In November 2020, SAP Korea had announced during a virtual conference in celebration of SAP HANA’s 10^th anniversary that it will build the country’s first data center to provide a secure and reliable infrastructure for customers. Five months after the announcement, the first SAP Data Center in Korea has officially opened this week to accelerate organizations’ journey to the Intelligent Enterprise while meeting data security and sovereignty requirements.

Lee Seong-yeol, CEO of SAP Korea, said:

“SAP Korea has further strengthened its ability to provide solutions to domestic companies faster through the opening of this data center, allowing various business departments to quickly introduce the desired solution and realize data value quickly. SAP Korea will provide necessary solutions to domestic companies in various industries and support them to successfully transform into intelligent companies .”

First Stage Completion

The first data center in Korea is part of the software company’s multi-cloud strategy designed to help its customers in their business transformation journey. As part of the data center’s two-stage plan, the currently completed first stage will be offering core services related to application development and process integration such as:

• SAP HANA cloud-based database and data management related services
• DevOps environment
• UX and mobile services
• Collaboration services

The SAP Analytics Cloud service will be offered by the second quarter of 2021.

The timely launch of the Korean data center aligns with the aggressive campaign for RISE with SAP, the German enterprise’s latest Business Transformation as a Service offering. The new comprehensive, intelligent, customer-specific offering enables a holistic digital transformation that goes beyond performing a technical migration to the cloud or adopting a new technology to propel businesses’ journey to an intelligent enterprise.

RISE with SAP leverages SAP solutions such as the next-generation, intelligent ERP business suite SAP S/4HANA Cloud and the platform for the Intelligent Enterprise SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). SAP BTP delivers one semantic layer across an enterprise, providing the foundation for a holistic business transformation.

SAP Korea stated that it leverages the infrastructure advantages of a Hyperscaler as well as business content and dozens of platform services that are built into SAP BTP. By leveraging SAP BTP, local consulting and system integration (SI) companies can develop SAP industry cloud services and provide service-type cloud (SaaS) to global SAP customers.

Running SAP Data Center

In recent years, there has been a remarkable increase in the use and popularity of data centers to address the growing demand for cloud solution services. For SAP data centers, successful operations strongly depend on the robust design of every individual component and in the redundancy of critical components to ensure SAP and its customers are guaranteed access to secured data.

The critical components based on SAP’s data center in St. Leon-Rot, Germany are:

• Power Supply. The data center is connected to two separate grid sectors operated by the local utility company. If one sector were to fail, then the second one will ensure that power is still supplied. In addition, it also has 13 diesel generators, which are housed in a separate building.
• Cooling. Electronic components, especially the processors, generate heat when in operation. If it is not dissipated, a processor’s efficiency decreases, in extreme cases, to the point that the component could fail. Therefore, cooling is essential for data center operations.
• Controlled Access. Access to the data center is allowed only for a limited number of authorized individuals. Entry is possible only through single-person access and mantrap systems. Freight can be brought into the data center using a special freight lock.

In addition to a well-constructed “hardened” building that houses servers, storage devices, cables, a connection to the Internet, SAP implements rigorous measures to ensure mission-critical applications housed in its 59 data centers around the world are uninterrupted.

• Secure Operations. SAP protects its data centers by regularly checking smooth operations of technology and infrastructure. Whether fire, data breach, or hardware defect, SAP data centers are protected against many hazards.
• Certified Security. The company regularly undergoes internal and external audits and reviews of its policies and controls, including data security and data protection regulations worldwide.
• Optimized Value. Data centers run efficiently with the help of improved hardware use, simplified interfaces, and uninterrupted operations. Technologies such as virtualization,multi-tenancy, and adaptive computing play a critical role in providing cloud services.
• Zero Emissions. SAP is able to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in the data centers globally by practicing energy efficiency and procurement of electricity

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Everyone is ready to move on from the extraordinary 2020 and the New Year gives everyone an equal chance to wipe the slate clean. Many enterprises regard 2021 as the time to rebuild, recalibrate, and prepare for a new world of work post-COVID-19. 

For South Korean industrial conglomerate Hyosung Group, now is the time to invest in and optimize the latest IT technologies that would not only ready the enterprise for the future beyond the pandemic but also enhance Hyosung’s capabilities to compete in the industries that they operate in. Hyosung Group operates in various industries such as the chemical industry, industrial machinery, IT, trade, and construction.

During the New Year address of Hyosung Chairman Cho Hyun-Joon, he highlighted how accumulated data is critical in strengthening the enterprise’s value and crisis management resolution capabilities. He said:

“The future is about how well a company utilizes accumulated data to strengthen its competitiveness and crisis recovery opportunities.” 

Leveraging Big Data Integration Tools

Before 2020 closed, Hyosung ITX, a member of the Hyosung Group, has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) with SAP Korea to develop Hyosung Group’s next-generation smart factory solutions at SAP Design App House in Pangyo near Seoul– reflecting Hyosung’s commitment to strengthen its competitiveness through technology. SAP AppHaus Seoul, which is the first SAP AppHaus in Asia, combines human-centered design and development expertise to help customers leverage SAP Business Technology Platform and make innovation real.

Back in 2018, Hyosung ITX utilized big data technology in the implementation of a smart factory system for Hyosung Heavy Industries, Hyosung TNC, and other key establishments. 

A smart factory system leverages advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to analyze data, drive automated processes, and learn from experience. It works by integrating machines, people, and Big Data into a single, digitally connected ecosystem.

Today, under the technological agreement, Hyosung and SAP aim to strengthen the forecasting function of Xtrm Factory, the production management solution developed by Hyosung Group in 2018. SAP’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions and SAP subsidiary Qualtrics Experience Management solutions will be integrated into the Xtrm Factory.

Hyosung ITX will leverage SAP’s smart factory system as well as provide a customer prediction management system that analyzes clients’ purchase patterns and preferences for better inventory and logistics management. With the smart factory solution, the company will be able to gather and analyze data from all processes such as manufacturing, production, and sales. This empowers the company to be able to make quick and accurate decisions based on the results of the analysis.

Furthermore, Hyosung Group aims to better analyze and utilize the IoT, cloud computing, and big data solutions through Hyosung ITX in other business sectors, especially in system integration and system management fields.

Aside from having a strong presence in Asia, Hyosung Group’s business network expands to many countries including the U.S., Germany, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa, Russia, Italy, Spain, Panama, Poland, and many more.

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The coronavirus pandemic has changed the banking industry, increasing the demand for digital banking capabilities to ensure daily transactions are done seamlessly.

Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), consistently been recognised as one of Asia’s leading companies and ranking among the country’s top universal banks in terms of profitability and efficiency, has tapped SAP for a new banking model that would support customer-centric services.

As a pioneering financial institution in digital banking, UnionBank aims to pioneer the “Data Science Factory” model in Southeast Asia’s financial sector with SAP Data Intelligence and improve all its operations’ end-to-end perspective.

Centering on Customers

Speaking about the latest SAP digital technology adoption centred on customers, David Hardoon, UnionBank Data and Artificial Intelligence Senior Adviser, explained:

“We need to ensure that there is strong governance behind our processes, that the data-building has been validated and verified; whatever solutions or services we deploy are of the highest regard to fulfill our responsibilities to our customers.”

UnionBank adopted SAP Data Intelligence to provide the necessities the bank needs to create and integrate the digital model into their systems. 

Aside from providing customer-centric services, equally important is the digital bank model’s vital function on the governance and management of internal processes. The solution offers the relevant tools needed by tellers, management, and other internal staff in performing their duties and delivering excellent services to customers.

Commenting on UnionBank’s digital banking technology enhancement, Edler Panlilio, SAP Philippines Managing Director, said:

“SAP Data Intelligence’s ability to gather and interpret data has helped UnionBank to better understand their customers and provide a more convenient and comfortable experience not only for their customers but also to their employees.” 

More About SAP Data Intelligence 

SAP Data Intelligence is a comprehensive data management solution that connects, discovers, enriches, and orchestrates disjointed data assets into actionable business insights at an enterprise scale. The solution meets challenges such as managing data stored in multiple applications across complex, hybrid landscapes and mastering traditional data integration.

The solution enables the creation of data warehouses from heterogeneous enterprise data, simplifies the management of IoT data streams, and facilitates scalable machine learning. SAP Data Intelligence enables organisations to leverage their business applications to become an intelligent enterprise and provides a holistic, unified way to manage, integrate, and process all of their enterprise data. 

Below are some of the key highlights of SAP Data Intelligence:

• Integrate any data, solving the data deluge program
• Reuse any engine and orchestrate any SAP or third-party data processing engine
• Democratise intelligence by making machine learning easier to implement, scale, operationalise, and govern
• Ensure data quality by discovering, preparing, and governing data assets in the same tool
• Deploy on any mix of hyperscalers, whether hybrid or on-premise

Gartner named SAP as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Metadata Management Solutions” based on its “ability to execute” and “completeness of vision” with the company’s metadata management solutions, including SAP Data Intelligence, SAP Information Steward, and SAP PowerDesigner software.

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The SAP HANA platform is a high-performance in-memory database that was launched in November 2010. It is the data foundation of the SAP Business Technology Platform.

SAP HANA accelerates data-driven real-time decisions and actions with the widest range of advanced analytics for multi-model data, on-premises and in the cloud, supporting all workloads. It provides low-cost solutions for big data challenges faced by companies.

According to SAP Korea, 4 out of 5 large companies are using the SAP HANA platform in South Korea and more than 53,000 customers use it worldwide.

Seong-yeol Lee, CEO of SAP Korea, notes,

“Many large companies in [South] Korea, including Hyundai Motor Group, are our clients.”

Establishing an SAP data center to support SAP HANA

During the virtual event, SAP Korea announced an important strategic move to encourage local customers to adopt SAP solutions in their core operations. 

The company unveiled its plans of building the country’s first SAP data center to support the SAP HANA platform by the second quarter of 2021. SAP data centers provide a reliable infrastructure for customers and meet the highest security standards to data safe and secure.

SAP Korea said that with this, it will be better positioned in providing optimized SAP solutions to local customers to help them extract business value from their data more quickly and accurately. 

According to SAP Korea, through the establishment of the country’s very first SAP data center, it will be able to meet the requirements related to South Korea’s data security and data sovereignty—which are highly regulated in the country. 

Lee Seong-yeol, CEO of SAP Korea, said,

“It has been 10 years since the launch of the high-performance in-memory database SAP HANA, developed with the technology of Korean researchers, and I am very excited. It will be an important milestone for [South] Korea. SAP Korea will support domestic partners as well as various companies in the post-COVID-19 era to convert essential customer data into valuable assets.”

Currently, SAP data centers are present in the following regions:

• Europe (Frankfurt, Germany)
• Oceania (Sydney, Australia)
• United States of America (Northern Virginia)
• East Asia (Tokyo, Japan)
• South Asia (Singapore)
• South America (São Paulo, Brazil)

In addition to the establishment of the SAP Korea data center, SAP has also said that the following availability is planned for 2021:

• Europe (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• United States West (Washington)

About SAP Korea

SAP Korea Limited was founded in 1995. The company engaged in providing enterprise application software. The company offers solutions including Analytics, Content and Collaboration, Customer Relationship Management, Data Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Financial Management, Human Capital Management, Product Lifecycle Management, Supply Chain Management, Supplier Relationship Management , Technology Platform, among others.

SAP Korea Limited operates as a subsidiary of SAP SE and is based in Seoul, South Korea.

The post SAP Korea celebrates 10 years of SAP HANA platform appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Registration is open from October 14, 2020 to November 30, 2020; the competition will run until December 18, 2020.

Achieving “Data Martless” with SAP HANA Cloud

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major changes not only in people’s lifestyles but also in businesses. Many companies have had to implement significant changes in their business modes and processes in response to the rapidly changing customer and employee needs.

In such a volatile environment, an increasing number of companies are taking this opportunity to transform work styles and business models by utilizing innovative technologies. Many companies need to utilize the data of all employees in order to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, improve sales and profits, and create new business opportunities. 

However, according to SAP Japan, from an IT perspective, conventional data warehouse systems hinder the optimum utilization of data within a company. In particular, SAP Japan reports that a common issue is the slowness caused by having to create, develop, and design a “data mart” for each report output. 

The “Data Martless Challenge” specifically aims to address this issue, particularly:

• the slowness of report output caused by large amounts of data
• the time and effort required to prepare and design a summary table for each output report, the so-called “data mart”

Through the “Data Martless Challenge” campaign, SAP Japan hopes to create a new system design method using SAP HANA Cloud services (SAP’s fully managed in-memory cloud database as a service/DBaaS) for aggregating large amounts of detailed data online and analyzing it in real-time without creating a “data mart”. 

SAP Japan aims to provide an opportunity to use this new system design and help businesses improve existing systems. 

Participants will get the following support from SAP Japan:

• Provision of SAP HANA Cloud services free trial environment (valid for 30 days and can be extended up to 90 days)
• Free hands-on workshop using SAP HANA Cloud environment on November 12-13, 2020 
• Provision of other technical information
• Connecting with partner companies familiar with SAP HANA Cloud services

Below is an overview of the application procedure:

• Registration period: October 14, 2020 to November 30, 2020
• Challenge implementation period: October 14, 2020 to December 18, 2020
• Eligibility: All companies (excluding SAP partner companies)
• Verification details will be posted on SAP Japan’s official blog (https://www.sapjp.com/blog/martless-challenge) and seminar events.
• Announcements of award winners will be posted on SAP Japan’s blog at the end of January 2021.

Interested companies may register through this LINK.

About SAP Japan

SAP Japan Co Ltd. is headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. It provides computer software and related services. The company produces business applications, database, technology, analytics, and cloud and mobile solutions.

SAP Japan markets to automotive, chemicals, engineering, high tech, retail, and a variety of other industries worldwide.

The post SAP Japan launches “Data Martless” campaign with SAP HANA Cloud services appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

According to a report, the main contents of the SAP Korea-Naver strategic agreement include:

• Support for the digital transformation of government and public institutions centering on the SAP S/4HANA & SAP HANA solutions on the Naver Cloud platform
• Provision of intelligent cloud based ERP solutions and big data analysis to help reinforce the government and public institutions’ digital competitiveness 
• Technical support and certification to run SAP S/4HANA and HANA platforms within the Naver Cloud platform
• Customer experience pilot project for expanding private cloud in the public sector and building an open e-government cloud platform, and joint technology and performance verification programs operation
• Joint private, government, and academic network projects online and offline
• Establishment of integrated ERP systems

Won-ki Park, CEO of Naver Business Platform said that the alliance between Naver Business Platform and South Korea is expected to create positive synergy to expand private cloud based ERP solutions and accelerate the process of realizing a cloud based digital government for South Korea.

Seong-yeol Lee, CEO of SAP Korea, explains:

“SAP has accumulated experience and expertise in data analysis and utilization. Through this business agreement, we [will] support [the] government and public institutions with Naver to quickly and easily convert to private cloud. We will do our best to help build a digital government.” 

Cloud based ERP Solutions for South Korea’s ‘New Deal’ 

The SAP Korea-Naver alliance will expand public cloud solutions in support of the government’s digital ‘New Deal’—a policy package budgeted at 20 trillion won ($16.8 billion), designed to boost South Korea’s economic activities in a post-COVID world through digital transformation. First announced in April, the economic stimulus package aims to keep the country’s economy afloat through digital and green innovation projects. It calls for a 160 trillion won investment by 2025 and the creation of 550,000 new jobs.

The digital ‘New Deal’ is also set to establish and operate an exclusive fund worth 400 billion won until 2024 to finance digital and tech startup companies in the country.

South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said of the ‘New Deal,’

“Full execution of the 4.8 trillion won fund from the third supplementary budget will be carried out in the second half of this year and some 20 trillion won will be set aside from next year’s budget plan for the Korean New Deal. To bring about swift and full effects of the budget, we will focus on executing the secured budget in the early stages and for new investments.” 

About SAP

SAP is a German multinational software corporation that makes enterprise application software to manage business operations and customer relations. The company is considered a market leader in end-to-end application software and serves 440,000 customers in more than 180 countries. 

SAP provides machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. 

About Naver Business Platform

The Naver Business Platform is a South Korean online platform operated by Naver Corporation. It debuted in 1999 as the first web portal in Korea that uses its own search engine. It was also the world’s first operator to introduce the comprehensive search feature, which compiles search results from various categories and presents them in a single page. 

Naver’s search engine has approximately 42 million enrolled users. More than 25 million South Koreans have Naver as the start page on their default browser. Naver’s mobile application has 28 million daily visitors. Naver is also frequently referred to as ‘the Google of South Korea’.

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This year’s HUAWEI CONNECT is focused on exploring trends and opportunities in industry digitisation; showcasing advanced ICT technologies, products, and solutions; giving customers and partners an insider’s look at the fruits of joint innovation; and share best practices in digital transformation. True to the spirit and objective of the event, the official launch of the FusionServer Pro V6 SAP HANA solution for enterprise digital transformation was held there.

The Huawei FusionServer Pro V6 SAP HANA solution consists of the x86-based proprietary FusionServer Pro series and the SAP HANA in-memory database. The new Huawei product features high performance, high reliability, and smooth expansion, empowering enterprises to scoop data values in time for more business opportunities. 

The next-generation FusionServer Pro 2488H V6 houses four 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, with 48 DDR4 DIMMs, 11 PCIe 3.0 slots, and up to twenty-five 2.5-inch drives for local storage and runs on the Intel® Optane persistent memory (PMem) 200 series to provide superior computing power, larger memory capacity, and more flexible configuration.

New Family New Member

The Huawei SAP HANA solution family is known to expedite real-time decision-making and enables faster data monetisation for enterprise customers. Last December 2019, it was announced that the Huawei FusionServer Pro 2488H V5 rack servers and Huawei KunLun 9008 V5 mission-critical servers have passed the SAP HANA certification for SAP BW on HANA, SAP BW/4HANA, Data Mart, and SAP S/4HANA scale-out appliance solutions. Huawei FusionServer Pro 2488H V5 rack servers run on cutting-edge technology from Intel Optane Persistent Memory and Xeon Scalable processors.

Now, the newly launched Huawei FusionServer Pro 2488H V6 server becomes another addition to the Huawei FusionServer Pro family with SAP HANA solutions. It has been SAP HANA tailored data center integration (TDI) technically validated and SAP HANA Appliance and SUSE YES certified in July and August 2020. A TDI for SAP HANA was introduced by Huawei back in 2018 to meet the data centre and business consolidation needs of large enterprises, maximising efficiency and reliability while enabling existing data centre IT investments and processes to be reused to reduce the total cost of operation. 

Having a strategic partnership with SAP that dates back in 2012, Huawei has been optimising SAP HANA solutions– applying them across over 25 industries, which includes manufacturing, energy, retail, finance, transportation, and education.

Building Partnerships for the ICT Industry

At the HUAWEI CONNECT 2020, Huawei Rotating Chairman Guo Ping delivered a keynote speech, titled “Creating New Value with Synergy Across Five Tech Domains”. 

“As more and more governments and enterprises go digital and embrace intelligence, the ICT sector will see incredible potential for growth. We look forward to opening this new chapter together with our partners,” Guo said.

Huawei is committed to empowering enterprise digital transformation by creating innovative and competitive products and solutions with higher performance and quality with the help of technology partners like Intel, SAP, and SUSE.

The post Intel, SAP, and SUSE Support Huawei FusionServer Pro V6 SAP HANA Solution Launch appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

The applications received reached a total of 200+ applications: over 175 from SAP Lab India’s outreach partners that included TiE Bangalore, Headstart Network Foundation, the German Indian Startup Exchange Program (GINSEP), the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) 10K Startups, and Kerala Startup Mission; and 100+ applications from the Tracxn startup discovery platform.

Out of all the applicants, 16 of the best startups in India—55{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of which are in their growth stage with the remaining 45{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} in their early stage—have been selected to join the new 2020-2021 batch. Two other growth-stage startups were picked to engage with the SAP Partner Edge Build program.

The Best Startups in India Working on Cutting Edge Technology

SAP Startup Studio’s fourth cohort of early and growth-stage startups use technologies such as predictive analytics, blockchain, machine learning, cloud technology, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, Big Data, drone tech, and augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) to provide cutting-edge business solutions across industries—manufacturing, e-commerce, fintech, retail, and more. Among the best startups in India, the following technology companies have selected by SAP’s leadership, sales and product engineering team:

1. Credable – A fintech company founded in 2018 by Nirav Choksi and Ram Kewalramani that is using innovative technology to become India’s supply chain investment bank
2. IQLect – Led by Sachin Sinha, the company’s mission is to democratize real-time data analysis by providing high performing and easy to use tools as SaaS or converged unified box as private/hybrid cloud
3. e-Shipz – A provider of cloud-based enterprise shipping solutions 
4. Worxogo – an AI company founded in 2015 that provides a sales productivity tool that help businesses build high-performance sales teams
5. BlinkIn – A platform that helps to boost customer support by using an intelligent visual support system for troubleshooting problems
6. Airprobe – A drone-based solutions provider for solar PV inspections that won the first prize in the industrial digitization session at the GINSEP Live Pitches 2020 event
7. Intellibot – A HyperAutomation Platform that offers prebuilt integrations between enterprise applications to help enterprises drive a successful digital transformation initiative
8. Unifize – A cloud-based workforce collaboration platform for manufacturing industries that helps reduce wasted time, build accountability
9. IoTReady – An enterprise IoT company led by Dr. Tej Pochiraju, Dr. Jay Warrior and Jai Sharda, with an embedded technology focus in helping boost businesses
10. Neewee – Predictive analytics solutions provider founded in 2014 with locations in India, The Netherlands, Germany, and France
11. Talview – An AI-powered candidate experience platform launched in 2017 that aims to provide the fastest way to remotely screen, interview, and test top talent and students.
12. Koinearth – Real-world solutions and Blockchain framework for optimal asset sharing between governments, citizens & industries
13. Doppelio – Automating IoT testing app operating in the computer software industry that focuses on reducing risk 
14. Adloid – An AR/VR company with a particular focus on the retail industry, including the furniture, automobile, and real estate sectors.
15. Neurotags – An anti-counterfeiting solution by using a robust AI/ML technology
16. WeSense.ai – A computer vision solution for monitoring customer traction, SoP compliance monitoring, and other scenarios

The two growth-stage startups who will join the SAP Partner Edge Build program are:

1. The Mathcompany – A modern, hybrid consulting firm that builds contextual AI assets for Fortune 500 & equivalent companies and provides a well-rounded consulting model that addresses existing gaps in conventional analytics service provider models and off-the-shelf products
2. UNFYD – A design and product studio that offer integrated digital transformation and omnichannel customer relationship management software

The post The Best Startups in India Selected to Join SAP Startup Studio 2020-2021 appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

During the virtual conference that gathered leading experts from all over the world who discussed the development, application, and trends in artificial intelligence technology, Li commented,

“As a global technology company with both business and R&D headquarters in Shanghai, SAP will help build a world-leading artificial intelligence co-innovation and technology center in Shanghai and actively promote the integrated development of artificial intelligence in China.”

He also notes that the key to making enterprises resilient is digital transformation—and that the advancement of artificial intelligence in China shows the most promise in ensuring companies are transformed into future-ready intelligent enterprises. He said,

“Just as digitalization has enabled China’s consumers to access life-essential services and stem the deadly chain of infection, digitalization in the business-to-business (B2B) sector to create intelligent and integrated enterprises will be the engine for economic recovery.”

According to SAP, digitalization is widely viewed as one of the key solutions for a sustainable recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic. Through digitalization that leverages the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning, businesses are better equipped in:

• navigating volatile supply and demand
• adjusting to disruptions in business operations and supply chain
• allocating workforces efficiently
• adapting to abrupt changes in consumer behavior, confidence, and priorities

Investing in Artificial Intelligence

In March, it was reported that 13 major cities and provinces in China declared major investment plans and projects for 2020 in response to the global pandemic. Eight of these cities and provinces announced their budgets which in total amounts to 33.83 trillion yuan or US$4.8 trillion. 

The plans aim to promote new investments and speed up construction on existing projects for the advancement of data centers, artificial intelligence, smart manufacturing, and 5G networks that are expected to revive the country’s economic activity. These investments are also anticipated to reinvigorate China’s manufacturing industry which saw a significant drop in productivity since 2008 due to the global financial crisis.

Indeed, a global study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) states that the advancement of artificial intelligence in China will greatly contribute to the country’s economic growth. The study estimates artificial intelligence could contribute up to a 26 percent boost to the country’s GDP by 2030.

In the manufacturing industry, artificial intelligence, as well as machine learning, contribute to the creation of supply chain redundancy, enhanced remote operations, the advancement of process automation, industrial robotics, predictive maintenance, machinery inspection, and autonomous materials movement.

SAP’s digital manufacturing solutions (SAP ERP, SAP S4/HANA, SAP Manufacturing Execution, and SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence) help organizations integrate their digital supply chain directives with the use of artificial intelligence and other future-facing technologies such as the Internet of Things, machine learning, blockchain, analytics, and Big Data. Leading manufacturing companies who have successfully implemented these SAP solutions include Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Pharmaniaga Berhad, Harman International Industries, Inc., Hanon Systems, and Landis+Gyr.

The post SAP to Boost Development of Artificial Intelligence in China appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database management system from enterprise software solutions provider SAP. It was the first data platform to deliver real-time analytics on live transactions and provides the foundation for a data-driven enterprise to turn data into true business value. The solution is used by more than 32,000 customers. It combines a robust database with services for creating innovative applications for businesses to overcome complex data landscape and scale data management at a lower TCO (total cost of ownership).

With its advanced technological features, SAP HANA offers faster access to data in multicore CPUs through its fault-tolerant search capabilities, faster memory reads, and real-time data analytics. It can be deployed on-premise, in the cloud or in a hybrid environment from several leading cloud service providers including Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, and Huawei FusionSphere.

The new features of the database platform include hybrid extensions to the cloud, enhanced developer experience, increased scale and data reliability with tiered storage capabilities, external key server enablement, advanced data analytical processing, and improved predictive and machine learning. In addition, SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 05 offers an extended five-year support and maintenance commitment to customers.

Customers in the Asia Pacific region who have found success with SAP HANA include:

• Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), an energy storage company in China that specializes in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems, as well as battery management systems.
• Maharashtra State Power Generation Co. Ltd. (Mahagenco), the second largest power producing company in India.
• Prism Johnson Limited (Formerly Prism Cement Limited), one of India’s leading integrated Building Materials Company.

Seamless Cloud Adoption with SAP HANA

Cloud adoption has seen significant growth in recent years, with many enterprises continuing to embrace multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies in an effort to improve the scalability of their internet-based database capabilities while reducing costs and risks. According to the ninth Flexera 2020 State of the Cloud Report, at the top of organizations’ 2020 priority list is optimizing their existing cloud use, followed by migrating more workloads to the cloud. Further, a fresh Gartner survey on cloud adoption says that 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of respondents using public cloud are using more than one cloud service provider.

As the only fully-managed multi-cloud support on all leading cloud service providers, SAP HANA is well-positioned in providing crucial support to enterprises in their journey to the cloud. To support customers in getting started with transitioning to the cloud, SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 05 adds new features that optimize data replication and distribution of processing to support hybrid scenarios between SAP HANA Cloud and SAP HANA on-premise.

Hybrid scenarios help businesses leverage their on-premise investment while still taking advantage of the flexibility of the cloud. Extending workloads or processes from SAP HANA Cloud, SAP HANA data lake as well as other cloud data storage such as AWS Athena and Google BigQuery is made easier through the SAP HANA Cloud gateway. SAP HANA further increases flexibility and cost reduction with enhanced cloud backup integration that allows the implementation of SAP HANA database backup and restoration directly from AWS S3.

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