Intel announces a partnership with SAP to power enterprises' digital transformation

Intel and SAP have announced a multiyear technology partnership focused on optimizing Intel’s platforms, including Intel Xeon Scalable processors and Intel Optane DC persistent memory, for SAP’s end-to-end enterprise software applications, including SAP S/4HANA. The partnership is designed to employ Intel’s leading technologies to power SAP’s suite of business solutions and intelligent technologies, enabling enterprises to deploy high-performance, highly-optimized applications within the cloud, enterprise and at the edge. A center of excellence (CoE) is also planned to be established, in which customers can evaluate, innovate and adopt technologies optimized by Intel and SAP.

“For more than a decade, Intel and SAP have engaged closely on developing differentiated breakthrough technologies that make organizations run more efficiently, and with today’s news we will further accelerate our technology collaboration and grow the value that we deliver to our customers. Broadening our technology collaboration with SAP means our mutual customers will be able to achieve faster insights from the largest data challenges, delivering a competitive edge,” said Navin Shenoy, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group.

Intel offers platform innovations consisting of processors, memory, storage and accelerator technologies that are capable of delivering SAP customers the performance and value required to accelerate leading-edge business applications. As an example, running SAP HANA–based applications within Intel Optane DC persistent memory may significantly reduce the complexity and risk of running real-time in-memory applications by providing persistent data that is more resilient to computer outages, without compromising security. SAP HANA customers deploying Intel Optane DC persistent memory is capable of reducing data recovery times from 50 minutes to 4 minutes on a 6TB SAP HANA instance1. Intel Optane DC persistent memory delivers significantly denser memory, which enables customers to do more data processing within the same server – intended for cost savings and enabling new capabilities for customers converting to SAP S/4HANA.

“The platform innovation delivered across Intel Xeon Scalable processors and Intel Optane DC persistent memory unleashes memory persistence and capacity that allows our customers to become intelligent enterprises in the Experience Economy,” said Irfan Kahn, president, Platform and Technologies, SAP. “Our expanded partnership with Intel will accelerate our customers’ move to SAP S/4HANA by allowing organizations to unlock the value of data assets with greater ease and operate with increased visibility, focus and agility.”

The partnership will empower customers to transform mission-critical business processes by deploying leading-edge, high-performance applications running on Intel-based infrastructure in the cloud, on-premises and in hybrid environments. The technology partnership will aim to further optimize Intel Xeon Scalable processors and Intel Optane DC persistent memory for SAP HANA, while allowing customers to accelerate migration to SAP S/4HANA. Intel and SAP will also work to optimize Intel’s platforms for SAP’s wide range of enterprise applications, including the SAP Leonardo portfolio of intelligent technologies (artificial intelligence, analytics, internet of things (IoT), big data and blockchain) as well as SAP Business Suite applications. Broadening the technology partnership will allow customers to deploy a variety of workloads within their business infrastructure and accelerate their organization’s digital transformation.

How the Center of Excellence Works: The joint Intel and SAP CoE is planned to include a dedicated team of professionals who will demonstrate to customers the ability of Intel and SAP technologies and provide strategic guidance on enabling their digital transformation. The CoE is designed for customers to visualize and understand the value of, and adopt Intel and SAP technologies in order to become an intelligent enterprise.