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March 15, 2017

SAP Vora Gets Analytics, Cloud Upgrades

(robuart/Shutterstock)

Building on its acquisition of Hadoop specialist Altiscale Inc., SAP is combining the latest release of its Vora in-memory distributed computing platform with its big data cloud as it extends the Apache Spark framework to deliver interactive analytics on Hadoop.

Vora software targets distributed data to provide contextual awareness while improving “business process awareness” across enterprise applications and analytics. The enterprise application specialist (NYSE: SAP) announced this week during Strata + Hadoop World in San Jose that the Vora platform upgrades include new distributed in-memory engine features along with JSON document storage.

The in-memory engine is designed to enable time series data to be stored and analyzed in distributed environments. The engine also supports graph processing while executing pattern matching and other capabilities using SQL.

The company added that the in-memory engine also supports compressed time series storage and analysis algorithms operating on top of compressed data. That capability can be used to provide features such as series analyses using SQL, it said Wednesday (March 15).

Meanwhile, distributed in-memory JSON document storage supports query processing of the JavaScript data format via SQL.

Vora will be launched on SAP’s big data cloud in both the U.S. and Europe. The cloud platform deployed through SAP’s acquisition last year of big data analytics startup Altiscale allows the company to offer combined Hadoop/Spark platform services in Europe.

The new cloud services are available now to European Union customers. SAP said it plans to make Vora SQL capabilities available in the U.S. and Europe on its big data cloud beginning early in the second quarter of this year.

SAP Vora also has been certified under the Cloudera framework, and the company said the in-memory computing platform is supported for on-premise deployment by major Hadoop vendors.

Along with the Vora upgrades, SAP said it would expand its cloud-based big data services platform in Europe.

The Vora and big cloud data upgrades follow last year’s acquisition of Altiscale, extending SAP’s reach into the Hadoop ecosystem.

Prior to its acquisition of Altiscale and its cloud implementations of Hadoop and Spark, SAP had been positioning its Vora query engine as a way to conduct online analytical processing directly on large datasets using in-memory technology and stored in Hadoop. Previously, SAP said, mining large datasets for contextual information using Hadoop was a challenge.

At the time of the acquisition, industry observers said Altiscale’s deep Hadoop expertise would help SAP address emerging big data market segments.

Separately, SAP moved earlier this week to patch what the security web site Threatpost called a “series of critical vulnerabilities” to its HANA in-memory database. Hackers could have exploited the flaw without valid HANA usernames or passwords to access confidential information or business applications. Security analysts said hackers have been zeroing in on the HANA over the past year.

Recent items:

Altiscale Deal Would Boost SAP Hadoop Offerings

SAP Combines In-Memory Engine With Hadoop

 

 

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