SAP Hana - Get Started

I am a consultant pursuing knowledge (and perhaps certifications) in SAP products and technologies, among other things. 

This blog will track my progress along with some links to help others..

Right now the hottest SAP certification is for SAP Hana.  The biggest problems in many enterprise organizations relate to mass amounts of unstructured and semi-structured data, and slow and dysfunctional processes to manage said data.  As the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) grows, so the performance degrades.  Hana fills the niche of being a database server able to supply both a transactional store for SAP or custom applications, and a warehousing system for reporting and analytics.  It also gives developers blazing-fast access to text analytics, predictive analysis and cube technologies.

Not to mention that it speeds up SAP BW performance.  2,000 customers seem to be interested in the technology which is still in its infancy at SP6 (v2.0 or at least close to it).  The NBA uses it for crunching stats on its web site.   Google Glass & Android will leverage Hana for realtime tracking of per-second life events.

Hana is offered as an appliance, a cloud PAAS, a standalone software install, and various other offerings that complement SAP software.

Hana installations can run from $0.99/hr up to the millions of dollars.  Start by looking at the offerings for SME's here.

Being in-memory rather than on-disk has its advantages and disadvantages.  Some links to get started.

Where to Start getting Certified with SAP Hana
SAP Hana Marketplace
PHP Rocks with SAP Hana
Howto Get and Install License
Howto Fix Secure Storage
SAP Hana Deployment Shell (With 14-day Hana Access)
SAP Hana Cloud Development
ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) with Hana
SAP LT for realtime or near-realtime replication
SAP Hana Developer Center with lots of videos and training material
SAP Extended App Services (XS Engine)
Implementation Use Cases
Text Analytics
Top 10 Myths

As a SQL geek who spends a lot of time tuning query plans, Hana sounds like it could present some serious opportunities for those app developers that decide to throw the kitchen sink at it without understanding you should focus on the plumbing first.