SAP on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012

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... October 2012. For the latest information, please see www.microsoft.com/sap. ..... The SAP certification of Windows Server and SQL Server is the technical ...
SAP on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012

Published: October 2012 For the latest information, please see www.microsoft.com/sap.

SAP On Microsoft Windows Server 2012 And SQL Server 2012

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SAP On Microsoft Windows Server 2012 And SQL Server 2012

Contents Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Who should read this white paper ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Market Landscape ................................................................................................................................................................................ 5 Microsoft and SAP – Better Together ........................................................................................................................................... 7 Reduce the total cost of ownership with the Microsoft platform .............................................................................. 8 Microsoft – A Complete Platform for SAP ............................................................................................................................... 10 Mission-critical confidence through SQL Server 2012 ................................................................................................. 10 AlwaysOn ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Auditing .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Support for Windows Server core deployments ............................................................................................................ 11 xVelocity ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Transparent data encryption .................................................................................................................................................. 11 Online indexing ........................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Database compression for all SAP products .................................................................................................................... 11 15,000 partitions ......................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Automatic memory tuning ...................................................................................................................................................... 12 Dynamic management views ................................................................................................................................................. 12 Game changing virtualization and private cloud solutions with Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 ................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Virtualization enhancements .................................................................................. 12 Hyper-V Network Virtualization ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Shared-nothing live migration .............................................................................................................................................. 13 Cluster enhancements .............................................................................................................................................................. 13 Hyper-V Replica........................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Hardware offloading.................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Guest NUMA support................................................................................................................................................................ 14 Runtime memory configuration............................................................................................................................................ 14 Hyper-V Network Switch ......................................................................................................................................................... 14 Windows PowerShell 3.0 .......................................................................................................................................................... 14 Private cloud offerings .............................................................................................................................................................. 14 Microsoft System Center Operation Manager 2012 integration with SAP .......................................................... 14 Automatic virtual machine provisioning through System Center 2012 ................................................................ 15 One Consistent Platform ............................................................................................................................................................... 16 Additional Benefits ............................................................................................................................................................................ 17 Resources.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 18

SAP On Microsoft Windows Server 2012 And SQL Server 2012

Executive Summary Today’s innovations in hardware technologies have led organizations to embrace commodity hardware as the preferred platform for business applications of every kind, including business critical SAP systems. Commodity hardware, when used in combination with SAP systems running on a Microsoft platform, can benefit the enterprise in several ways. In fact, SAP and Microsoft have collaborated for more than twenty years to ensure customers can benefit from enterprise-grade application reliability, availability, scalability, serviceability, and manageability. With the latest releases of Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012, enterprises can deploy their mission-critical SAP systems on the Microsoft platform with confidence and achieve significant cost savings without sacrificing performance, availability, flexibility, and scalability. This white paper discusses the capabilities of the Microsoft platform that solidify Microsoft as an ideal enterprise-ready platform provider for SAP, as several case studies, analyst reports, and studies cited in this white paper demonstrate. Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 are examined, specifically, for the capabilities and benefits they offer.

Who should read this white paper This white paper is intended for business decision makers and IT decision makers who are looking for a complete and comprehensive platform, including an operating system and database solution to run their SAP applications on. In addition, this white paper helps business decision makers and IT decision makers evaluate the Microsoft platform for SAP systems.

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Market Landscape In today’s market landscape, organizations are challenged with an overwhelming number of options for driving critical enterprise applications. In this competitive situation, organizations are looking for platforms and solutions that can improve the agility, performance, and reliability of their business-critical applications while reducing costs. The most common solution offered in this environment is the combination of commodity hardware with efficient application and platform software. The trend toward capitalizing on commodity hardware improvements by combining efficient application and platform software continues to grow, and it is even evident across enterprise adoption of SAP servers over the last decade. In fact, a recently published white paper1 on SQL Server 2012 and SAP solutions reveals that SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS) numbers achieved for four-socket servers, as Figure 1 shows, have increased dramatically since 1998. In general, these numbers illustrate the dramatic improvement in the performance of commodity hardware, which resulted from well-tuned software during this period.

Figure 1. Improving performance of SAP on commodity hardware (Source: “SQL Server 2012 Technologies for SAP Solutions.”2)

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Commodity hardware running the latest operating and database systems can provide the levels of reliability, availability, serviceability, and scalability organizations have come to expect, at a fraction of the cost. Microsoft’s operating and database systems for commodity hardware are an optimal choice for organizations looking for enterprise applications such as SAP. According to an IDC study3, the Microsoft platform is one of the best options for hosting and running SAP workloads on. The study explains how enterprises with Intel/AMD hardware running on a Microsoft operating system experience a series of benefits that they would not otherwise experience without the combination of commodity hardware with SAP and Microsoft solutions. The benefits include the following: 

Reduced procurement costs for hardware systems due to commodity x86-based hardware as well as reduced hardware maintenance costs due to the ability to take advantage of existing employee skills



Increased flexibility due to a flexible and virtualized hardware platform



Reduced operational costs due to lower maintenance costs for hardware and better use of existing employee skills



Additional cost benefits due to reduced redundancies A white paper from IDC concludes that “customers may be strongly motivated moving their infrastructure such as hardware system, operating system and database to an x86/Microsoft platform to reduce cost.” –IDC white paper4

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Microsoft and SAP – Better Together Microsoft offers an unparalleled breadth of solutions—spanning consumer and business technology and extending from the data center to the desktop to a variety of other devices and into the cloud. Furthermore, Microsoft gives organizations the flexibility to use the technology that is right for the business and delivers optimal technology to help people innovate, compete, and grow. For more than 20 years, SAP and Microsoft have enjoyed a strong partnership with one unified goal: create customer value. This close collaboration has led to the development of joint solutions, such as Duet Enterprise, and the continued optimization of Windows and SQL Server platforms for SAP. Today, thousands of companies around the world depend on these SAP and Microsoft solutions to effectively run their businesses. Microsoft has grown to be the platform of choice for new SAP customers with around 65,000 SAP installations on Windows Server and 35,000 SAP installations on SQL Server 5. This is part of the long-term trend of organizations choosing the Microsoft platform for its reliability in running the workloads outlined in Figure 2. 1993-1998

1999-2004

2005-2010

2011-2012

 SAPGUI on Windows®  SAPGUI Desktop Office Interop

 mySAP CRM Mobile Client on Tablet PC  mySAP.com Solutions on Pocket PC

 BYD uses Silverlight as front end renderer  Project Mendocino Ships as Duet TM  Office announced as a native SAP UI (along with Web, SmartClient, and Mobile)

 Duet Enterprise

 DCOM Connector  SQL Server 2000  Portal Development Kit .NET  SAP .NET Connector

   

SQL Server 2005 SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2008 R2 Joint Commitment to Advanced Web Services  SAP Enterprise Services Explorer for Microsoft.NET

 SQL Server 2012

Applications and Services

 Integration with Exchange Server  SQL Server 6.0  SQL Server 7.0  RFC SDK

Applications Infrastructure

 SAP R/3 on SQL ServerTM  SAP R/3 on Windows NT

 Windows Server 2000  SAP 64-Bit Windows (for Itanium)  SAP is Windows® 2000 Launch Partner  Windows Server 2003

 Windows Server 2008  Windows Server 2008 R2

 Windows Server 2012

Business Alliance

 Microsoft Becomes SAP Customer  Agreement Between Bill Gates and Hasso Plattner

 mySAP SCM for Xbox Manufacturing  SAP NetWeaver and Microsoft.NET Announcement

 Mendocino Business Alliance  SAP and Microsoft sign new agreement covering and communicate plans for next three versions of Duet

 SAP-Microsoft Unite Partner Connection

Client Interoperability

Figure 2, Microsoft and SAP Partnership (Source: Microsoft and SAP timeline6)

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Microsoft and SAP have partnered to ensure that the Microsoft platform and SAP solutions work well together for enterprise applications. The SAP certification of Windows Server and SQL Server is the technical stamp of approval of the joint effort from Microsoft and SAP. Choosing a Microsoft platform for SAP fulfills a series of requirements. Firstly, it helps to reduce the number of vendors needed to deploy an SAP system. Secondly, it fits smoothly into a homogeneous Microsoft system landscape. Thirdly, it reduces skill requirements as the heterogeneous infrastructure can also be managed using a single management system such as Microsoft System Center. “…our move from Oracle to SQL Server will reduce our total cost of ownership for our PTC Windchill database by at least 90 percent—and yield a four-month return on investment.” –Tim Suiter, IT Director, IGT (Microsoft Case Study)7

Reduce the total cost of ownership with the Microsoft platform The Microsoft platform provides numerous capabilities to optimize SAP operations for a more secure, efficient, and flexible service. SQL Server 2012 is an optimal database for enabling mission-critical environments, offering availability and performance at a low total cost of ownership (TCO) for SAP installations of all sizes. The Microsoft platform can help organizations lower TCO through increased flexibility with configuration and architecture; higher database administrator productivity; increased hardware utilization; minimized surface area attacks for improved security; and key feature enhancements, such as higher compression and faster failover time. SQL Server 2012 delivers a non-risk adjusted ROI of up to 189 percent with a 12.1-month payback period and a risk adjusted ROI of up to 149 percent with a 13.6-month payback period. –Forrester study on behalf of Microsoft8

Through new product features and enhancements in Windows Server 2012 such as Hyper-V Replica, failover clustering, live migration, and network virtualization, organizations can realize upfront and ongoing cost savings. With Windows Server 2012, organizations can expect to lower their unplanned downtime during failures via built-in continuous availability, replication, and disaster recovery features such as failover clustering, Hyper-V Replica, and new file share protocol enhancements. Organizations can also expect to reduce their administrative labor costs through full automation with Windows Server 2012. With Windows Server 2012, organizations can reduce their server footprint and related utility costs through improved workload density. Organizations can also benefit from significant cost savings from virtualization, which reduces the number of servers and thus cuts down the number of licenses required to support the hypervisor platform.

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Ultimately, with the new features and enhancements in Windows Server 2012, organizations can expect to realize upfront and ongoing cost savings across the key areas outlined in Figure 3:

Figure 3. Microsoft and SAP Partnership (Source: “Windows Server 2012 Rapid Deployment Program: TCO Study Whitepaper”9)

SAP enterprise applications running on the Microsoft platform provide a rapid return on investment (ROI) and ongoing cost savings. According to a Microsoft study 10, migrating an SAP ERP environment to SQL Server can reduce unplanned downtime by over 20 percent, cut IT labor costs by nearly 25 percent, and reduce ongoing software support costs by up to 85 percent. Database tool functionality, including monitoring, compression, security, tuning, storage and clustering, are included with SQL Server at no additional cost. The same tools from Oracle can increase costs anywhere from $14,000 to $491,000. At less than one percent of total ongoing costs, server support contracts are a relatively minor contributor. Nonetheless, Windows-based hardware platforms save about $13,000 annually in a large scenario. In addition to these savings, SQL Server can help with large savings in storage infrastructure. With a classleading compression for SAP systems from the SQL Server offering, the total storage savings across the entire SAP landscape can be substantial, and the rate of data growth can be more manageable.

The NEC SAP system processes 1.5 million online transactions per day, at peak times, with a database size of 20 terabytes…and cuts IT costs by 20 percent. –NEC (Microsoft Case Study)11

The trading firm Mitsui & Co. deployed a core system based on SAP ERP, running Windows Server and SQL Server, in an innovative private cloud to reduce its database backup size by up to 86 percent, increase availability, and help prepare for the future. –Mitsui & Co. (Microsoft Case Study)12

“Upgrading to SQL Server R2…enabled us to extend the life of our SAN. We are realizing data compression rates in excess of 80 percent and in some cases, up to 90 percent.” –T.J. Fang, Chief Information Officer, Quanta Computer (Microsoft Case Study)13

“Microsoft offers a very flexible and cost-effective pricing approach when it comes to maintenance and licensing fees…Previously, 35 percent of our time was spent duplicating our administrative efforts on the separate systems.” –Wouter Hanson, Business Development and Operations Manager, Partezis (Microsoft Case Study)14

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Microsoft – A Complete Platform for SAP Microsoft provides a complete solution suite of technologies to help enable an interoperable, end-to-end infrastructure for SAP. This helps IT departments to maximize ROI and enable mission-critical environments at a low TCO. For instance, Microsoft conducted a benchmark test of Redknee Turnkey Converged Billing running on SQL Server 2012, Windows Server 2008, and Intel Xeon-based Servers15, which revealed a 250 million-subscriber test that exceeded performance objectives. With the Microsoft Application Platform and other Microsoft products, KAS BANK16 has been able to process approximately 100 million transactions per day. Similarly, another customer, Choice Hotels International, reported 17 that the average response time for queries is less than 200 milliseconds for the end user. 18 Microsoft uses SQL Server 2012 with a 5.8-terabyte SAP ERP database to run its global business, a solution which improved Microsoft’s auditing capabilities and online table maintenance; offered support for Windows Core; eliminated the need for database administrators; and gained 99.995 percent availability. –Microsoft Information Technology Group (Microsoft Case Study)19

Mission-critical confidence through SQL Server 2012 Enterprises that run SAP applications need around-the-clock availability and performance. SQL Server 2012 is an optimal database for enabling mission-critical environments, offering availability and performance at a low TCO for SAP installations of all sizes. According to the SAP SD (Sales & Distribution) Standard Application benchmark results for a two-tier Internet configuration20, a single server running Windows and SQL Server can support 25,160 concurrent users with 137,470 SAPS (SAP Application Performance Standard). The SAP SD three-tier Internet configuration21 demonstrated that SQL Server can support 93,000 concurrent users. “We estimated that a solution based on SQL Server 2012 would be about one-eighth the cost of running competitive products and UNIX on proprietary hardware.” –Simon Yu, IT Director, Wei Chuan Foods Corporation (Microsoft Case Study)22

AlwaysOn AlwaysOn technology combines the high availability and disaster recovery functionalities of SQL Server, which provides greater flexibility when managing SAP configuration and architecture. AlwaysOn provides one primary and four secondaries, with up to two secondaries synchronously aligned with the primary. This approach can dramatically improve high availability because there is no single point of failure and maintenance can be performed offline during normal work hours without affecting the production of SAP instances. Mediterranean Shipping Company23, a Microsoft customer, stated that automatic failover is twice as fast as their previous solution in their SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn test configuration.

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Auditing SQL Server 2012 provides enhanced flexibility and usability for auditing SAP applications across the SQL Server environment. Key capabilities include audit resilience, filtering, and user-defined audits to support regulation compliance. SQL Server 2012 also helps to ensure security-enhanced deployments and minimize surface area attacks by enabling only required services through System Center Configuration Manager.

Support for Windows Server core deployments Core installation is an important method of reducing patches and reboots triggered by patching. Organizations can reduce management and maintenance efforts, minimize disk space requirements, and decrease operating system patching by as much as 50 to 60 percent 24. These improvements mean that SAP applications can run more quickly and efficiently on SQL Server 2012.

xVelocity SQL Server 2012 introduces a new data warehouse query acceleration feature based on a new type of index called an xVelocity memory optimized column-store. This new index, combined with enhanced query processing features, improves data warehouse query performance. According to the Microsoft benchmark performance report from April 201225, complex data warehousing queries running with and without column-store indexes on a one-terabyte database showed elapsed time speed ups of 8 to 20 times for many queries, with some improving by as much as 100 to 500 times. For more information on using SQL Server 2012 column-store with SAP BW, please see http://blogs.msdn.com/cfsfile.ashx/__key/communityserver-components-postattachments/00-10-36-3643/SQL_5F00_Server_5F00_2012_5F00_Column_2D00_Store.pdf.

Transparent data encryption With transparent data encryption, SAP customers can encrypt an entire database, data files, and log files without the need for application changes. Transparent data encryption includes encryption of application databases and backup of encrypted SAP databases.

Online indexing All index maintenance operations can be performed online. Incremental re-indexing with read-consistent scans and lock handling helps to enhance SAP performance.

Database compression for all SAP products Data in tables and indexes can be compressed, in addition to data at the row and page levels. Row-level compression reduces database size without additional resource consumption. Page-level compression, which is now a default compression type in SAP, reduces the size of a typical SAP ERP database by up to a factor of four, helping to improve overall response time and reduce storage costs in a dramatic way. According to SAP26, applying row compression on an SAP ERP Unicode system on SQL Server resulted in approximately 50 percent space savings and approximately 75 percent space savings when using page compression.

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15,000 partitions SAP NetWeaver BW customers who perform daily loads can benefit from the increase in table partitions from 1,000 to 15,000.

Automatic memory tuning Highly sophisticated algorithms adapt memory and cache sizes to changing workload conditions to deliver optimal performance to SAP applications. SQL Server 2012 introduces dynamic threshold percentage rates for updating statistics. The higher the number of rows in a table, the lower the threshold becomes to trigger a statistics update.

Dynamic management views Added dynamic management views offer greater transparency and visibility into the SQL Server database engine, as well as better processing for SAP DBA Cockpit.

Game changing virtualization and private cloud solutions with Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 Through System Center 2012 and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V technology, customers can gain the benefits of greater agility, flexibility, and choice. These connected offerings enable SAP customers to easily scale their deployments in their own data centers or expand through partner-offered private clouds. For example, if a workload needs to scale on-demand periodically (such as in the case of a paycheck or employee performance review application), required resources can be added automatically. Windows Server 2012 is the next version of the Windows Server operating system family. It builds on its Windows Server predecessors, offering many improvements and new features to improve operations, performance, and scalability for SAP solutions. 90 percent of the applicable respondents plan to deploy Windows Server 2012 within 24 months. Other results from the research showed that for respondents familiar with Windows Server 2012, 51 percent found server virtualization to be an important product capability, while 49 percent cited private cloud enablement as another capability. –Microsoft, Virtualization & Private Cloud Trends27

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Virtualization enhancements Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V provides a low-cost, scalable, and highly available platform for server consolidation of SAP solutions. Whether the solution comprises components of an SAP ERP system or solutions such as SAP BW, SAP Enterprise Portal, SAP Process Infrastructure, SAP Master Data Management, or SAP Mobile Infrastructure, the resource utilization of the SAP infrastructure’s physical servers can be optimized by moving the components into virtual environments. With Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, Microsoft delivers capabilities such as the ability to host 320 logical processors or four terabytes of physical memory and support 2,048 virtual CPUs and 1,024 active virtual machines per host to meet the most demanding IT needs, as Figure 4 shows. There are many other new features within Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V to support the needs and challenges of SAP customers.

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Figure 4. Windows Server 2012 vs. VMware (Source: “Why Hyper-V?” 28)

Hyper-V Network Virtualization Hyper-V Network Virtualization extends the concept of server virtualization to permit multiple virtual networks, potentially with overlapping IP addresses, to be deployed on the same physical network. With Hyper-V Network Virtualization, SAP customers can set policies that isolate traffic in their dedicated virtual network independently of the physical infrastructure for fully secure and isolated multi-tenancy.

Shared-nothing live migration Shared-nothing live migration in Windows Server 2012 enables virtual machine mobility by moving a running virtual machine without downtime to another Hyper-V host with no clustering or no shared storage but with only a network connection. Organizations can move virtual machines among clusters without the need to stop, export, and import them. They can also move virtual machines among Hyper-V servers anywhere in the organization, and even migrate virtual machines to service providers or the cloud without any downtime.

Cluster enhancements Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V has many new enhancements for clustering, including support for guest clustering via Fibre Channel, enhanced live migrations to use more available network bandwidth, encrypted cluster volumes, Hyper-V application monitoring, and virtual machine failover prioritization.

Hyper-V Replica Asynchronous, application-consistent virtual machine replication is built into Windows Server 2012. It permits replication of Hyper-V virtual machines between two locations for business continuity and failure recovery. Hyper-V Replica works with virtually any server vendor, network vendor, or storage vendor. This is a generic capability not specific to SAP.

Hardware offloading Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V takes advantage of many new hardware offloading features that are supported in Windows Server 2012, including support for SAN-based offloaded data transfer (ODX), IP offloading, and Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) through support for SR-IOV networking devices.

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Guest NUMA support Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V now supports Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) in a virtual machine. NUMA refers to computer architecture in multiprocessor systems in which the required time for a processor to access memory depends on the memory’s location relative to the processor.

Runtime memory configuration The dynamic memory improvements to Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 help SAP customers reach higher consolidation numbers with improved reliability of Hyper-V operations. They can make memory configuration changes for virtual machines without shutting down the virtual machines.

Hyper-V Network Switch The Hyper-V Extensible Switch in Windows Server 2012 is a layer-2 virtual network switch that provides programmatically managed and extensible capabilities to connect SAP virtual machines to the physical network. The Hyper-V Extensible Switch is an open platform that enables multiple vendors to provide extensions that are written to standard Windows API frameworks.

Windows PowerShell 3.0 Windows Server 2012 provides a comprehensive management platform for all aspects of the data center, including servers, network, and storage. In Windows PowerShell 3.0, sessions on remote servers are resilient and can withstand various types of interruptions. In addition, learning Windows PowerShell is now easier than ever through improved cmdlet discovery and simplified, consistent syntax across all cmdlets.

Private cloud offerings Virtualization reduces the number of physical servers. It does not, however, inherently mean a reduction in the number of virtual servers. While one of the virtues of virtualization is the ability to provide a number of virtual servers on short notice, it carries with it the challenge of managing an increased count of virtual servers. Fujitsu, with its strategic partners Microsoft and SAP, has developed a solution known as FlexFrame. FlexFrame on Windows for SAP is a dynamic infrastructure solution from Fujitsu for running SAP applications in Windows environments. It also provides an ideal foundation for cloud computing environments, since it meets the key cloud requirements of system flexibility, efficiency, and reliability. It delivers savings of up to 60 percent in the TCO of infrastructure running SAP solutions (FlexFrame on Windows for SAP29).

Microsoft System Center Operation Manager 2012 integration with SAP Through third-party solutions, SAP customers can fully integrate Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) with SAP NetWeaver. SAP customers can also take advantage of the SDK for SCOM and a corresponding SDK for SAP. Third-party solutions provide the ability to compile all relevant monitoring data from various SAP systems and to transmit it to SCOM without any deviations. These tools can provide a one-stop view of an organization’s IT components to ensure the smooth execution of business processes. These solutions enable SCOM to display important messages from SAP systems in real time. Third-party tools include cmWatcher by Connmove and others.

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Automatic virtual machine provisioning through System Center 2012 Organizations can use new service templates in Virtual Machine Manager 2012 to dynamically add application servers to an existing SAP landscape. To implement a SAP dialog instance sample, two components of the System Center 2012 suite are used: 

Virtual Machine Manager 2012: Virtual Machine Manager is a management solution for a virtualized data center, enabling organizations to configure and manage virtualization host, networking, and storage resources to create and deploy virtual machines and services to private clouds. More information is available at http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/gg610610.aspx.



Orchestrator 2012: Orchestrator is a workflow management solution for the data center. Orchestrator enables organizations to automate the creation, monitoring, and deployment of resources in their environment. More information is available at http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/hh237242.aspx.

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One Consistent Platform for onpremises and off-premises solutions The future lies in the hybrid IT cloud, where organizations will be able to take advantage of Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 to manage increased workloads in physical and virtual environments with one consistent platform for on-premises and off-premises solutions. Today’s SAP customers are using—or are planning for—a combination of on-premises and off-premises IT resources and tools, resulting in hybrid environments that comprise on-premises and cloud environments. With Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, and System Center 2012, SAP customers can protect their existing investment in on-premises applications as they begin to move to the cloud, and can take a unified approach to managing their applications and data. The following capabilities in Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 help provide the flexibility to build and deploy hybrid applications on-premises and in the cloud: 

Programming symmetry provides the ability to use the same development model across Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure, including common development tools that offer a more complete environment for building cloud and on-premises applications.



Cross-premises connectivity for hybrid scenarios enables enterprises to connect to private subnetworks in a hosted cloud network. It allows for VPN site-to-site functionality in remote access, and provides cross-premises connectivity between enterprises and hosting service providers.



Virtual machine portability offers the ability to provision, manage, and move virtual machine images across Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure.



A “single pane of glass” for managing virtual machines with System Center 2012 empowers SAP customers to manage and run applications across private and public cloud environments, offering full visibility and control to deploy, manage, and consume applications.

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Additional Benefits Organizations that take advantage of SAP on Microsoft with Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 can experience the following benefits: 

The SAP on Microsoft platform enables organizations to take advantage of Microsoft’s extensive productivity applications to extend SAP business processes beyond the core ERP system.



Duet Enterprise, a product jointly developed by SAP and Microsoft, combines the collaboration and productivity supported by Microsoft SharePoint with the business data and business processing functionality of SAP applications.



The SAP on Microsoft platform also enables productivity gains by providing the analytical power of Microsoft Excel. As part of the Microsoft platform, Excel provides users with a familiar experience that enables them to achieve rapid data exploration and discovery.



Microsoft provides common development toolsets, such as .NET, which help ensure synergies between the productivity space and the platform. Common tools help improve an organization’s time-to-solution and reduce the overhead of multiple development tools.



Microsoft and SAP solutions help organizations to integrate new technologies, like social analytics and Big Data, using customer data to make better decisions.

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Resources The following resources provide additional information about Microsoft and SAP solutions and their benefits: 

SAP Community Network: SAP on SQL Server: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/mss



Microsoft and SAP Alliance: http://www.microsoft.com/isv/sap/technology/platform/sql.aspx



MSDN: Running SAP Applications on SQL Server Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/saponsqlserver/



TechNet: Virtualization Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/



Server and Cloud Platform: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/default.aspx



SQL Server 2012 Mission Critical Confidence: http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/solutions-technologies/SQL-Server-2012-missioncritical-confidence.aspx

1

Thomas, Juergen. “SQL Server 2012 Technologies for SAP Solutions.” Microsoft. April 2012. http://ecohub.sap.com/api/resource/4fabc95ad2a87c2a63d2b792. 2

Thomas, Juergen. “SQL Server 2012 Technologies for SAP Solutions.” Microsoft. April 2012. http://ecohub.sap.com/api/resource/4fabc95ad2a87c2a63d2b792. 3

Spies, Ruediger. “Migrating Infrastructure for SAP Environments away from Unix/RISC.” IDC. August 2009. http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/D/4/9D4FDAAF-8C21-453D-BAB1-472DE5F1E68B/2009-0817%20MSFT%20SAP%20Migration%20White%20paper%20IDC.PDF 4

Spies, Ruediger. “Migrating Infrastructure for SAP Environments away from Unix/RISC.” IDC. August 2009. http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/D/4/9D4FDAAF-8C21-453D-BAB1-472DE5F1E68B/2009-0817%20MSFT%20SAP%20Migration%20White%20paper%20IDC.PDF 5

“Why SAP + Microsoft?” Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/partners/SAP/sap-partnership.aspx

6

“Microsoft and SAP – a 20-Year Partnership.” http://www.microsoft.com/global/enterprise/PublishingImages/partners/Timeline_Image.png

7

“IGT: Gaming Equipment Company Achieves Four-Month ROI with Move from Oracle to SQL Server.” Microsoft Case Studies. November 2010. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2005-Standard-Edition/IGT/Gaming-Equipment-Company-AchievesFour-Month-ROI-with-Move-from-Oracle-to-SQL-Server/4000008640 8

“Total Economic Impact Of SQL Server 2012 Upgrade.” A Forrester Total Economic Impact Study Prepared for Microsoft. March 2012. http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/8/5/1858EA16-FD8A-46E6-88C84A8275C3AC4F/Total_Economic_Impact_SQL_Server_2012_Upgrade_Mar2012.pdf 9

“Windows Server 2012 Rapid Deployment Program.” Microsoft. June 2012. http://download.microsoft.com/download/B/3/0/B301FE04ABAB-4C89-8631-0FCBE4147B84/WindowsServer2012_TCO_Study_Whitepaper.docx 10

“Microsoft SQL Server TCO Study for SAP ERP Customers.” Microsoft. February 2009. http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/4/0/140FC011-702E-44F6-BC432775BF3E89D5/Microsoft%20TCO%20Study%20for%20SAP%20ERP-Jan09.pdf 11

“NEC dup: IT Company Boosts Stability and Cuts IT Costs by 20 Percent with New Management System.” Microsoft Case Studies. July 2011. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2008/NEC/IT-Company-Boosts-Stability-and-Cuts-IT-Costs-by-20-Percentwith-New-Management-System/4000010158

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12

“Mitsui & Co., LTD: Trading Firm Standardizes on IT System Running in Innovative Private Cloud.” Microsoft Case Studies. March 2012. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2008/Mitsui-Co.-LTD/Trading-Firm-Standardizes-on-IT-System-Running-inInnovative-Private-Cloud/4000010234 13

“Quanta Computer: Quanta Facilitates Data Growth, Savings, and Performance with Microsoft Platform.” Microsoft Case Studies. August 2011. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Windows-Server-2008-R2-Enterprise/Quanta-Computer/Quanta-Facilitates-Data-GrowthSavings-and-Performance-with-Microsoft-Platform/4000010953 14

“Partezis IT Services Firm Migrates from Oracle to Support Business Growth and Lower TCO.” Microsoft Case Studies. December 2011. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2008-R2-Enterprise/Partezis/IT-Services-Firm-Migrates-from-Oracle-toSupport-Business-Growth-and-Lower-TCO/4000011532 15

“Benchmark Results: Redknee TCB Running on SQL Server 2012 and Intel-Based Servers Scales to 250 Million Subscribers.” Microsoft. http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-85-48-WhitePapers/8228.RedkneeBenchmark-Solution-Brief-with-XIO-NEC-INTEL.pdf 16

“KAS BANK: Bank Builds a Service-Oriented Architecture to Enhance Agility and Reduce Costs.” Microsoft Case Studies. June 2010. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2008-Enterprise/KAS-BANK/Bank-Builds-a-Service-Oriented-Architecture-toEnhance-Agility-and-Reduce-Costs/4000007539 17

“Choice Hotels International: Hospitality Firm Improves Business Insight and Availability with Database Solution.” Microsoft Case Studies. October 2012. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2012-Enterprise/Choice-Hotels-International/Hospitality-FirmImproves-Business-Insight-and-Availability-with-Database-Solution/710000001516 18

“Wei Chuan Foods Corporation: Food Manufacturer Keeps Competitive Edge and Improves Support for Growing Business.” Microsoft Case Studies. March 2012. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2012-Enterprise/Wei-Chuan-Food-Corporation/FoodManufacturer-Keeps-Competitive-Edge-and-Improves-Support-for-Growing-Business/710000000330 19

“Microsoft Information Technology Group (MSIT): Microsoft Uses SQL Server 2012 5.8-Terabyte SAP ERP Database to Run Its Global Business.” Microsoft Case Studies. March 2012. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2012-Enterprise/MicrosoftInformation-Technology-Group-MSIT/Microsoft-Uses-SQL-Server-2012-5.8-Terabyte-SAP-ERP-Database-to-Run-Its-GlobalBusiness/710000000346 20

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“Certification: SAP Standard Application Benchmarks.” SAP. November 2005. http://download.sap.com/download.epd?context=40E2D9D5E00EEF7CE0C0231D3565B96A24AE295628EB641B277C9FD9A42861F8 22

Microsoft Case Studies. “Wei Chuan Foods Corporation: Food Manufacturer Keeps Competitive Edge and Improves Support for Growing Business.” March 2012. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2012-Enterprise/Wei-Chuan-Food-Corporation/FoodManufacturer-Keeps-Competitive-Edge-and-Improves-Support-for-Growing-Business/710000000330 23

“Mediterranean Shipping Company: Shipper Supports Expansion by Boosting Speed, Control, and Savings with Microsoft.” Microsoft Case Studies. December 2011. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2012/Mediterranean-Shipping-Company/ShipperSupports-Expansion-by-Boosting-Speed-Control-and-Savings-with-Microsoft/4000011460 24

Thomas, Juergen. “SQL Server 2012 Technologies for SAP Solutions.” Microsoft. April 2012. http://ecohub.sap.com/api/resource/4fabc95ad2a87c2a63d2b792 25

“SQL Server 2012 Performance Benchmarks,” Microsoft. April 2012. http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/A/7/6A7D9A40-89444ACB-BD8D-91D97E3BACF7/SQL_Server_2012_Datasheet_Benchmark%20Performance_Apr2012.pdf 26

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“Microsoft Virtualization & Private Cloud Trends.” Infographic. Microsoft. http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/9/F/E9F0EB00-A4934102-A05F-54A33A7E979A/MSFT-Infograph-Virtualization-and-Private-Cloud-Trends.pdf 28

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“FlexFrame on Windows for SAP.” Fujitsu Technology Solutions GmbH. http://globalsp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/Publications/public/FlyerFFWinSAP-en-screen.pdf

19 SAP On Microsoft Windows Server 2012 And SQL Server 2012