lower the overall cost of the sap hana platform · certifies that sap hana appliances produced by...

LOWER THE OVERALL COST OF THE SAP HANA® PLATFORMLenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 provides better three-year total cost of ownership (TCO) than competing SAP HANA appliances for scale-out and scale-up configurations

Being able to extract real-time insights from large in-memory databases like

the SAP HANA® platform has become crucial for organizations in a variety of

industries. And while the price of memory continues to decline, purchasing

single-server scale-up or multi-node scale-out clusters still represents a sizable

investment for IT organizations. However, the price of acquisition is only part of

the cost: SAP HANA deployments can be expensive to operate, particularly when

labor costs for specialists to manage them are factored in.

Evaluating both scale-out and scale-up configurations for SAP HANA solutions

running on servers powered by latest-generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors

from Cisco, HPE, and Lenovo shows that Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 servers

provide a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for a wide range of memory sizes

over a three-year period as compared to Cisco UCS® C480 M5, Cisco UCS C880

M5, and HPE® Superdome® Flex rack-based servers. This lower TCO stems from

both lower capital expenditures (CapEx) and lower operating expenses (OpEx) for

the Lenovo™ servers. In addition to raw TCO advantages, the Lenovo solutions

for SAP HANA evaluated in this study also feature the same high reliability and

customer satisfaction as other Lenovo servers.

CONTENTSTechnology Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Comparison Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Scale-Out TCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Scale-Up TCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Details of Study Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Details of Scale-Out Cost Analysis

over a Three-Year Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Qualitative Differentiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Compute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Reliability and Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Reliability, Availability,

and Serviceability (RAS) . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Customer Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Appendix A: Hardware Specifications . . . . .11

Cisco: Scale Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Cisco: Scale Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

HPE: Scale Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

HPE: Scale Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Lenovo: Scale Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Lenovo: Scale Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Appendix B: Study Assumptions . . . . . . . . .13

Appendix C: Three-Year Costs . . . . . . . . . . .14

Three-Year TCO for Scale-Out

Configurations Examined . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Three-Year TCO for Scale-Up

Configurations Examined . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Lenovo™ Scale-Out Solutions:

Up to

l ower TCO than C isco ® so lu t i ons

54%

Lenovo™ Scale-Up Solutions:

Up to

l ower TCO than C isco ® so lu t i ons

24%

2 |

Technology TrendsReal-time analytics is a primary operational requirement for enterprises. In-memory database platforms

like SAP HANA are the bedrock for this requirement of the modern enterprise. Running large databases

in-memory—even several terabytes large—keeps storage latency from slowing down queries and

provides faster, actionable insights on increasingly large datasets.

Many kinds of applications beyond traditional line-of-business (LOB) applications build on

top of databases to benefit from the in-memory, columnar capabilities of SAP HANA.

SAP S/4HANA® provides next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities

with the real-time capabilities of SAP HANA. SAP® BW/4HANA is the next generation of

SAP® Business Warehouse optimized for SAP HANA, and it provides simplified operations

and improved performance for business-warehouse applications.

The hardware supporting SAP HANA is crucial to realizing the performance capabilities of

the platform; attempting to run SAP HANA on hardware that cannot utilize all of its capabilities

constrains overall performance. To avoid such mismatches between hardware and software, SAP

certifies that SAP HANA appliances produced by OEMs successfully integrate with

SAP® solutions.1 In addition, SAP requires that SAP HANA appliances have a valid

SAP HANA hardware certification at the time of purchase by customers.

Comparison OverviewThis study compares both the CapEx to acquire appliances that are certified for SAP HANA and that

are powered by Intel Xeon Scalable processors, in addition to the OpEx associated with running those

appliances over a three-year period. Factors considered in the OpEx analysis include:

• Management

• Power

• Cooling

This study examines TCO considerations for appliances in both scale-up and

scale-out configurations.

Figure 1 lists the SAP HANA platform–certified appliances examined in this study.

On-Premises Versus Cloud Deployment Considerations

Whether to deploy the SAP HANA® platform in the cloud is a question that many organizations grapple with, and it

has no one-size-fits-all answer. SAP HANA in the cloud might save some organizations money while proving more

expensive for others.2 Cloud-based SAP HANA might provide higher security for some organizations while being

untenable for others due to legal or regulatory requirements. This study assumes on-premises deployment of SAP

HANA, and it does not consider the ramifications of TCO for deploying SAP HANA in the cloud.

3 |

Scale-Out TCO

While Lenovo generates lower three-year TCO than Cisco or HPE in most scale-up and scale-

out configurations, the most dramatic TCO results came from the matchup between Lenovo and

Cisco rack-based, scale-out configurations for SAP HANA. When compared to the other solutions,

Lenovo presented a lower TCO across a variety of SAP HANA scale-out cluster sizes and amounts

of total memory over a three-year period. Figures 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 show how much less the Lenovo

ThinkSystem SR950 SAP HANA scale-out appliance costs compared to appliances built from Cisco

rack-based servers for 6-TB, 24-TB, and 96-TB sizes, respectively.

Scale-Up Versus Scale-Out SAP HANA® Configurations

Scale-up SAP HANA configurations add resources (such as additional memory or processors) to a single server as

needs increase. The maximum memory for a single SAP HANA appliance running SAP S/4HANA® is 12 TB, with a 6-TB

maximum for SAP® BW/4HANA, in an 8-socket configuration.

Scale-out SAP HANA configurations connect a cluster of smaller SAP HANA systems together into a single clustered

database. SAP HANA is a shared-nothing architecture, so scale-out configurations require shared storage for data

persistence. This can be supplied either with a clustered file system, such as with the Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950,

or a storage-area network (SAN), as with the other vendors’ solutions examined in this study.

Figure 1. SAP HANA® platform–certified appliances examined in this study

HPE® ConvergedSystem 500 HPE® Superdome® Flex

Cisco UCS C480 M5Cisco UCS® C880 M5

Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950

4 |

$7,000,000

$6,000,000

$5,000,000

$4,000,000

$3,000,000

$2,000,000

$1,000,000

$—

Cisco UCS® C480 M5 3 TB Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 3 TB

17% less

TCO Comparison: Cisco vs. Lenovo8-Node, 24-TB Cluster

Figure 2.2. TCO comparison between Cisco UCS® C480 M5 and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 in an 8-node, 24-TB configuration

$3,000,000

Cisco UCS® C480 M5 1.5 TB


Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 1.5 TB

$2,500,000

$1,500,000

$500,000

$—

$2,000,000

$1,000,000 23% less

Figure 2.1. TCO comparison between Cisco UCS® C480 M5 and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 in a 4-node, 6-TB scale-out configuration

5 |

Scale-Up TCO

Lenovo also provided superior overall value at the extreme end of SAP HANA scale-up appliances.

The three-year TCO for a 12-TB SAP HANA scale-up appliance built on the Lenovo ThinkSystem

SR950 cost nearly $12,000 less than a similar HPE Superdome Flex and almost $800,000 less than a

comparable appliance built on a Cisco UCS C880 M5 server.

$35,000,000

$30,000,000

$25,000,000

$20,000,000

$15,000,000

$10,000,000

$5,000,000

$—Cisco UCS® C880 M5 6 TB Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 6 TB

53% less


Figure 2.3. TCO comparison between Cisco UCS® C880 M5 and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 in a 16-node, 96-TB configuration

SAP HANA® TCO Comparison: Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950, HPE® Superdome® Flex,

and Cisco UCS® C880 M5

Cisco UCS® C880M5 12 TB

$3,172,159

HPE® Superdome®

Flex 12 TB

$2,407,622

Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 12 TB

$2,395,868

Figure 3. Three-year TCO for 12-TB SAP HANA® scale-up configurations for Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950, HPE® Superdome® Flex, and Cisco UCS® C880 M5 (lower is better)

6 |

Details of Study MethodologyThe TCO examined in this study includes both CapEx and OpEx costs for SAP HANA appliances.

CapEx costs examined include:

• Server hardware

• Storage hardware (integrated and external)

• Licenses

OpEx can be more nebulous. While power is unarguably an operating cost connected to

a particular piece of hardware, other costs—like space in a data center—can be harder

to discretize for individual appliances. For this reason, this study limits OpEx costs to

the following:

• Management

• Power

• Cooling

For specific assumptions about these costs, see Appendix B.

Details of Scale-Out Cost Analysis over a Three-Year PeriodThe TCO benefits of Lenovo scale-out configurations for SAP HANA, compared to those from HPE

(Figure 4.1) and Cisco (Figure 4.2), come from a combination of lower CapEx and OpEx.

HPE

6 TB,4 nodes

$12,000,000

$10,000,000

$8,000,000

$6,000,000

$4,000,000

$2,000,000

$—12 TB,

8 nodes24 TB,

16 nodes12 TB,

4 nodes24 TB,

8 nodes48 TB,

16 nodes

15% less

6% less

8% less

9% less

1% less

2% less

Lenovo

Three-Year Overall TCO Costs: HPE® Superdome® Flex vs.


Figure 4.1. Percentage differences for overall TCO between HPE® Superdome® Flex and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 rack-based SAP HANA® scale-out appliances over three years

7 |

Cisco

6 TB,4 nodes

$14,000,000

$12,000,000

$10,000,000

$8,000,000

$6,000,000

$4,000,000

$2,000,000

$—12 TB,

8 nodes24 TB,

16 nodes12 TB,

4 nodes24 TB,

8 nodes48 TB,

16 nodes

Lenovo

Three-Year Overall TCO Costs: Cisco UCS® C480 M5 vs.


23% less

12% less

7% less

25% less

17% less

14% less

Figure 4.2. Percentage differences for overall TCO between Cisco UCS® C480 M5 and Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™

SR950 rack-based SAP HANA® scale-out appliances over three years

OpEx plays a comparatively bigger role in Lenovo’s lower TCO. This stems in large part from the use of

IBM Spectrum Scale™ shared storage for ThinkSystem SR950 clusters as opposed to a storage-area

network (SAN) for storage with the Cisco UCS C480 M5, Cisco UCS C880 M5, and HPE Superdome

Flex clusters; the addition of a SAN to the Cisco and HPE solutions greatly increases the labor costs for

those clusters.

Note that the TCO comparisons in Figure 4.1 and Figure 4.2 do not include the labor or consulting costs

associated with deploying the Cisco, Lenovo, or HPE solutions. This is because such figures can vary

greatly between organizations and systems integrators. The CapEx components of TCO calculations

made throughout this study rely solely on manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) figures for

hardware and software.

For detailed three-year TCO for the scale-out and scale-up configurations examined in this study

see Appendix C.

8 |

Qualitative DifferentiatorsBeyond the TCO benefits highlighted in this study, a number of hard-to-quantify differentiators emerged

between the SAP HANA solutions examined. These differentiators span scalability, storage, compute,

and reliability and satisfaction.

Scalability

The more scalable a solution, the longer an organization can build on it without having to replace or

rearchitect it, which can be a factor in TCO. When scaling up a single server, in contrast to solutions

from Cisco and HPE, Lenovo SAP HANA scale-up configurations are upgradeable from two to four to

eight sockets within a single system. For SAP HANA scale-out configurations, the ThinkSystem SR950

can scale out to 94 nodes in contrast to 48 nodes maximum for the Cisco and HPE SAP HANA

scale-out solutions.

Storage

Storage presents a number of qualitative differences between the solutions examined in this study,

largely because of the radically different storage architectures used in the various solutions. Aside

from Lenovo, the SAP HANA scale-out solutions use SAN-based shared storage, which has been

documented elsewhere in this study as a driver for OpEx costs for those solutions. Harder to put into

terms of TCO are the ramifications for scalability and performance presented by the use of SANs.

The ThinkSystem SR950 scale-out configurations for SAP HANA evaluated in this study use the IBM

Spectrum Scale shared-nothing storage architecture.3 Formerly called IBM® GPFS™, IBM Spectrum

Scale scales farther than SAN-based shared storage, which uses XFS or Network File System (NFS).

Compute

The 1.5-TB and 3-TB Cisco UCS C480 M5 run Intel Xeon Gold processors in contrast to the Intel Xeon

Platinum processors in the HPE and Lenovo SAP HANA scale-out solutions (and the Cisco UCS C880

M5). These more-powerful Intel Xeon Scalable processors provide more cores (28 cores versus 14–16

cores) than in the Cisco servers, which in turn support more threads for faster computational power

and analytics. In addition, Intel Xeon Platinum processors provide additional reliability, availability, and

serviceability (RAS) features not present on Intel Xeon Gold processors.

Reliability and Satisfaction

Reliability is another category in which factors can be hard to quantify into TCO. That stated, two

qualitative differentiators for reliability and customer satisfaction did stand out from analyzing the SAP

HANA solutions in this report and both can point to lower downtime and other sources of friction that

can increase operational expenses.

9 |

RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, AND SERVICEABILITY (RAS)Lenovo servers continue to be the industry’s most reliable servers.4 The “ITIC 2016 – 2017 Global

Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Report” from Information Technology Intelligence Consulting

(ITIC) noted that, continuing a trend, Lenovo servers recorded the least amount of unplanned annual

server downtime among competitors including Cisco and HPE in the 1-to-40-minutes, the 41-minutes-

to-4-hours, and the 1-to-over-4-hours brackets examined by the consultancy.4 Specific RAS features in

the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 include:

• Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA), which alerts administrators to impending failure

of processors, memory, power-supply units (PSUs), system fans, adapter slots, hard-

disk drives (HDDs)/solid-state drives (SSDs), and voltage-regulator modules (VRMs); this

enables servicers to schedule planned downtime rather than reacting to sudden failure

• Independently powered light-path diagnostic LEDs, which light up beside a failing

component for instant identification in order to enable fast servicing and reduce downtime

• Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Recovery, which provides operating system–

layer assisted recovery from uncorrectable data errors, helping to prevent system resets

• Adaptive Double Device Data Correction (DDDC), which protects the system from

memory errors while repairing those errors

• Fatal-error handling, which enables override of application shutdown by setting a

custom handler of fatal errors

Lenovo hardware achieved the highest percentage of 99.999 percent overall uptime and availability in

ITIC’s 2016–2017 report, with 70 percent of surveyed deployments achieving 99.999 percent uptime

(less than 26 seconds of downtime annually) and 30 percent achieving 99.99 percent uptime (less than

four minutes, 19 seconds of downtime annually).4

CUSTOMER SATISFACTIONCustomer satisfaction is also high with Lenovo servers. Technology Business Research (TBR) noted

in its 2016 customer-satisfaction survey that Lenovo led its competition in customer-satisfaction

scores in 21 of the 22 categories (and tied for the lead in the twenty-second category).5 Quantized in

TBR’s Weighted Satisfaction Index, Lenovo achieved an overall score (which takes into account sales,

product, and service attributes, in addition to brand loyalty) of 82.8 out of a possible 100. The next

highest score in the Weighted Satisfaction Index was HPE at 78.6.5

Management

Hardest to quantify (at least in terms of TCO) are management features. The Lenovo ThinkSystem

SR950 comes with management software to simplify administration and reduce management costs

(as opposed to management software being a separate product). Lenovo™ XClarity® Controller is a

hardware-embedded management engine that uses Redfish® API-compliant REST APIs. XClarity

Controller enables the ThinkSystem SR950 to boot in half the time of prior-generation servers, in

addition to providing firmware updates that are up to six times faster than older-generation servers.6

In addition, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 comes with Lenovo XClarity Administrator to centrally

manage the ThinkSystem servers, storage, and networking in a scale-out Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950

solution for SAP HANA.

10 |

ConclusionAnalysis of the TCO for Cisco and Lenovo offerings for SAP HANA over three years reveals dramatic

savings with Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 servers compared to Cisco UCS C480 M5 and Cisco UCS

C880 M5. Comparison of HPE and Lenovo offerings shows a more muted TCO advantage across

many memory sizes for the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 compared to the HPE Superdome Flex. For

scale-up configurations, the savings can run as high as 24 percent compared to the Cisco UCS C880

M5; for scale-out configurations, the savings are even more impressive: up to 54-percent lower TCO

compared to the Cisco UCS C880 M5.

These savings derive from a combination of lower CapEx and OpEx. A primary—though not sole—

driver for these cost differences is the lack of a need for a SAN or separate network-attached storage

(NAS) for Lenovo scale-out nodes. The use of IBM Spectrum Scale shared-nothing storage for Lenovo

ThinkSystem SR950 scale-out clusters removes the need for purchasing, operating, and administering

a separate SAN (as is required with scale-out clusters based on Cisco UCS C480 M5, Cisco UCS C880

M5, and HPE Superdome Flex servers). With larger memory-sized servers, Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950

servers cost much less up front than Cisco UCS C880 M5 servers as well.

In addition to quantitative differences between the solutions, Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 servers

provide qualitative benefits beyond those supplied by competing Cisco and HPE servers. Lenovo

servers continue to be the most reliable servers in the industry and the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950

hosts a number of unique RAS capabilities absent from its competitors. Lenovo also leads the industry

in customer satisfaction to supply lower overall cost coupled with lower heartburn for IT administrators.

Finally, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 supports a number of tools to simplify administering complex

SAP HANA deployments, including Lenovo Managed Services for SAP HANA.

Lenovo™ Managed Services for SAP HANA®

With Lenovo Managed Services for SAP HANA, Lenovo service professionals remotely monitor and

manage supported server, storage, networking devices, and select third-party products sold by Lenovo or Lenovo-

authorized resellers. These services enhance the security and reliability of your data center and help ensure high

performance and stability for your SAP HANA deployment. Continuous monitoring, scheduled health checks, and

recommended updates can help control management costs for SAP HANA and provide skills and knowledge that your

IT organization might not already possess. For more information, visit:

https://cloud.kapostcontent.net/pub/32e62228-f148-4769-8d13-9f66d54c3cbf/

sap-bwa-managed-services.pdf

https://cloud.kapostcontent.net/pub/32e62228-f148-4769-8d13-9f66d54c3cbf/sap-bwa-managed-services.pdf

https://cloud.kapostcontent.net/pub/32e62228-f148-4769-8d13-9f66d54c3cbf/sap-bwa-managed-services.pdf

11 |

Appendix A: Hardware SpecificationsThis section details hardware specifications for each appliance included in this study, grouped by OEM and configuration.

Cisco: Scale OutCisco UCS® C480 M5 (1.5 TB RAM)

Intel® Xeon® Gold 6132 processor (2.6 GHz, 140 W, 14 cores, 19.25 MB cache) 4

32 GB DDR4 2,666 MHz RDIMM, PC4-23100, dual-rank, x4, 1.2 V 48

240 GB 6 Gb SATA 2.5-inch SSD enterprise-value local storage 2

Shared storage: NetApp® All-Flash Fabric-Attached Storage (AFF) A300 (with 24 x 900 GB SSD)

Cisco UCS C480 M5 (3 TB RAM)

Intel Xeon Gold 6142 processor (2.6 GHz, 150 W, 16 cores, 22 MB cache) 4

64 GB DDR4 2,666 MHz RDIMM, PC4-23100, quad-rank, x4, 1.2 V 48


Shared storage: 4 x Cisco UCS C240 M5 server for eight SAP HANA® nodes (24 x 1.8 TB 12 gigabits per second (Gbps)

SAS 10K revolutions per minute (rpm), 4K per Cisco UCS C240 M5 server)


Intel Xeon Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 8

128 GB DDR4 2,666 MHz TSV-RDIMM, PC4-21300, octal-rank, x4, 1.2 V 48

960 GB SATA M.2 2

Shared storage: 4 x Cisco UCS C240 M4 server for eight SAP HANA nodes (24 x 1.8 TB 12 Gbps SAS 10K rpm, 4K per Cisco UCS C240 M5 server)

Cisco: Scale UpCisco UCS® C480 M5 (6 TB RAM)

Intel® Xeon® Gold 6132 processor (2.6 GHz, 140 W, 14 cores, 19.25 MB cache) 4






960 GB SATA M.2 4

HPE: Scale OutHPE® Superdome® Flex (1.5 TB)

Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 4

HPE® SD Flex DDR4 256 GB (4 x 64 GB) Mem Kit 6

Shared storage: HPE® 3PAR® StoreServ® 8400 24 x3.84 TB SSD (RAID50) 1 per 8 scale-out nodes

HPE Superdome Flex (3 TB)


HPE SD Flex DDR4 256 GB (4 x 64 GB) Mem Kit 12

Shared storage: HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8400 24 x 3.84 TB SSD (RAID50) 1 per 8 scale-out nodes

HPE Superdome Flex (6 TB)


HPE SD Flex DDR4 256 GB (4 x 64 GB) Mem Kit 24

Shared storage: HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8400 24 x 3.84 TB SSD (RAID50) 1 per 8 scale-out nodes

12 |

HPE: Scale UpHPE® ConvergedSystem 500 (6 TB)

Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8180M processor (2.5 GHz, 205 W, 28 cores, 38.5 MB cache) 4

HPE® 128 GB 8Rx4 PC4-2666V-L Smart Kit 48

1.8 TB 10K SAS HDD (RAID5) 6

HPE® Superdome® Flex (12 TB)


HPE® SD Flex DDR4 512 GB (4 x 128 GB) Mem Kit 24

1.8 TB 10K SAS HDD 22

400 GB SSD cache (RAID50) 3

Lenovo: Scale OutLenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 (1.5 TB RAM)

Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8176 processor (28 cores, 165 W, 2.1 GHz) 4

ThinkSystem 32 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (2 R x 4 1.2 V) RDIMM 48

ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1635a 400 GB mainstream SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 2

ThinkSystem 2.5-inch PM1633a 3.84 TB capacity SAS, 12 Gb hot-swap SSD 5

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 (3 TB RAM)

Intel Xeon Platinum 8176 processor (28 cores, 165 W, 2.1 GHz) 4

ThinkSystem 64 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (4 R x 4 1.2 V) LRDIMM 48





ThinkSystem 64 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (4 R x 4 1.2 V) LRDIMM 48



Lenovo: Scale UpLenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 (6 TB RAM)

Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8176 processor (28 cores, 165 W, 2.1 GHz) 4

ThinkSystem 128 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (8 R x 4 1.2 V) 3DS RDIMM 48





ThinkSystem 128 GB TruDDR4 2,666 MHz (8 R x 4 1.2 V) 3DS RDIMM 96



13 |

Appendix B: Study AssumptionsThis study makes the following assumptions in projecting the three-year TCO for the SAP HANA appliances analyzed:

• Labor costs—This study uses a uniform fully burdened cost of $150,000 per year per full-time employee (FTE) equivalent for both storage and SAP HANA management.

• FTE equivalents—This study assumes the following number of FTE equivalents per management responsibility:

FTE Equivalents

Per SAP HANA® scale-out node (scaled linearly) 0.675

Per SAP HANA scale-up server 1.700

Per storage server (scaled linearly) 0.325

Per NetApp® AFF array 1.300

Per 4-node IBM Spectrum Scale™ storage configuration 0.012

Per 8-node IBM Spectrum Scale storage configuration 0.019

Per 16-node IBM Spectrum Scale storage configuration 0.031

• Power costs—This study uses the United States national average commercial cost of $0.1082 per kWh7

14 |

Appendix C: Three-Year Costs Three-Year TCO for Scale-Out Configurations ExaminedScale-out TCO Nodes CapEx Labor Power Cooling Total

6 TB scale out

Cisco UCS® C480 M5 1.5 TB 4 $1,006,080 $1,800,000 $18,669 $19,176 $2,843,925

HPE® Superdome® Flex 1.5 TB 4 $1,183,776 $1,361,250 $13,328 $13,835 $2,572,189

Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 1.5 TB 4 $956,448 $1,215,000 $11,783 $11,779 $2,195,011

12 TB scale out

Cisco UCS C480 M5 1.5 TB 8 $1,734,432 $3,015,000 $30,113 $31,129 $4,810,674

HPE Superdome Flex 1.5 TB 8 $1,884,452 $2,576,250 $24,772 $25,788 $4,511,262

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 1.5 TB 8 $1,753,296 $2,430,000 $23,566 $23,559 $4,230,421

24 TB scale out

Cisco UCS C480 M5 1.5 TB 16 $3,260,568 $5,591,250 $54,807 $56,842 $8,963,467

HPE Superdome Flex 1.5 TB 16 $3,768,904 $5,152,500 $49,543 $51,576 $9,022,523

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 1.5 TB 16 $3,346,993 $4,860,000 $47,131 $47,118 $8,301,242

12 TB scale out

Cisco UCS C480 M5 3 TB 4 $1,667,616 $1,800,000 $20,739 $21,354 $3,509,709

HPE Superdome Flex 3 TB 4 $1,475,784 $1,361,250 $18,025 $18,019 $2,873,078

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 3 TB 4 $1,381,712 $1,215,000 $12,992 $12,988 $2,622,693

24 TB scale out

Cisco UCS C480 M5 3 TB 8 $3,057,504 $3,015,000 $34,254 $35,486 $6,142,244



48 TB scale out

Cisco UCS C480 M5 3 TB 16 $5,906,712 $5,591,250 $63,090 $65,554 $11,626,606


Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 3 TB 16 $,048,049 $4,860,000 $51,969 $51,954 $10,011,971

24 TB scale out

Cisco UCS C880 M5 6 TB 4 $6,687,076 $1,800,000 $32,019 $32,011 $8,551,106



48 TB scale out

Cisco UCS C880 M5 6 TB 8 $13,096,424 $3,015,000 $56,813 $56,800 $16,225,037



96 TB scale out

Cisco UCS C880 M5 6 TB 16 $25,984,552 $5,591,250 $108,208 $108,182 $31,792,192



15 |

1 SAP. “Certified and Supported SAP HANA® Hardware.” www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2014-09-02-hana-hardware/enEN/index.html.2 For example, a recent survey notes that managing cloud spend was a challenge for 76 percent of respondents—with 21 percent reporting it as a

significant challenge. The same survey reported that 30–35 percent of cloud spend by organizations was wasted. Source: RightScale.

“2018 State of the Cloud Report™.” 2018. https://assets.rightscale.com/uploads/pdfs/RightScale-2018-State-of-the-Cloud-Report.pdf.3 Although not covered in this study, the second scalable storage solution for a scale-out Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 solution for SAP HANA® is the Lenovo™ Storage

Solution for SAP HANA. It is an SAP HANA Tailored Datacenter Integration (TDI) software-defined storage (SDS) solution built on the open-source Ceph® project and integrated

with SUSE® Linux® Enterprise Server. The Lenovo Storage Solution for SAP HANA brings block, file, and object data-access capabilities to a single cluster, all without a SAN.4 Information Technology Intelligence Consulting (ITIC). “ITIC 2016 – 2017 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Report.”

October 2016. https://en.resources.lenovo.com/analyst-reports/itic-2016-2017-global-reliability-survey-2h-2016.5 Technology Business Research (TBR). “Lenovo x86-based server customer satisfaction scores trend above competition.” December 2016.

https://en.resources.lenovo.com/analyst-reports/tbr-lenovo-outscores-competitors-in-x86-based-server-customer-satisfaction-2h16.6 Lenovo. “Lenovo XClarity Controller.” www.lenovo.com/us/en/data-center/software/systems-management/xclarity-controller/.7 U.S. Energy Information Administration. June 2018 data released August 24, 2018. www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a.

The analysis in this document was done by Prowess Consulting and commissioned by Lenovo.

Results have been simulated and are provided for informational purposes only. Any difference in system hardware or software design

of configuration may affect actual performance.

Prowess and the Prowess logo are trademarks of Prowess Consulting, LLC.

Copyright © 2018 Prowess Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.

Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Three-Year TCO for Scale-Up Configurations Examined

Scale-up TCO CapEx Labor Power Cooling Total

6 TB scale up

Cisco UCS® C480 M5 6 TB $874,512 $765,000 $3,534 $3,533 $1,646,579

HPE® ConvergedSystem 500 6 TB $734,235 $765,000 $4,398 $4,397 $1,508,030

Lenovo™ ThinkSystem™ SR950 6 TB $814,968 $765,000 $3,540 $3,539 $1,587,047

12 TB scale up

Cisco UCS C880 M5 12 TB $2,381,000 $765,000 $13,081 $13,078 $3,172,159

HPE® Superdome® Flex 12 TB $1,626,343 $765,000 $8,141 $8,138 $2,407,622

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR950 12 TB $1,617,765 $765,000 $6,552 $6,550 $2,395,867

http://www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2014-09-02-hana-hardware/enEN/index.html

https://assets.rightscale.com/uploads/pdfs/RightScale-2018-State-of-the-Cloud-Report.pdf

https://en.resources.lenovo.com/analyst-reports/itic-2016-2017-global-reliability-survey-2h-2016

https://en.resources.lenovo.com/analyst-reports/tbr-lenovo-outscores-competitors-in-x86-based-server-customer-satisfaction-2h16

http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/data-center/software/systems-management/xclarity-controller/

http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a

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