SAP Brings HANA to the Channel

As part of an effort to drive acceptance of a new in-memory computing model, SAP has launched two new editions of its High Performance Analytics Appliance (HANA) platform.

Designed to be sold primarily through the channel, the two new offerings are SAP HANA for SAP Business One applications and SAP HANA, Edge edition, which is a version of HANA optimized for mid-market companies that comes bundled with is bundled with SAP BusinessObjects Edge Business Intelligence (BI) software.

SAP is trying to develop a HANA ecosystem that brings together channel partners and system vendors such as Dell, IBM and Hewlett-Packard to drive the adoption of a new class of systems that process application in real time. SAP thus far as recruited 10 additional independent software developers to create new HANA applications, says Eric Duffaut, president of SAP global ecosystem and channels.

Duffaut adds that SAP expects to increase the percentage of its revenue that is generated by channel partners from 30 percent today to 40 percent by 2015. Given the fact that SAP expects HANA to be a key part of its growth strategy, recruiting partners to sell HANA systems that in many cases will displace traditional servers is a significant priority.

The challenge, of course, is going to be educating customers about the value of HANA, which will take a lot more feet on the street than SAP currently has available.