SAP HANA* and Persistent Memory

This IDC white paper reviews the power and promise of in-memory database systems and their applications and considers the limitations imposed up to this point on those systems, including memory size per CPU, operational complexity due to the nature of volatile memory, and limitations to database performance made necessary by the volatile nature of main memory. By reviewing SAP HANA* and persistent memory, this paper examines the benefits of new persistent memory (PMEM) technology for in-memory database management systems (DBMS), including larger memory capacity, and greatly accelerated start-up and recovery times — all of which ensure greater business continuity than can be expected today and add up to a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Finally, it considers a leading example of this technology — Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory— and its use in combination with SAP's in-memory database, SAP HANA*.