HP teams with SAP to launch Kraken in-memory big data system

HP and SAP have given further details about their joint Project Kraken initiative that aims to cut down on the amount of hardware needed to process big data tasks and improve overall efficiency.

Project Kraken sees the firms developing a test system based on SAP's HANA in-memory database and Business Suite platforms and HP hardware.

The technology is aimed at retail, finance and government sectors as big data analysis systems for platforms such as CRM and ERP.

The system uses 16 Intel Xeon E7 Ivy Bridge processors and boasts 12TB of memory.

The two companies launched the project back in January, which would see the pair building a system that could carry out multiple online transaction processing (OLTP) and online analytic processing (OLAP) databases into one vertically scalable server with improved performance.

"With Project Kraken, HP and SAP are illustrating how customers can achieve a step jump in performance, while adding simplicity in the management of the environment," said Vishal Sikka, SAP's head of technology and innovation.

"It shows how large enterprises can confidently run their enterprise applications, including SAP Business Suite, with growing quantities of data in shorter windows of time. This offering will fundamentally and forever change the database market," Sikka said.

Bill Veghte, chief operating officer at HP, said organisations "can consolidate online transaction and analytic processing into one place and perform real-time analytics at never-before-imagined speeds, while competitors continue to move data between multiple environments to access meaningful insights at a far slower pace."

Neither would say when analytics systems based on this technology would come to market. The technology is being demoed at SAP's Sapphire Now conference in Orlando.