What is the SAP HANA Database?

The SAP HANA database is a relational database that has been optimized to leverage state-of-the-art hardware. It provides all of the SQL features of a standard relational database along with a featurerich set of analytical capabilities and an SAP-specific programming language for stored procedures

called SQLScript. With these facilities, the SAP HANA database is capable of embedding application logic within the database itself. This allows complex queries to be executed directly inside the database, thus reducing the requirement of data transfer to and from the database. This enables SAP HANA-based applications to process vast amounts of data whilst operating in a responsive, real-time manner.

From the administrator's perspective, the SAP HANA database is conceptually about leveraging modern hardware system landscapes to increase database performance and reliability. Traditionally, databases have been designed to operate in a situation where there are limited memory and CPU resources. Currently however, servers can provide in excess of 1TB of memory and up to 80 CPU cores on a single system.

The SAP HANA studio is a collection of tools that allows database administrators and developers to manage data and monitor the SAP HANA database. The SAP HANA studio runs on the Eclipse platform, which presents these tools in the form of "perspectives".