Rethink BI : Business Insights over Business Intelligence articles

Making sense of any data, any size, with HP solutions for SQL Server at Discover 2013

phil.mclean — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:03:47 GMT

By Carmen Morel – HP Converged Systems Marketing

There’s a lot to consider for companies in keeping up with the growth and proliferation of data. There are multiple dimensions of new data including the growth of “traditional” data in your organization as well as all the new sources of data that you may want to explore, including the influx of data from social networking and mobile applications.

When it ultimately comes to improving your business advantage, HP and Microsoft’s comprehensive portfolio of integrated data management solutions are worth further investigation.

Join us at HP Discover 2013 where we will have sessions and demonstrations featuring solutions optimized uniquely for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and built on industry-leading HP Converged Infrastructure, including certified reference architectures, as well as turnkey appliances featuring our latest HP AppSystem for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse.

HP reveals ‘Project Kraken’ advancement with a 12TB in-memory system at SAPPHIRE NOW keynote today

phil.mclean — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:40:13 GMT

By Manoj Suvarna - Director, Product Management, HP Converged Systems

In January 2013, HP and SAP together announced “Project Kraken” as a co-innovation effort between HP and SAP designed to leverage real-time transactional data to improve business processes and mitigate risks. This significant joint development effort is being engineered by HP and SAP in Walldorf, Germany and will accelerate the adoption of in-memory computing for large online transaction processing (OLTP) applications.

Today during Vishal Sikka’s SAPPHIRE NOW keynote speech, HP demonstrated the next major milestone of this joint initiative by unveiling a 12- terabyte system that will redefine ‘in-memory computing’. HP is using our own IT department as the pilot for Kraken -- the largest system of its kind that significantly reduces the time required to analyze and process large amounts of data. With this platform, transactions that in the past required hours will run in seconds.

HP Converged Systems @ SAP #SAPPHIRENOW - latest announcements from Orlando

phil.mclean — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:20:26 GMT

By Jodie Jordanger – HP Converged Systems Marketing

At SAP SAPPHIRENOW yesterday, Jim Snabe, SAP co-CEO told us at the keynote that SAP now has 1,500 customers on HANA which makes it their fastest growing software product EVER.

Big news of the day was that SAP has now announced general availability of SAP Business Suite powered by HANA, and Jim thanked the 100 early adopters of Suite on HANA for making this possible.

HP offers certified configurations for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA - SAPPHIRENOW

phil.mclean — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:26:13 GMT

By Manoj Suvarna - Director, Product Management, HP Converged Systems

With SAP’s recent release of SAP Business Suite core applications powered by SAP HANA, customers can now realize a real-time business transformation, supported by an in-memory platform.

In-memory platforms represent a huge technological shift in the way companies deal with data because it enables the processing of massive quantities of real-time data in the main memory of the server to provide immediate results from transactional and operational data. This transformative innovation, however, would not be possible without the technology enablement and software innovation offered by companies like HPand SAP.

SAP has officially certified HP 2 TB and 4 TB systems for Business Suite powered by SAP HANA based on the HP ProLiant DL980 server and these will shortly be available for customer orders. For customers that wish to get started immediately, HP offers a range of single-node server configurations ranging in capacity from 128 GB to 1 TB RAM.

Self Service BI and the Art of Winning in Baseball

phil.mclean — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:01:28 GMT

By Chris Daly - Senior Engineer, HP Enterprise Group

One of my favorite movies is Moneyball, the 2011 picture based on the book by Michael Lewis, which recalled the Oakland A’s 2002 & 2003 seasons. The A’s were at a disadvantage compared to the big market teams, with a payroll of roughly $41M in 2002 as compared to the NY Yankees who spent well over $100M.

After years of early playoff exits the A’s General Manager, Billy Beane, decided it was time to move in a different direction in how he managed the ballclub. Counter to the traditional baseball strategy that relied on evaluating a few basic statistics like batting average, runs batted in (RBI’s) and bases stolen, Beane’s new approach scoffed at conventional baseball wisdom, while earning the ridicule of his staff, the team coach and local press.

With the help of a young Harvard Economist, Beane built an analytical system for measuring player performance that employed an alternative set of parameters and a more comprehensive system to assess the value of a player, which ultimately led him to securing high quality players at bargain basement prices.

There were many subplots throughout this story (e.g. the startup vs the established, the victory of substance and logic over money, etc) but the most critical may have been the democratization of information that at least for a moment in time, created a more level playing field for the Oakland A’s.

I won’t ruin the movie for you in case you have not seen it, but let’s just say Billy Beane changed Major League Baseball.

You can’t spell Hadoop without HP, but you can spell it without 2U

phil.mclean — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:12:38 GMT

By Sanjai Marimadaiah – HP Converged Systems

For many customers, standard rack based 1U and 2U servers have been the only show in town when it comes to deploying Hadoop clusters.

However, as the scale of Hadoop deployments increases this can present several challenges including server footprint outgrowing available floor space in the datacenter and high costs of cabling, right through to complex administration of all of the physical hardware.

HP has a solution for this in the form of our HP ProLiant SL4500 series, an ultra-dense server platform which with the help of our partners Cloudera, HortonWorks and MapR, we’ve now baked into a series of reference architectures for Hadoop. These offerings deliver outstanding efficiencies in server real estate, storage density and systems administration, as well as providing stellar performance over and above standard server architectures.

HP demos the solution which enables real-time business models at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW

phil.mclean — Fri, 10 May 2013 06:40:22 GMT

By Steve Quan, HP Product Manager, SAP Solutions

If you’re coming to SAP SAPPHIRENOW in Orlando, please stop by HP Booth #3318 to check out our demo of HP AppSystems for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA.

You’ll learn how to get your enterprise up and ready to run SAP Business Suite on HANA, and enable the real-time business model your company needs to remain competitive.

You’ll see how the solution is architected and how HP Converged Infrastructure delivers an ideal platform for your SAP applications.

Hear how to eliminate application management complexity in the cloud at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW

phil.mclean — Fri, 10 May 2013 06:34:51 GMT

By Klaus Brand, Senior System Engineer, HP Enterprise Group

For customers looking to reduce the complexity of their cloud solutions, achieve better quality of service, gain greater speed and reliability, and lower costs, we will have a session at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando, “HP Hybrid Cloud: Managing SAP Applications from Development to Operation”, which will give guidance on how to get there.

At the session you can learn about the HP Hybrid Cloud Solution for SAP, a unified solution from across HP’s portfolio.

We’ll explain how although differing management and deployment models can quickly involve complexity, HP can help eliminate this with Converged Cloud management.

HP to showcase SAP HANA solutions for SME customers at SAPPHIRE NOW

phil.mclean — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:32:58 GMT

By Doug Wilson, SAP Alliance Sales – Channel Program Manager

Big data and real-time analytics is not just a requirement for large enterprises.

That’s why we’ll be presenting a session at SAPPHIRE NOW for CIO’s to see how the HP Small and Medium Enterprise Solution for SAP HANA brings fast, real-time reporting, enterprise search and access to more data for the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME).

At the session you’ll learn how the solution can help you save time, effort and cost with a simplified real-time data and analytics landscape delivered by SAP and HP.

You’ll also learn how the HP SME Solution for SAP HANA includes an SAP tested and certified hardware platform that combines SAP HANA with the powerful simplicity of HP ProLiant Gen8 servers to create a solution jointly designed for the SME.

HP CloudSystem Solutions for SAP landscapes in the spotlight at SAPPHIRE NOW

phil.mclean — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:09:18 GMT

By Sharon Vatter - SAP Solution Architect, HP Enterprise Group

At HP we understand that customers will evolve to cloud at different speeds and require different steps.

Our flexible approach to the cloud is in step with the needs of different organizations. Our cloud-based solutions are built upon HP Converged Infrastructure and enable IT managers to provide SAP applications as an on-demand service. With our extensive platform and close collaboration with SAP, customers can significantly reduce the time to implement new SAP applications.

HP CloudSystem Solutions for SAP landscapes put customers on a clear path to increase operational efficiency, drive down costs and accelerate the delivery of new services using HP Cloud Maps in their SAP ecosystem.

HP ProLiant server platforms deliver top database performance with Microsoft SQL Server

phil.mclean — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:28:54 GMT

By John Connors - HP Converged Systems Performance Engineering

With the demands presented by huge growth in data volumes, customers increasingly need database platforms which enable the rapid processing of highly complex database queries, in order to get timely answers to critical business questions.

In order to understand a broad and complex playing field of competitive offerings, and to set strategic direction, customers need some objective and verifiable way of measuring the differences between solutions. For BI database environments, understanding overall system performance and system price/performance metrics can also help drive buying decisions.

The Transaction Processing Council provides this independent and consistent measurement with the TPC-H benchmark that reflects multiple aspects of the capability of a system to process queries.

That’s why we’re delighted to have taken leadership in all three of the key TPC-H non-clustered benchmark categories, 1,000GB, 3,000GB, and 10,000GB, with the HP ProLiant DL980 G7 Server running Microsoft Windows and Microsoft SQL Server.

HP focuses on business transformation at SAPPHIRE NOW 2013

phil.mclean — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:53:50 GMT

By Jodie Jordanger – HP Converged Systems Marketing

On May 14-16, 2013 HP will be participating in SAPPHIRE NOW (#sapphirenow) in Orlando.

As the recently announced 2013 winner of SAP’s Pinnacle Award Technology Partner Innovator of the Year, HP has a ton of great solutions to showcase at Sapphire this year.

From track sessions to booth presentations and demos, come see our entire portfolio of SAP solutions, including those delivered on HP Converged Infrastructure addressing SAP HANA and in-memory data platforms.

Here’s an ‘at a glimpse' guide to what’s going on.

HP delivers the services that drive performance for HP AppSystem for Parallel Data Warehouse

phil.mclean — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:31:56 GMT

Our new HP AppSystem for Parallel Data Warehouse completes the portfolio for HP Data Management solutions, and gives customers the ability to deliver insights faster for better business decisions.

Services are critical to the solutions success and you can find out more by reading Kevin Lange’s latest post @ HP AppSystem for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse: What's all the noise?

HP announces Vertica AppSystem to drive down Time and Cost of Big Data Analytics

irshadraihan — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:36:00 GMT

There is no doubt that C-level execs, especially CMOs and COOs, at a majority of the Fortune500 companies, have adopted analytic solutions with open arms. However, CIOs have struggled to balance new demand along with ongoing operations. HP AppSystem for Vertica is ideal for organizations interested in accelerating time-to-business value with high-performance, massively scalable analytics at each layer of IT infrastructure.

Disaster Tolerant HP AppSystems for SAP HANA are here: Ready for prime time.

phil.mclean — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:01:21 GMT

By Doug Janes – HP Product Manager, SAP HANA

Back in October 2012 you may remember HP announced the industry’s first certified disaster tolerant solution for SAP HANA.

The solution provides the following major benefits:

Allows customers to host a second HANA system , at a separate location, that can take over for their production system in the event of a significant outage
Enables data replication for distances up to 50 kilometers or 30 miles to minimize the chance of impact to the second HANA system in the event of a natural disaster
Offers a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of near zero –in the event of a primary site failure, only in-flight transactions would be lost when resuming operations at the secondary site
Offers a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) that is less than one hour – the standby system can be up and running very quickly without having to restore data
Allows multiple use with the ‘dual purpose’ option – when customers don’t need the standby system to take over from the production system it can be used for test and development

Which data management solution delivers against today’s top six requirements?

phil.mclean — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:57:41 GMT

By Manoj Suvarna – Director, Product Management, HP AppSystems

In my last post I talked about the six key requirements I believe a data management solution should deliver against today, namely:

1. High performance

2. Fast time to value

3. Built with Big Data as a priority

4. Low cost

5. Simplified management

6. Proven expertise

Today, 25^th March 2013, HP has announced the HP AppSystem for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse, a comprehensive data warehouse solution jointly engineered with Microsoft, with a wide array of complementary tools, to effectively manage, store, and unlock valuable business insights.

What are today’s top six requirements for a data management solution?

phil.mclean — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:54:23 GMT

By Manoj Suvarna – Director, Product Management, HP AppSystems

With the Gartner BI Summit taking place this week in Texas, a recent Forbes article came to mind, giving some trends that Gartner see in the Business Intelligence market. It made me think about some trends that we’re seeing at HP that are fundamentally transforming data management which I thought I’d share with you.

Glimpses into the future of Big Data from the Strata conference

phil.mclean — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:25:47 GMT

By Joy Joseph Padamadan, Big Data Solutions Engineer, HP

In my previous post I reported back from the Strata Conference in Santa Clara, where I observed three distinct patterns on Hadoop, as follows:

Hadoop adoption has been accelerated.
Every big data software vendor now realizes the disruptive power of Hadoop technologies
Interesting glimpses into future of big data

In this post I’ll look at the final point of how the future for big data is shaping up.

HP addresses the Big Data battleground at Gartner BI Summit

phil.mclean — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:31:56 GMT

It’s the Gartner BI Summit next week in Texas from 18th – 20th March where there will be some hot topics discussed including:

The Future of Business Intelligence
Integrating Analytics and BI
Predictive Analysis
Mobile BI
Big Data and Big Data Analytics

HP will be there in force with execs, experts, solution demos, workshops and more, responding to the hot topics above. For a sneak preview our approach to big data is summarized in this whitepaper.

Better still, if you’re planning to be at the show there are some things you should expect from us.

Latest insights on Big Data from Strata conference

phil.mclean — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:32:58 GMT

By Joy Joseph Padamadan, Big Data Solutions Engineer, HP

Being a first-timer to the Strata conference in Santa Clara last week, I was curious to know how it was going to be of most value to me in gaining additional insight into Big Data, especially around Hadoop and its ecosystem software stack (will be referred as Hadoop from here onwards). With numerous companies showcasing their innovative technologies in software and hardware, the conference provides a feel for the Big Data community, its future direction and an opportunity to be in touch with the real people behind the technologies.