In-Memory Data Management
for Enterprise Applications
High performance in-memory computing will change how enterprises work. Currently, enterprise data is split into two databases for performance reasons. Usually, disk-based row-oriented database systems are used for operational data and column-oriented databases are used for analytics (e.g. “sum of all sales in China grouped by product”). While analytical databases are often kept in-memory, they can are often also mixed with disk-based storage media.
Transactional data and analytical data are not stored in the same database: analytical data resides in separate data warehouses, to which it is replicated in batch jobs. In consequence, flexible real-time reporting is not possible and leaders are forced to make decisions based on insufficient information in very short time frames.
This is about to change, since hardware architectures have evolved dramatically during the past decade. Multi-core architectures and the availability of large amounts of main memory at low costs are about to set new breakthroughs in the software industry. It has become possible to store data sets of entire Fortune 500 companies in main memory. At the same time, orders of magnitude faster performance than with disk-based systems can be achieved.
Traditional disks are one of the last remaining mechanical devices in a world of silicon and are about to become what tape drives are today: a device only necessary for backup. With in-memory computing and hybrid databases using both row and column-oriented storage where appropriate, transactional and analytical processing can be unified.
At the research group “Enterprise Platform and Integration Concepts“ of
Prof. Dr. Hasso Plattner at the Hasso Plattner Institute, we are conducting
research projects with the goal of revolutionizing enterprise systems and applications based on them. One of our projects focuses on building an in-memory hybrid database that unifies the advantages of column- and row-oriented database systems; another project analyzes how in-memory databases can be used in a Software-as-a-Service environment. In corporation projects with SAP and using real customer data, we showed that with in-memory column-oriented databases the time for business transactions, like dunning, could be reduced from 20 minutes to one second. We are also augmenting Available-to-Promise applications with real time analytics and flexible order fulfillment. Our vision is that in-memory computing enables completely new ways of how businesses are run and operated through new business applications.
In-Memory Key Concepts
Click on the icons below to learn more about the most important building blocks of our in-memory technology:
Dynamic Multi- threading with nodes
Analysis of historical data
SQL Interface on column and rows
Research Topics in Detail | Selected Publications | Videos | Podcasts
Recent news
- In continuation of our commitment over the last five years, the group of Prof. Hasso Plattner and Dr. Alexander Zeier was present at SAPPHIRE in Orlando to promote the new breed of applications that is now possible on top of in-memory technology. At booth no. 2900 and during the keynote of Prof. Hasso Plattner on Wednesday May 18th at 9:00 a.m., we did not only talk about the technological foundations underlying "in-memory" but also showed prototypes realizing new application scenarios showcasing the breadth of this topic, which extends much further than merely solving a data management problem. A full report is available here.
- We are proud to announce our book "In-Memory Data Management: An Inflection Point for Enterprise Applications" by Prof. Hasso Plattner and Dr. Alexander Zeier. This book is the culmination of five years worth of in-memory research. As such, it provides the technical foundation for combined transactional and analytical workloads inside the same database as well as examples of new applications that are now possible given the availability of the new technology. We have received numerous encouraging quotes by leaders from both academia and industry. The book is available at Amazon now. A brief summary of the book's contents can be found here.
- We participated at SAP TechEd 2010 in Berlin (Oct. 12-14) and Las Vegas, NV (Oct. 18-22). Experience our research results live with various prototypes and demos on the iPad. Read more...
- Hasso Plattner gave a keynote presentation at the ACM SIGMOD 2009 conference in Providence, Rhode Island. The accompanying paper for his talk "Enterprise Applications - OLTP and OLAP - Share One Database" is available for download on the ACM DL. Here are the presentation slides: SIGMOD_Keynote_Final.pdf
Introductory Poster
Download poster as pdf.
HANA Team
If you are interested in our work, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at hana-epic (@) hpi.uni-potsdam.de or:
| Anja Bog, M. Sc. |
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| Phone: | +49-331 5509 - 1303 |
| Fax: | +49-331 97992 - 579 |
| Email: | anja.bog at hpi.uni-potsdam.de |
| Room: | Hasso-Plattner-Villa, 2.01 |
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| Martin Grund, M. Sc. |
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| Phone: +49 (331) 5509-1308 |
| E-mail: martin.grund (at) hpi.uni-potsdam.de |
| Room: V-2.05 |
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| Martin Lorenz, M. Sc. |
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| Phone: +49 (331) 5509-1318 |
| E-mail: martin.lorenz (at) hpi.uni-potsdam.de |
| Room: SNB-E.05 |
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| Jan Schaffner, M. Sc. |
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| Phone: +49 (331) 5509-1302 |
| E-mail: jan.schaffner (at) hpi.uni-potsdam.de |
| Room: V-2.01 |
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| Johannes Wust, M. Sc. |
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| Phone: +49 (331) 5509-1310 |
| E-mail: johannes.wust (at) hpi.uni-potsdam.de |
| Room: V-2.05 |
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