance and scalability
of SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator
n
Benefits of BI Accelerator

Very fast query response time

Increased
Performance improves by a factor of 10–200
end-user
satisfaction
and extended
BI reach
Stable query response time
Independent of DB optimizer, aggregates ...

High scalability
Planned support of new hardware paradigms like
grid and adaptive computing Significant
TCO
reduction

Low maintenance
No aggregate maintenance, minimized rollup …
 Copyright 2008 SAP AG All rights reserved

• No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP AG. The information contained herein may be
changed without prior notice.
• Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors.
• SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, Business ByDesign, ByDesign, PartnerEdge and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well
as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service
names mentioned and associated logos displayed are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only.
National product specifications may vary.
•
• The information in this document is proprietary to SAP. This document is a preliminary version and not subject to your license agreement or any other agreement with SAP. This
document contains only intended strategies, developments, and functionalities of the SAP® product and is not intended to be binding upon SAP to any particular course of
business, product strategy, and/or development. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. SAP does not warrant the accuracy or
completeness of the information, text, graphics, links, or other items contained within this material. This document is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express
or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.
• SAP shall have no liability for damages of any kind including without limitation direct, special, indirect, or consequential damages that may result from the use of these materials.
This limitation shall not apply in cases of intent or gross negligence.
• The statutory liability for personal injury and defective products is not affected. SAP has no control over the information that you may access through the use of hot links contained
in these materials and does not endorse your use of third-party Web pages nor provide any warranty whatsoever relating to third-party Web pages

• Weitergabe und Vervielfältigung dieser Publikation oder von Teilen daraus sind, zu welchem Zweck und in welcher Form auch immer, ohne die ausdrückliche schriftliche
Genehmigung durch SAP AG nicht gestattet. In dieser Publikation enthaltene Informationen können ohne vorherige Ankündigung geändert werden.
• Einige von der SAP AG und deren Vertriebspartnern vertriebene Softwareprodukte können Softwarekomponenten umfassen, die Eigentum anderer Softwarehersteller sind.
• SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, Business ByDesign, ByDesign, PartnerEdge und andere in diesem Dokument erwähnte SAP-Produkte und
Services sowie die dazugehörigen Logos sind Marken oder eingetragene Marken der SAP AG in Deutschland und in mehreren anderen Ländern weltweit. Alle anderen in
diesem Dokument erwähnten Namen von Produkten und Services sowie die damit verbundenen Firmenlogos sind Marken der jeweiligen Unternehmen. Die Angaben im
Text sind unverbindlich und dienen lediglich zu Informationszwecken. Produkte können länderspezifische Unterschiede aufweisen.

• Die in diesem Dokument enthaltenen Informationen sind Eigentum von SAP. Dieses Dokument ist eine Vorabversion und unterliegt nicht Ihrer Lizenzvereinbarung oder einer
anderen Vereinbarung mit SAP. Dieses Dokument enthält nur vorgesehene Strategien, Entwicklungen und Funktionen des SAP®-Produkts und ist für SAP nicht bindend,
einen bestimmten Geschäftsweg, eine Produktstrategie bzw. -entwicklung einzuschlagen. SAP übernimmt keine Verantwortung für Fehler oder Auslassungen in diesen
Materialien. SAP garantiert nicht die Richtigkeit oder Vollständigkeit der Informationen, Texte, Grafiken, Links oder anderer in diesen Materialien enthaltenen Elemente.
Diese Publikation wird ohne jegliche Gewähr, weder ausdrücklich noch stillschweigend, bereitgestellt. Dies gilt u. a., aber nicht ausschließlich, hinsichtlich der
Gewährleistung der Marktgängigkeit und der Eignung für einen bestimmten Zweck sowie für die Gewährleistung der Nichtverletzung geltenden Rechts.
• SAP übernimmt keine Haftung für Schäden jeglicher Art, einschließlich und ohne Einschränkung für direkte, spezielle, indirekte oder Folgeschäden im Zusammenhang mit der
Verwendung dieser Unterlagen. Diese Einschränkung gilt nicht bei Vorsatz oder grober Fahrlässigkeit.
• Die gesetzliche Haftung bei Personenschäden oder die Produkthaftung bleibt unberührt. Die Informationen, auf die Sie möglicherweise über die in diesem Material enthaltenen
Hotlinks zugreifen, unterliegen nicht dem Einfluss von SAP, und SAP unterstützt nicht die Nutzung von Internetseiten Dritter durch Sie und gibt keinerlei Gewährleistungen
oder Zusagen über Internetseiten Dritter ab.
• Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
How do I get started with BI Accelerator??

Some options to consider:



• SAP Solution Manager – Early Watch Report



• Full SAP BI Assessment from MyITgroup



• Send inquiries to ncarey@myitgroup.com




Q&
QUESTIONS

A
ANSWERS