Architecting Resilient SAP Hana Systems: A Framework for Implementation, Performance Optimization, and Lifecycle Maintenance

Abstract

The robustness of mission-critical database platforms has become a key issue of concern to the enterprises that rely on constant availability of transactional and analytical data to run their day-to-day operations. Not only does SAP HANA as the most popular in-memory enterprise resource planning and real-time analytics platform need to have high performance, but also fault tolerance, scalability, and predictable lifecycle management. With such a dramatic change in the business IT infrastructure, organizations are still struggling with the very thorny issues of downtime, performance loss and complex upgrade processes, which kill the continuity of the business and elevates operational risk. The losses incurred in the event of down time in both financial and reputational terms have increased the need to have frameworks that inculcate resiliency to all phases of the deployment and governance of SAP HANA. This paper formulates an evidence-based approach to designing resilient SAP HANA systems combining implementation procedures, performance optimization approaches, and lifecycle maintenance. Based solely on the vendor documentation, technical notes and best-practice reports, which were published in December 2022, the framework proposes to pull together the fragmented guidance and condense it into a roadmap of resilience. The approach puts a strong focus on pre-deployment testing and certified platform testing, wherein operating system, database and virtualization compatibility matrices are used to protect against unsupported configuration. The migration pathways, i.e. phased, near-zero-downtime pathways are analyzed against their effects on service level agreements and exposure to risk. This research has a contribution to the fact that it has consolidated resilience strategies to a prescriptive and practical model that fits with the realities of enterprise IT landscapes. It synthesizes deployment rigor, tuning precision and governance continuity and thus forms a roadmap that does not just provide greater technical resilience but also augurs business requirements of continuity, compliance and optimization of performance. The results are an addition to the academic literature on the topic of enterprise database resilience, as well as a practical guide to IT leaders, architects, and administrators who must ensure the safety of mission-critical SAP HANA infrastructures.