SAP HANA vs SAP ABAP

October 31, 2023November 1, 2023 Editorial Staff

Introduction

Many organizations across various sectors utilize the Enterprise Solutions offered by SAP (System, Applications, and Products), which is a German Multinational Software Company. The company offers leading software solutions to manage business operations and customer relations.

This insightful article delineates two of its in-demand products- SAP HANA and SAP ABAP that are go-to tools for the modern software industries. As you reach the end of this article, you will be clear about how to choose the right Solution for your business.

What is SAP HANA?

SAP HANA stands for High-performance Analytic Appliance, which is a multi-model in-memory database. This means that it stores data in its memory rather than keeping it on a disk. Its column-oriented database design enables us to run advanced analytics alongside high-speed transactions in a single system.

If you want to become a professional in SAP HANA, then enroll in MindMajix’s SAP HANA Taining.

What is SAP ABAP?

SAP ABAP stands for Advanced Business Application Programming, which is a programming language developed by SAP. It is used for the development of business applications in the SAP environment. It supports both Object-Oriented and Procedural Approaches in programming. One of its notable features is that access to database tables is fully integrated into the language.

Are SAP ABAP and AS ABAP the Same?

AS ABAP stands for Application Server ABAP, which provides the ABAP run-time environment. It is a client-server system made up of three layers, namely the presentation layer, application layer, and database layer. Therefore, for using the SAP ABAP, you will need to install the Application Server ABAP in your system.

Therefore, SAP ABAP is a Programming language while AS ABAP is the server that provides a run-time environment for ABAP. So technically, SAP ABAP is a programming interface of AS ABAP.

SAP HANA Vs SAP ABAP

Advantages of SAP HANA

1. It is Faster than Traditional databases.

SAP HANA is 3600 times faster than traditional databases and answers queries in less than 1 second. It also ensures the Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID) standards.

2. It supports Multi-tenancy

SAP HANA Allows multiple tenant databases to run in one system that shares the same memory and processors. Each tenant database is fully isolated with its database to ensure maximum security and control.

3. It is a Parallel Processing Database

SAP HANA stores data in high-speed memory, organizes it in columns, and partitions and distributes it among multiple servers, which enables parallel processing of data.

4. It gas extended server for Application Development

SAP HANA offers analytics features such as Searching through SQL queries and streaming Analytics to discover the insights in the data. It also has a built-in server that supports Application Development such as REST and OData.

5. It gives robust Data Integration Features.

SAP HANA provides the ETL, ELT, real-time data replication, and data transformation to handle the data integration scenarios. We can also perform queries on remote data sources in real-time.

Advantages of SAP ABAP

It helps in the mass-processing of data.

ABAP is a fourth-generation programming language (4GL) designed with a primary focus on handling and manipulating vast amounts of data within the context of business applications.

It has an in-built Database Access.

ABAP has integrated database access where Open SQL is used to access database objects defined in ABAP Dictionary or ABAP CDS. Also, Native SQL is used for platform-specific database access and AMDP to manage and call database procedures and database functions from the SAP HANA database.

It has an interface for other programming environments.

The language has an integrated interface to other programming environments using Remote Function Calls, which are the calls to function modules using the RFC interface. These calls can be synchronous, asynchronous, or transactional.

It allows various UI Technologies in the environment.

Various UI technologies can be used in the ABAP environment. It supports the classic UI technologies such as Classic dynpros, Selection screens, and Classic lists as well as the new web technologies such as Web Dynpro ABAP, and SAPUI5

It has a robust repository for type definitions

In ABAP, the type definitions (metadata) are stored in the repository. This data is very important for describing database tables and views in the database while also being visible in all other repository objects. This makes it possible to define type-friendly interface parameters and data objects for handling database tables.

When Should I choose SAP HANA?

SAP HANA is an in-memory database that is suitable for advanced analytical and transactional work with a variety of data types. It can be deployed on-premises, in a public or private cloud, and hybrid scenarios and has advanced features of advanced analytical processing, data integration, and application development.

Select SAP HANA if your organization aims to:

Use a Database with Advanced Analytics and Data Integration Support.
Store huge volumes of data with a faster retrieval rate than traditional database
Combine the OLAP and OLTP Transactions into a single system.
Develop Applications along with database storage.

When should I choose SAP ABAP?

SAP ABAP is a programming language that comes up with mass-data processing and integrated database access features to develop business applications in the SAP Environment. Therefore, it is a perfect choice for organizations who are seeking to develop or customize their SAP Applications:

SAP ABAP is a good choice for your organization if it wants to:

Use both Object-Oriented and Procedural Approaches in Business Applications.
Have database access integrated with the language itself.
Have integrated interface to XML and other programming environments.
Perform concurrent access to the Application Server’s standard database, which is done using LUW(Logical Unit of Work) in the ABAP Run-time environment.

What is the Pricing of SAP HANA?

SAP HANA Cloud is available under a 30-day Free Trial under a guided demo of the system. It also has a 90-day free tier option for the users. Additionally, the SAP HANA Cloud is available at $ 9.84 per Capacity Unit per year, which includes one productive tenant.

The minimum quantity that you have to purchase is 100 Capacity Units for SAP HANA Cloud. As a Prerequisite, you must have a license from SAP Business Application Studio before buying the SAP HANA.

What is the Pricing of SAP ABAP

Since SAP ABAP is a programming language, you do not need to buy it. But, you have to install the AS ABAP server on your system to work on the ABAP Development environment. SAP provides a free developer trial for the ABAP Server, which can be downloaded from the official website: https://developers.sap.com/trials-downloads.html.

You can choose the ABAP developer edition on the SAP HANA database as a Cloud appliance or download the ABAP developer edition on the SAP ASE database. To get started with the ABAP environment, you must have the prerequisites, which are recommended by the official guidelines on the website: https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/#abap

Conclusion

The SAP HANA is Database-as-a-Service(DBaaS) for all your Enterprise Data Storage requirements that offers fast and efficient data storage along with application development and analytics features. ABAP is a Programming language for SAP-based Applications.

The choice of the right tool depends on your requirements, whether you need a database service with in-built application development support or a programming environment with integrated database access. You can now choose the right SAP Tool for your organization.