Good Read: HANA as a “Service” or Cloud
SAP HANA On-Premise is more like traditional ECC setup with HANA flavor. Let’s check it’s characteristics one by one:
- Hardware is bought and managed by SAP Customer. A customer is responsible for the hardware upgrade. The business who want to manage hardware on their premises(for compliance, security etc.) should consider HANA On-Premise. In this case, they have to hire IT maintenance and Basis team to take care SAP system up and running.
- Costing model for HANA On-Premise is different than HANA Cloud Platform. On-Premise costing is generally in-line with traditional licensing. A Customer has to buy the current version package + build/contract a team for maintenance/support. In general, it is expected that one-time cost may be high for an On-Premise system than a Cloud-based system.
- Upgrades happen when Customer Wants it in HANA On-Premise. Technical and Functional upgrades are to be managed and tested by the team designated by SAP customer. This can be a short to long activity based on system size and complexity.
- Customization for customer specific business is simple and flexible in On-Premise HANA system. This is flexibility is substantially lesser in Cloud-based versions where process best practices are followed.
- All Functionalities are available as per license in On-Premise HANA. They can be freely configured and manipulated. In contrast, in Cloud-based systems, functionalities can be subscription based.
