SAP announces support for Virtualized SAP HANA for non-productive platforms at SAP Sapphire/TechEd Madrid

On the final day of TechEd in Madrid, SAP announced that they will be supporting virtualization for Non-Productive SAP HANA systems. No other details were given surrounding this announcement, but this is a significant departurefromtheir previous position as it related to SAP HANA. This should be good news for Cisco given that the Cisco UCS server platform was builtfromthe ground up to host applications in a virtualized manner. As we work with VCE, EMC, and NetApp this will only enhance our position in the SAP HANA space

Cisco had an excellent presence at the event. There were almost 700 visitors to our booth as we had on display, FlexPod from NetApp, VBlock from VCE and IT Process Automation. In addition we had as many visitors to the SAP HANA Test Drive area where Cisco had the C460 SAP HANA certified platform.

One area that got quite a bit of attention was the SAP Precision Retail mobility application on the Cisco platform. I attended two sessions that were well attended by attendees at the conference. There were at least 40 to 50 attendees at each session. In addition, the application was on display in the SAP Mobility area. Cisco is the only hardware vendor that SAP has worked with on this particular application and will be actively selling this application as part of their portfolio.

Michael Missbach, who manages Cisco's SAP competency center in Walldorf Germany, was the leader in two Microforums on Tuesday and third speaking session on Wednesday. The first was SAP on the Cloud and the second was a Microforum with TUI Travel's (HotelBeds) CIO Mr. Garcia. Mr. Garcia was able to discuss his installation of SAP on Cisco UCS as well as his use of SAP HANA on the Certified Cisco UCS server platform and how this architecture design has saved him approximately 150,000 Euros a year.

The third session at TechEd was a theater session where more than 70 people attended and learned about the installation of SAP HANA on the Cisco UCS server platform and how that compared to other platforms where HANA may be installed.

There was also a Meet the Customer session with an IT Process Automation customer, where several attendees gained further insight into the deployment of IT Process Automation at Implema.

There were 20 meetings with various customers and partners all of which were very productive

Cisco hosted the Vblock party in our booth late in the day, which attracted a big crowd culminating with the entire crowd chanting "Cisco sells Servers" which could be heard through the exhibit hall.
Cisco hosted a second in-booth party with NetApp on Wednesday again culminating with the entire crowd chanting "Cisco sells Servers"

People came up to me throughout the conference over the next two days and their first response to me wasCisco Sells Servers !