Better data orchestration for the intelligent enterprise – Part 4: An in-depth look on SAP Data Intelligence | SUSE Communities

Better data orchestration for the intelligent enterprise – Part 4: An in-depth look on SAP Data Intelligence

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If you read part 1; part 2 and part 3 of this series, you know that your intelligent enterprise needs an awesome database (e.g.: SAP HANA); an intelligent, integrated ERP system (e.g.: S/4 HANA) and a data orchestration solution (e.g.: SAP Data Intelligence) to better take advantage of your data.

Now, at this forth part, you’ll see the ins and outs of the “Lenovo Intelligent Insights” solution, which includes SUSE software for container management and storage.

This should be good information even if you are not ready to adopt SAP Data Intelligence  yet. We are hoping you`ll get there soon. And we’ll refer to this solution as “SAP Data Hub”, its former name, on this blog.

Let`s dive in (physical infrastructure view)

The picture you see below is our reference configuration for our “optimal” system.

SAP Data Hub and SAP Data Hub distributed runtime are containerized inside SUSE CaaS Platform.

SUSE-CaaS provisions and manages the containers containing the SAP Data Hub application components as needed by SAP Data Hub. And a separate, secure Docker registry provides the container images needed by SAP Data Hub. (blue area on image)

Optionally, SAP Data Hub can be installed with an associated Hadoop cluster. In this scenario, it is possible to use the underlying HDFS as a data lake, and a Spark2 environment as the computational framework for SAP Data Hub jobs. (green area on image)

Finally, the Lenovo DSS-C Software-Defined Storage solution based on SUSE Enterprise Storage provides a reliable, scalable storage layer for the complete solution. It provides:

  • Dynamically provisioned block storage to the containers running on SUSE CaaS Platform.
  • Object storage through an S3-API compatible interface for additional data storage and backups, and
  • Block storage for the data on the Hadoop nodes.

The DSS-C storage solution is optional. However, if you’re looking at an SAP Data Hub solution deployment, along with a new Hadoop Data Lake, or as part of an upgrade to SAP HANA, there is significant value in having a storage platform that can deliver file, block and object storage and support all three data components (HANA, Hadoop, and Data Hub).

All the components used in this architecture can scale horizontally.

Diving in a bit more (logical representation/software elements)

Outside of the architecture from a physical infrastructure view we`ll look now at the logical representation and where the different software elements reside.

SUSE CaaS Platform provides the OS, container, and Kubernetes (K8s) orchestration components needed for the SAP Data Hub runtime and system management components.

SUSE-CaaS includes Kubernetes to automate lifecycle management of modern applications, and surrounding technologies that enrich Kubernetes and make the platform itself easy to operate.

The SUSE value from a business perspective is to help the customer:

  • Accelerate modern application delivery with Kubernetes, today’s leading container management platform.
  • Simplify Kubernetes administration with an exceptional platform operator experience.
  • Maximize return on investment with a flexible, no lock-in solution.

SAP and SUSE work to verify the SUSE CaaS platform every time there’s an SAP Data Hub update or when SUSE releases a new version of the product.

If a new data lake implementation is part of the original deployment using a solution like Hortonworks as an example, you can deploy it using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and install the SAP Data Hub Adapter and VORA Spark extensions on the HDP components.

Also, SUSE Enterprise Storage continues to give you the benefits of a software-defined storage infrastructure.

All the details here

Or, simply talk to us at lenovo@suse.com

On Part 5 (and final) of this series we take you through how Lenovo is using the solution in Raleigh, North Carolina for Smart Inventory Management. Read it now!

This blog series was co-written with Jose Betancourt.

 

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Carolina Pereira Alliance Partner Marketing Manager at SUSE and passionate about Marketing and Technology.