It may not occur to the average student of the storage industry that SAP and Centera go well together. After all, SAP systems are highly transactional (e.g. frequent database changes), while Centera is geared towards the storage of reference information (e.g. fixed content, or data that changes infrequently).
However, SAP and Centera have been bridged (a variety of vendors have written SAP connectors, see below) together in a very unique and complementary way. This is due to the fact that users of SAP generate two critical pieces of fixed content: print lists and ADK files.
Once generated, these two pieces of fixed content present a new set of challenges for SAP customers, including capacity management, retention, backups, authenticity, and compatibility (just to name a few).
Whenever customers have these “fixed content challenges” (especially SAP customers), they should consider Centera. Here’s why.
SAP Print Lists and ADK Files
Print lists, quite simply, are the result of reports run against the SAP system. They can include reports such as balance sheets and audit trails. ADK Files represent files that SAP customers can create when they view a portion of the SAP database as “closed” or “complete”. Customers can use the SAP Archive Development Kit (ADK) to determine what portions of their database can be archived, and thus moved out of the primary database.
SAP has online help pages for both print lists and archive files. In this post I’ll talk less about what’s in these files, and more about how Centera solves the challenges they present.
Capacity Management
The creation of print lists and ADK files requires system administrators to manage their location, as well as manage the growth of their generation. These documents can end up being located on the primary store (i.e. the same storage that the SAP database is located on). Given that these documents are fixed and infrequently accessed, it’s more efficient to locate these documents on an archival tier, as opposed to occupying space on the primary tier.
Retention
The existence of print lists and ADK files are often the result of governmental regulations. In other words, these reports and archive files must be regularly generated and kept indefinitely. They often must be produced as the result of a government audit, and the SAP customer must make sure that there is no way to delete these files. Centera’s retention feature naturally provides this capability, without the need for SAP administrators to worry about permissions and time periods.
Backups
Print lists and ADK files need a backup strategy, especially if they are kept on a primary store. Growth in the number and size of print lists and ADK files on the primary store require a backup strategy, and increase backup windows. Locating these files on Centera eliminates that burden. A secondary Centera can also be used for replication in a geographically remote location.
Authenticity
Government audits of information found in print lists and ADK files can require proof that reports and archive files have not been tampered with. When originally storing these files on a Centera, a digital fingerprint is created that represents the bit-for-bit and byte-for-byte content stored within those files. When reading content off of Centera, these files are guaranteed to be authentic, because the content is compared to the original digital fingerprint. Again, Centera provides a capability that is not commonly found in traditional storage systems.
Compatibility
This brings me to the last point about integrating Centera into an SAP solution. It’s imperative for the customer that they are able to use all of their traditional SAP tools and solutions, without having to radically change their toolset due to the presence of the Centera system.
Several vendors have purpose-built and seamlessly integrated the Centera SDK into SAP connectors and created a “certified” SAP solution. For a full list of integrated SAP solutions, check here.
This is yet another great example of a surprising use of the Centera system, where a portion of a live database, as well as other important SAP documents and reports, live on Centera as part of an integrated SAP solution. The benefits are many and unique, including the ability to respond to regulated and governed compliance requests, a “smaller sized” production database on the primary store (thus reducing backup size and speed), and authentic, non-deletable and non-overwritable records.
Steve
