SAP HANA Cloud Platform Overview

Knowing where to start with cloud-based software can be confusing, so we have provided a SAP HANA cloud platform overview below.

NOTE: The SAP HANA Cloud Platform is not the same as the cloud integration process for SAP HANA. For the latter, see our SAP HANA Cloud Integration Overview.

The cloud platform is one of the main components of the SAP HANA in-memory database. Its many functions work together in concert to provide customers and business owners with cloud computing power and business intelligence in real-time data applications.

Finally, our SAP HANA cloud platform overview will provide you with details on what SAP HANA cloud is, what features it has, the services it can offer, and how a developer might get started using the platform.

SAP HANA Cloud Platform Capabilities

What Is the SAP HANA Cloud Platform?

It is an open, cloud-based platform that provides a variety of services to both partners and customers using its in-memory capabilities. The cloud computing software may include aspects of core services that are primed to speed digital transformation across business ventures. In short, the cloud platform and its cloud computing software may help businesses to build the precise applications they need for high-performance analytics. It can do this by using SAP HANA’s own database management system.

The software allows the platform to connect both on-site and to other systems running open-source or third party software. This ability to connect so rapidly and with so many sources gives the SAP HANA cloud platform a way to accelerate the pace at which it can offer creative business solutions to various clients. Finally, a skilled developer may be able to offer multiple positive alternatives to a single aspect of the user experience.

SAP HANA Cloud Platform Capabilities & Services

The SAP Cloud contains a huge variety of services. Breaking down these services into broad groups that highlight the platform’s capabilities may help you get a better understanding of what it can do. Some of the main areas in which the SAP HANA Cloud offers services include:

Integration

The cloud software allows you to integrate your off-site data with your on-site applications securely. SAP Cloud integration services include:

• Data management
• Managing the life cycles of processes and APIs
• Viewing business initiatives in real-time
• Keeping the connectivity between the cloud software and on-site data strong
• Automating certain processes within the workflow

For a tutorial on this, visit our SAP HANA Cloud Integration Overview.

Security

You want to keep your business intelligence, web applications, and cloud strategies safe. That’s where SAP HANA cloud platform security comes into play. This aspect of the cloud software helps you monitor user access by:

• Authenticating identities using single sign-on procedures for developers.
• Provisioning identities by managing their overall lifecycles.

These two processes help to ensure that only the right people have access to your data and that old identities that are no longer in use can’t be used to access system processes.

Mobile

• The cloud platform can help developers create highly analytical mobile applications with its mobile development capabilities.

User Experience

Each client or business will need personalized solutions in order to meet their goals. SAP HANA’s cloud platform can personalize the user experience with:

• Building that creates prototypes without incorporating code
• Generating interactive forms through Adobe
• Creating business sites using SAP portals
• Applying corporate brands to personal applications

Analytics

Business owners need to have access to real-time data regarding various aspects of the company. This insight could allow businesses to improve faster and with more focus than before. The cloud software can help with this by offering:

• Predictive analysis services for each in-memory database
• A continuous stream of analytics that developers can process and act on in real-time

Data & Storage

High-performance applications that handle transactions need to have reliable database management systems and storage in place. Finally, the SAP HANA cloud has capabilities for this that include:

• The ability to store and manage a large volume of documents
• A way to store and manage data that isn’t currently structured
• Bigger data services that include Spark and Hadoop
• Basic and platform editions of SAP HANA services for setting up and binding databases to the cloud

What Are Some Prerequisites for a Developer to Get Started with SAP HANA Cloud Platform?

The complete list of prerequisites to use the SAP HANA cloud platform as a developer can vary depending on the area of specialization in question. However, any developer wishing to get started using the cloud software should ideally have some basic knowledge of JAVA already. Some knowledge of an Eclipse environment may also be beneficial. Moreover, while an understanding of SQL may not be required depending on the subject area a developer chooses, it may offer some additional insights during cloud training and usage.

For more details, make sure you check out our guide to the SAP HANA architecture and our rundown of the SAP HANA certification courses.

SAP HANA Cloud Platform Benefits

The overall benefits of the SAP HANA cloud platform are too numerous to mention in their entirety. However, we can mention that the software allows customers to improve their business intelligence and can help them build applications by:

• Creating column views using HANA and SQL
• Connecting to HANA on the cloud via Eclipse
• Testing various Java applications
• Integrating and customizing those applications
• Creating mobile-first apps to extend mobile business connections
• Connecting to more than one system on a premises
• Letting developers create unlimited HTML
• Allowing developers to build applications within the cloud-based software while accessing additional applications on-site in real-time
• Helping businesses engage and interface with their customer bases

Conclusion

Finally, the SAP HANA cloud platform may seem convoluted on the surface. However, our overview shows that if you dig deeper, its computing technology delivers a variety of real-time business solutions across a broad spectrum of fields. Its capabilities could allow you to take care of all aspects of application implementation and data management. Developers can use it to accelerate business growth, too. We’d enjoy hearing your thoughts and experiences regarding this cloud software in the section below.