All SAP Solutions Should Soon Run on Linux (Sap Info) [LWN.net]

All SAP Solutions Should Soon Run on Linux (Sap Info)

Posted Jul 5, 2005 7:34 UTC (Tue) by Mithrandir (subscriber, #3031) [Link]

Ok, I'm not an expert, but I'll write down my own perceptions.

ERP basically covers some of the glue you need to run a business efficiently. As far as I know it's primarily a honking big database. It includes stuff like:

- Stock tracking
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This is where you store all your support call info, the stuff that particular customers have bought before, who has talked to them in the past etc.
- Support tickets
- HR
- Maybe other account crap or something

So basically you have a consultant or two come in, analyse your business processes, and work out the database schema and GUI front end that you need to computerise and streamline everything. Then they build it, charge you a few tens of thousands of dollars, and sign you up for a support contract.

Because they make most of their money from services, it makes complete sense for them to move to linux servers on the back end.

At least, that's to the best of my knowlege. Correct me if I'm wrong.

SAP

Posted Jul 5, 2005 9:08 UTC (Tue) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

I'm no expert either, but some friends of mine make a living out of SAP consultancy (and a fair one too), so I have to suffer their stories. From what I gather, your perceptions are mostly correct: it's a huge database (usually their own, SAP DB). It has modules for payroll, CRM, inventory, accounting, revenue, orders and what-not; you glue everything with a custom language (which contains hundreds of built-in functions) and wrap it all together with some custom reporting code. Many SAP installations are multi-million jobs that employ hundreds of consultants and programmers, and are actively maintained by tens of workers.

Boring stuff.

SAP

Posted Jul 5, 2005 11:18 UTC (Tue) by micampe (guest, #4384) [Link]

Just for the record, SAP DB has become MaxDB for some time now.

SAP

Posted Jul 5, 2005 13:45 UTC (Tue) by joib (guest, #8541) [Link]

AFAIK most SAP installations use Oracle and not SapDB/MaxDB. Well, at least that was the case a few years ago, but I doubt that it has changed that fast.

SAP

Posted Jul 5, 2005 13:53 UTC (Tue) by joib (guest, #8541) [Link]

As for the hugeness of the database, a number of years ago I did some SAP/Oracle administration at a summer job for a medium sized company. IIRC their SAP R/3 database had ~4500 tables. 4500, dear gawd!! And for a company of about 100 employees, they had a couple of full-time consultants writing ABAP (the SAP proprietary programming language), customizing the thing for their requirements.

All SAP Solutions Should Soon Run on Linux (Sap Info)

Posted Jul 5, 2005 10:13 UTC (Tue) by nurhussein (guest, #16226) [Link]

Ah, now it all becomes clear (things are always easier to understand when someone named "Mithrandir" explains it to you). I've never understood that "enterprise" jargon either.

All SAP Solutions Should Soon Run on Linux (Sap Info)

Posted Jul 5, 2005 13:05 UTC (Tue) by peace (guest, #10016) [Link]

I used to work on contract for SAP developing applications that helped them install their software.

While the other posters are generaly correct, they don't convey the scope, depth and magnitude of R/3, which is SAP's primary software product.

Basicaly, if there is any kind of transaction in a company, R/3 records it. From presales, to purchasing, manufacturing, distribution/sales to human resources, travel acounts and petty cash.

R/3 will tell a manager how many wing-nuts they need in their Mexico plant and what sequence they need to run the assembly lines in Hong Kong in order to promise 500 widgets to customer X by 9am next Tuesday given all their other business demands.

When it works it is impressive. Like any massive system it often crushes a company under it's own weight. There are several major success stories however and every large (Fortune 500) company uses SAP in some form or another.

Also note that SAP can cost in the 100's of millions and take years to deploy. Actually, from what I have seen, deployment never ends.

I worked for ASAP (AcceleratedSAP), btw. The goal was to speed SAP deployments and reduce costs so they could take over the lower end Fortune 99,500.

Kind Regards

All SAP Solutions Should Soon Run on Linux (Sap Info)

Posted Jul 5, 2005 13:57 UTC (Tue) by joib (guest, #8541) [Link]

There was some 2 person startup that bought the then newly renamed mysap system. I think the reason was that they had some grand plans about expanding rapidly or somesuch. Anyway, that was during the .com boom, so I guess they perished when the bubble burst..

All SAP Solutions Should Soon Run on Linux (Sap Info)

Posted Jul 5, 2005 18:20 UTC (Tue) by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047) [Link]

This sounds both interesting and terrifying. I think encountering this would drive me screaming back into the arms of PostgreSQL.

All SAP Solutions Should Soon Run on Linux (Sap Info)

Posted Jul 5, 2005 20:20 UTC (Tue) by joib (guest, #8541) [Link]

SAP R/3 is not a RDMS. It's an application that uses and needs a RDMS (typically Oracle) to function. So the comparison to PostgreSQL is not really valid here.

All SAP Solutions Should Soon Run on Linux (Sap Info)

Posted Jul 5, 2005 23:27 UTC (Tue) by peace (guest, #10016) [Link]

"This sounds both interesting and terrifying."

Couldn't have said it better myself. I am greatful for the experience of working on the ASAP project in the capacity that I did. I got a birds eye view of how the largest corporations function. It had a huge impact on the way I look at the corporate world, government, economics and work.

I developed an application called the Question & Answer Database (QADB) which would collect an installation teams R/3 customization requirements based on client interviews (something like 5,000 potential questions for a fully scoped project). It would then create several reports including a Project Blueprint and Business Process Masterlist. I had to work with the entire structure of R/3's representation of the enterprise from the abstract "Enterprise Areas" down to the individual transactions within R/3 that made up specific business processes. It was my first Windows development experience and it's embarrasing even thinking about the code at this point but it was hugely educational working with R/3. SAP is a scarry beast, but approached carefully, represents a tremendous amount of contemporary philosophy and practical mechanics of the modern, multinational corporate enterprise. Ya, ok, it's terrifying.

If you can get your hands on even just the R/3 Enterprise Structure data and just browse through it, it is very interesting stuff.

Kind Regards