Dell, SAP Partner on In-Memory App and Storage Appliance

A recently announced deal between longtime partners Dell and SAP involving a new in-memory application and storage appliance could turn out to be a significant landmark in the data center business.

As a result of this partnership, announced last week at SAP’s Sapphire conference in Orlando, Fla., SAP’s customers will be able to deploy their applications optimally on Dell’s new VIS Next-Generation Datacenter Platform, which will deliver new cloud and in-memory computing options.

In-memory applications, run on in-memory blade servers, use a large amount of DRAM (dynamic random access memory) for database operations and a NAND flash solid-state drive for data storage and persistency of the logs.

In-memory computing enables customers to analyze massive amounts of data in real time, allowing for faster decision-making and identifying business insights that can be acted upon immediately. This type of performance is nirvana for enterprises that deal with high-intensity workloads, such as financial services, scientific research, high-end media and others.

In-memory blades, the demand for which is expected to trend up in the next 12 to 18 months because of their outstanding processing performance, can hold a combination of 1TB to 2TB of DRAM and NAND flash to do this job. No spinning disks are used here, although for other purposes they can be connected to slower adjunct storage systems using SATA disks.

Because cloud delivery models are becoming a top priority for many corporate IT departments due to their quick deployments, cost-effectiveness and overall flexibility, SAP and Dell aim to satisfy this need with their new joint in-memory systems.

For more, read the eWEEK article: SAP, Dell Hook Up on Cloud, In-Memory Computing.