HP INTEL SOLUTION CENTER BLUEPRINT
MANUFACTURING
Itanium® 2 delivers next generation of SAP® solution performance & scalability for Windows* Industry Manufacturing Business Challenge Enhance performance and scalability of SAP® R/3® solutions Technology Solution SAP R/3 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Enterprise Hardware Platform HP Servers based on Intel® Itanium® Processor Family SOLUTION ARCHITECTS
Meeting New Market Demands
The Business Challenge
In a modern company, the ability to reach the right information at the right time is crucial for overall business success. Information systems must be available 24/7 from all locations, both local and distant. Information technology provides the access-on-demand that provides answers to important business questions. Modern information systems must be completely integrated within an organization, highly available, customizable, expandable and allow for increased user demand. Rapid take up by employees and ease of maintenance are two other factors that will help ensure an acceptable Total Cost of Ownership.
Information systems must handle a rapidly growing number of concurrent users at different locations, while preserving good performance, and without becoming too complex to run and maintain. One way of handling such issues in the past was the implementation of distributed environments, where services were distributed across many computers, in many cases, at different geographical locations. With new enabling communication technologies and high bandwidth possibilities, Application Service Providing and centralization are becoming cost-cutting imperatives.
SAP AG is the world's leading provider of e-business software. By implementing SAP ® solutions on Microsoft Windows Advanced Server Limited Edition version 1.2, corporations can make major improvements in their information handling requirements, ensuring increased global competitiveness.
Other common challenges have to do with existing legacy systems. During years of business, a lot of different information systems are implemented in an average enterprise. As a consequence, business data and information is usually spread across different platforms and applications. That makes operations slower due to the time needed to get and organize information. On the other hand, costs are increasing, as a result of investments in different platforms. The staff education and compensation required to administer, operate and maintain different hardware, operation system and application architectures also pose significant costs. Solution architects of SAP solutions need to deliver reliable performance to service level agreements (SLAs) while balancing the needs of end users for both business growth and IT cost-efficiencies. Production and delivery environments, such as those found in extended manufacturing companies, demand extensive planning capabilities.
The SAP R/3® software solution, already prepared for 64-bit operating systems and hardware since 1993, is an integrated system, where all functionality to run an enterprise is provided by one system. SAP R/3 offers transaction and reporting functionality in the areas of financial accounting, sales and distribution, materials management, quality management, production planning, plant maintenance, and many others. This complete 64-bit solution provides increased performance, more memory and additional resources when paired with Microsoft’s newest generation of Windows Advanced Server Limited Edition version 1.2 and HP servers based on the second-generation Itanium processor.
Finally, escalating costs of data center real-estate dictates higher density servers on the application tier to contain proliferation and improve manageability. The ability to have the complete information system infrastructure for the entire company at one place, running one operating system and one ERP system such as SAP R/3 is vital, no matter how large and distributed the business is. Also, users of ERP systems are demanding an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI), similar to those which they already have on their PCs or are available on the World Wide Web. Solving those issues can dramatically improve company-wide business efficiency and system administration – with one operation system kernel throughout all platforms, from client desktop to 64-bit server architecture, TCO can be reduced significantly, without any performance cutbacks.
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The solution overview SAP R/3 and its components excel at integrating and improving business practices. For businesses of most any size and industry, SAP R/3 offers a compelling combination of functionality, flexibility, and technology, enabling companies to respond quickly to change. Faster response means customers will have more time to concentrate on strategically growing their core competencies.
Technology This complete 64-bit solution represents a new generation of software rewritten for 64-bit platforms. This is the convergence of several new technologies designed for each other which now work together as reliably as their 32-bit predecessors: •
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HP server rx2600 powered by 1-2 Intel ® Itanium® 2 processors HP server rx5670 powered by 2-4 Intel ® Itanium® 2 processors 64-bit SAP R/3 64-Bit Windows Advanced Server, Limited Edition version 1.2 Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit database
64-bit software:
SAP R/3 overcomes the limitations of traditional hierarchical and function-oriented structures common in other software. Sales and materials planning, production planning, warehouse management, financial accounting, and human resources management are all integrated into a workflow of business events and processes across departments and functional areas. Employees receive the right information and documents at the right time to their desktops. SAP R/3 spans organizational and geographical boundaries for corporate headquarters, manufacturing plants, sales offices, and subsidiaries all merge for integrated handling of business processes. Targeted at enterprise and high-performance computing, the newly developed Intel Itanium processor family enables a broad choice of platforms and applications for 64-bit servers and workstations at significantly lower costs than proprietary offerings, while providing exceptional performance, scalability and reliability. The Intel Itanium processor family offers the price/performance advantages of industry standard components while providing the degree of scalability and range of architectural features necessary within the high-performance market. The just introduced HP server rx2600 and HP server rx5670 powered by Itanium 2 processors provide a compelling 64-bit platform for SAP solutions on the Windows Server operating system. This provides for larger memory, increased processing power and expanded I/O capacity, providing additional power to SAP applications. Where both 32-bit and 64-bit SAP kernels are available on an operating system platform for a particular component of the mySAP.com ® e-Business platform, users can now achieve a complete 64-bit solution.
Currently, all SAP solutions support 64-bit systems. As demand for these systems has increased, the answer to the demand is the availability of the 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows Advanced Server Limited Edition. The new technology opens up many opportunities for SAP solutions, specifically the simplification of SAP R/3 customization and configuration. By running SAP R/3 on 64-bit systems, customers can expect a high level of reliability, high availability, high performance and lower TCO. Specifically, new solutions, such as mySAP™ Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM) with the SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO) component with liveCache – an in-memory database – and comprehensive business intelligence solutions, will really benefit from 64-bit support.
Microsoft Windows Advanced Server, Limited Edition version 1.2 Windows Advanced Server Limited Edition version 1.2 will allow for the following Windows 64-bit features: •
Load-balancing enhancements allowing for more reliable network load balancing
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IIS 6 Lock-down setup policy is more secure
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IIS 6 Kernel mode caching increases overall performance
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IIS 6 Process handling model improved to further increase reliability
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Clustering reboots managed for non-stop operation
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8 node cluster support brings more flexibility and reliability
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Support for accessing up to 16 Terabytes of virtual memory
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit: To complement 64-bit Windows, Microsoft is releasing its 64bit version of the industry’s de-facto standard SQL Server database. Ease of use remains excellent with a completely consistent
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user interface from the previous 32-bit version, but performance, capacity and reliability are all enhanced: •
Extended thresholds that surpass maximums of previous 32-bit versions
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More concurrent sessions allowed
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Query performance improved
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Support for in memory database and large data warehouses
2nd Generation 64-bit Hardware: Industry Standard Technologies
The Intel Itanium processor family is the industry standard technology of the future. The technology is based upon Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) providing the growth in processor performance needed to meet the application performance needs of the future. HP rx2600 and HP rx5670 Itanium 2 servers are hardware enhanced for maximum performance and memory scalability due to the special HP zx1 chipset. For the latest information on HP Itanium-based platforms, visit www.hp.com/go/itanium.
Target Market This solution can be implemented in almost any business environment, almost regardless of industry – manufacturing, retail, distribution, telecom, finance, government, non-profit or any other. The market opportunity for SAP solutions continues to grow in terms of both markets served, as well as in the depth and breadth of the SAP offering. Today the majority of newly installed SAP solutions are on a Windows platform. For global enterprises, SAP R/3 has historically been deployed in heterogeneous three-tier configurations in order to meet the priceperformance and reliability requirements of customers. In these environments, Windows has been the platform of choice on the application tier. From a management perspective, there are two main areas that will benefit from a 64-bit SAP R/3 implementation. The first area is future growth – this solution can improve application integration issues, and create a secure growth path within a very short implementation period. The second area is user friendliness: the user community adoption time frame is very small, because there is no change to the look and feel of their usual Office applications. Both of these reasons lower operation costs, increase resource productivity and boost profits. From a system administrator’s perspective, this solution is preferred, because they already administer Windows 32-bit based platforms and already have most of the necessary skills to administer Windows 64-bit architecture. This solution seamlessly integrates with existing systems. Administration of several different computer architectures and operation systems within one organization will not be needed, and that can have a major impact on total system availability, reliability and security.
Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing
EPIC is designed to parallelize the instructions within each clock cycle. This is accomplished using software compilers that decide which instructions can be processed in parallel. SAP R/3 will take advantage of this feature allowing it to process more instructions per clock cycle, therefore improving the performance of the SAP application. The HP rx2600 and HP rx5670 servers are second-generation Itanium servers utilizing the HP developed zx1 chipset to provide substantially better application performance. The rx2600 is a 2-way capable server and the rx5670 is a 4-way capable server. HP Performance Enhancements:
The HP zx1, a special hardware enhancement unique to HP Itanium 2 servers, provides better price/performance than competitors due to its low latency, high bandwidth and low cost design. The HP zx1 memory subsystem is also more flexible than any other technology available. When combined, these attributes mean substantially better application performance.
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This solution is most applicable to the installed base of Windows customers who are looking to achieve increased business performance for mission critical SAP R/3 solutions while minimizing the risk to their existing business systems. These customers will especially benefit from the Itanium technology for greater native memory allocation possibilities, improved computational and transaction processing while minimizing disruption to their existing SAP environment. Itanium 2 systems can begin to be used in parallel with existing IA32 systems, easing migration with immediate returns in productivity gains from relatively minor investments and with minimum risk. Customers whose databases have grown rapidly in size will want the larger memory buffers, as well as the performance needed to manage these buffers. A new type of database is also emerging, the in-memory database (IMDB), which takes a more direct approach to the use of large quantities of physical memory by optimizing for main-memory data management rather than disk-based management. Mission critical database applications will also benefit from advanced reliability features in the Intel Itanium processor family that detect errors and minimize the scope of their effects.
Case studies / Proof points VTG-Lehnkering AG*, a leading logistics company based in Hamburg, Germany, has moved seamlessly to a high-performance future-proof 64-bit platform capable of handling its existing logistics applications. VTG-Lehnkering is using the mySAP.com e-Business platform and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit application running on two Proliant* DL590 Itanium based servers for the SAP R/3-based database and central unit. They are using SAP R/3 Financials (FI), Enterprise Consolidation (EC-CS), Controlling (CO) and Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) applications. ECS AG, a system integrator based in Hamburg, has successfully implemented this mySAP.com production installation based on the Windows 64-bit platform running on Intel Itanium based servers for VTG-Lehnkering, one of their major clients. The solution deployed was a completely 64-bit based solution and achieved the following success f actors: •
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Completely eliminated previous issues with memory allocations above 2-3 GB RAM by increasing allocations to 4 GB RAM Scalable to a load up greater than existing systems 32-bit and 64-bit databases were combined with one another for high availability SQL Server Logistical applications could migrate to Windows 64-bit platform running on Intel-based servers System resources could be displayed for the whole load area
“The Intel 64-bit processors are the basis for the next generation of industry servers. We are beginning to see IA32 projects with large software applications that are already reaching the limits of conventional server architectures. The solution has also given VTG-Lehnkering an edge over the competition by implementing Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit on an Intel Itanium processor-based machine, and we were able to get the memory addressability we needed to run our mySAP.com applications more efficiently. We’re confident about the extended competitive advantage that Itanium processors promise to deliver as our platforms develop over time.” Roman Mielinski, IT Director, VTG-Lehnkering AG
Significant cost savings were achieved through simpler maintenance and familiar Windows-based format In the future, another eight nodes in a fail over cluster can be added, increasing potential scalability. Operation and maintenance will also be more flexible, and system availability will improve as well.
The challenge for the IT departments was to make the software available by January 1st, 2002. In January 2002, the system went into production on Intel’s 32-bit server architecture. Just two months later, VTG-Lehnkering switched to a full Itanium processor production environment on ProLiant DL 590 four processor servers. By the end of February, the systems were proven and comprehensive tests showed there were no obstacles in switching to production mode. During March 2002, the production system for VTG-Lehnkering was switched from 32-bit to 64-bit.
“Some of our customers are reaching the natural thresholds of the 32-bit address space. These limitations of memory management and file systems can be enhanced by advancing all components to 64-bit, from hardware and operating system to database and application servers. In the project at VTG-Lehnkering, we realized a full 64-bit-based SAP solution.” Bernhard Bellmann, CEO, ECS AG
Overall the solution implemented provides feature and functionality equal to that implemented on a 32-bit platform. In addition, 64-bit technology has given added performance benefits, with little or no extra administration training required for system administrators. VTG-Lehnkering is confident in opting for an Intel-based platform with its scalability and future-proof architecture.
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Benchmark demonstrates performance Microsoft and HP have together demonstrated the improvements Itanium 2 processors are bringing to four-way commercial servers over the first generation Itanium Proliant server, and other 32- and 64-bit processor systems. The following illustrates how the HP 4-way rx5670 Itanium 2 servers show high performance using SAP Standard Application Sales and Distribution (SD) Benchmark results: The new HP server rx5670 produced the best 4-way system performance results on the SAP R/3 Standard Application SD two-tier benchmark, supporting 470 SAP SD benchmark users at an average response time of 1.97 seconds with 99% processor utilization.
SAP SD two—tier benchmark, four-way servers
With a total throughput of 141,000 dialog steps per hour, the server system was configured with 16GB of DDR 266 SDRAM memory, 4 Intel Itanium 2 processors at 1GHz, each with 3MB L3 cache. All benchmarks were run with SAP R/3 Release 4.6C. The HP rx5670 server used Microsoft Windows Advanced Server LE v1.2 and the current release of the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit relational database; tested by HP and Microsoft in Redmond, WA. Server
SD Users Avg Dialog Rspns Time
Dialog OS Steps/Hour
RDBMS Release
Central Server description
141000
Windows
MS SQL Server 4-way Itanium 2, 1 Ghz, 3MB
AS LE
2000
Memory (MB)
(sec) HP Server rx5670
Compaq ProLiant
470
200
1.97
1.7
62000
Model DL590/64 Compaq ProLiant
240
1.79
73000
DL580 IBM eServer
312
1.98
94000
xSeries Model 440 Compaq AlphaServer ES45
420
1.8
128000
Windows
MS SQL Server 4-way SMP, Itanium 800 MHz, 2000
Windows
MS SQL Server 4-processors SMP, Pentium III
2000
2000
Xeon 900 MHz, 2 MB L2 cache
Windows
DB2 UDB 7.2
4-way SMP, Pentium Xeon 1.6
Tru64 Unix
8192
4 MB L3 cache 2560
8192
GHz, 1 MB L3 cache Oracle 8.1.7
V. 5.1A
This benchmark fully complies with the SAP Benchmark Council’s issued benchmark regulations and has been audited and certified by SAP. For details of the certified benchmark according to the SAP Benchmark Council Regulations, please see: www.sap.com/benchmark
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L3 cache, DDR 266 SDRAM
AS LE
2000
16384
4-way SMP, EV6.8CB 1000 MHz, 8 MB L2 cache
16384
Customer Value Proposition
Solution Benefits
Benefits for the corporation
64-bit SAP solutions make the difference
Implementing an SAP R/3 solution based on the Intel Itanium 2 64-bit platform from HP creates significant benefits and competitive advantages for a company, regardless of its industry and size. The most significant advantages of such a solution are as follows:
Large installations of SAP solutions can now benefit from Itanium’s 64-bit capability for massive memory addressing. Business applications such as SAP APO liveCache (part of the mySAP SCM solution) can use the large memory space to keep the whole database in resident memory.
It enables the exploitation of the full 64-bit potential of the world’s leading ERP platform in the Microsoft Windowsbased operational environment, as well as seamless integration with the widely used Microsoft Office, providing customers with the improved business performance of SAP solutions combined with the TCO benefits associated with the Win-Tel environment.
The combination of Itanium’s improved processor performance and increased memory addressing optimizes throughput for intensive mySAP.com applications.
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It enables rapid business growth – 64-bit architecture can address more than 4 Gigabytes of RAM, allowing the potential for more concurrent users, higher performance and availability. There is no need for different teams of system administrators for desktop computers, applications, and server platforms allowing for improved resource utilization. 64-bit Itanium 2 systems are intended to be the most cost effective ways for IA 32 customers to attain greater performance. There is no need to hire and train another group of system administrators for the “new” platform, because the administrative and user interfaces for 64-bit Windows platform are the same as for all other Windows platforms. Choosing 64-bit systems now prepares customers for easier growth in the future. Implementation time can be measured in weeks and months instead of years improving time to solution as well as lowered cost of acquisition.
With improved response times, end users of SAP solutions will experience significant productivity gains. Other benefits include: increased efficiency in overall system administration as system capacity is expanded; more users given access to the system without expanding hardware resources; and the ability to load more mySAP applications simultaneously. These benefits allow in-box upgrades to extend the life and protect the investment of existing hardware environments. Long-term systems handling is minimized, freeing up time and resources for other, more productive activities. SAP customers that want to move system performance to the next generation, especially those with Sales and Distribution, Production Planning and Materials Management applications, can improve productivity with SAP R/3 running on HP’s Itanium 2-based servers.
Functional Business Concept mySAP.com provides a comprehensive set of solutions for running almost any kind of business. SAP R/3 is an important component of the mySAP.com e-Business platform through which many interactions must pass. It is critical to a business that SAP R/3 be as fast and reliable as possible.
Benefits for global system integrators and SAP implementation partners System integrators with global operations can reduce their delivery costs by •
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Improved ability to meet demanding Service Level Agreements through more choice of operating systems supported by a single architecture Improved ROI and business performance for both new and existing SAP R/3 installations, especially those that use the production planning, materials management and sales director modules. Cost-effective and risk-free transition to Itanium architecture. SAP R/3 – Product Overview
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The various mySAP applications that make up the mySAP.com e-Business platform map onto an organization’s business processes. All applications are closely integrated with each other for providing users immediate access to shared data, realtime management of online information, and the ability to dynamically respond to shifts in the business. SAP R/3 as part of the mySAP.com e-Business platform has the ability to completely integrate all of the functions of a business, organization, utility or manufacturer. The following diagram provides a good example of the integration of the business process in the Sales and Distribution (SD) application of SAP R/3 as an example.
During the Sales and Distribution business function, an order enters into sales support, and as the order is processed through the system, it crosses a number of other business processes until it is invoiced. Once invoiced, the Financial Accounting (FI) application takes over to help ensure proper payment and distribution of revenue to the appropriate locations. Also shown is how the SD application triggers the Materials Management (MM) application, which manages warehouses and helps ensure that proper levels of inventory are maintained.
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User experience Familiar Look and Feel SAP R/3 has different user interfaces for users, operators and administrators. In each case the user interface is optimized for ease of use through years of evolution from customer feedback. The user interface allows for optimal access to all of the functions, and can be customized for any specific implementation. As customers implement newer versions of SAP R/3, the interfaces remain identical. When upgrading to the 64-bit version of SAP R/3 there are no user interface changes anywhere in the system.
Windows 64-bit desktop, SQL Server 64-bit and SAP solution management consoles look exactly the same as in the 32-bit version. This enables administrators to seamlessly switch to a new platform quickly and easily. The SQL Server Enterprise Manager Console 64-bit offers all the functionality available in SQL Server 2000, meaning that the integration of a Standby Database on 32-bit SQL Server will not cause any procedural or functional changes. Standby Database Functions are an integral part of all Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit and are compatible from today’s versions down to SQL Server 6.5.
Software Architecture
System Architecture
Software overview
SAP systems need to be prepared for greater capacity and future growth.
The R/3 architecture is based on a software-oriented multi-tier client/server principle. This architecture supports both centralized configurations and highly distributed systems with numerous dedicated servers. The application system provides presentation services, application services and database services. These services are supplemented by several special services, for example, communication and printing. The main application services could be tailored in different ways, but we consider two approaches: central R/3 configuration and client/server R/3 configuration. The terms are classified as: Central System – Database and Application Services running on one single computer Client/Server System – Database services are running on a dedicated computer. Middle-tier application services run on one or several servers. The end-user presentation is always on separated front-end computers, such as a PC or workstation .
The large scale and scope of high transaction throughput of many LOB (Line Of Business) applications such as SAP R/3, underlies the applications’ ability to benefit from the large memory support and transaction processing performance of architecture such as Itanium. Itanium’s instruction pipelining and large register set also allow for more efficient processing of structured integer data. Shared Memory Requirement
With 64-bit technology, more real memory can be used while low-level memory operations are accelerated, resulting in improved performance. Also, the speed of memory mapped disk accesses, caching, and swapping increases with 64-bit technology. With the availability of larger memory, a bigger percentage of the database can be cached in main memory, providing greater performance over a 32-bit server running SAP R/3 applications.
The scenario outlined here, and similar to the VTG Customer Scenario, shows how to immediately add capacity to an existing environment, improve performance and prepare for almost unlimited future expansion. Designing for the Future:
The HP Intel Solution Center or any system integrator can perform system tests and benchmarks to clearly understand performance expectations and capacity sizing needs. Systems are identified that will reduce maintenance, improve performance and consolidate existing servers.
The high density and high capacity of the HP rx2600 and rx5670 servers allow for the consolidation of SAP application servers, reducing the total number of servers. Many SAP solution-based landscapes can be significant in the proliferation of servers. The reduction of physical servers will reduce system management overhead and allow for better management of assets. It will also decrease the floor space required to support the SAP solution environment providing savings in facilities management. This will reduce the total cost of ownership by reducing overhead costs.
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Existing Network
Nearly Unlimited Growth in the Future
The customer’s existing network might be running out of capacity, responding slowly or not able to add more users. Management is limited and the ability to expand could be restricted by physical space, power consumption, cooling requirements, and the ability to manage the system as the environment grows larger.
Once the HP Servers that are running in parallel prove their reliability within the architecture, the older systems can be removed. The overall systems will run faster now that it is completely a 64-bit architecture from hardware throughout the software. When needed new HP Servers based on the Itanium processor family can be added.
Conclusion and How to Engage:
Performance Boost While Migrating in Parallel The capacity and growth potential can be immediately realized by adding new high performance Intel Itanium 2 processor systems into the overall architecture. Reliability will increase not only because of the improved reliability of the HP Servers based on Intel architecture, but also because the new systems can act as backup to the existing systems that might be running beyond intended capacity. The new Itanium 2 processor systems can even be configured to run as part of a cluster with the existing systems.
mySAP.com is an industry standard that helps companies perform at their greatest potential by integrating all of their business data within one environment. System Implementers and Integrators (SI) anywhere in the world can provide all the necessary system integration services and experience needed for the fast and smooth implementation of SAP R/3 on HP Itaniumbased servers, just as ECS AG did for VTG-Lehnkering in Germany. The HP Intel Solution Center is chartered to help customers and system integrators complete Proof Of Concept (POC) testing and sizing to prove this is the best solution available for business. Migrating to the 64-bit version of SAP R/3 running on 64-bit Windows and SQL Server on the new HP Itanium 2 servers allows for excellent performance and growth increases. A complete 64-bit architecture means more simultaneous users, the loading of more applications, increased memory allocation possibilities and improved management. The HP Intel Solution Center and the HP–SAP Competency Center have the ability to design the best system possible, or help existing installations migrate to the new generation of 64bit hardware and software. The HP Intel Solution Center is chartered to help customers complete POC testing and sizing to prove this is the best solution available for you.
Learn More About this Innovative Solution www.ecs-ag.de www.hpintelco.net & www.hpintelco.net/engage www.hp.com www.hp.com/go/SAP www.sap.com www.intel.com
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Copyright ©2002 HP Invent. All Rights Reserved. SAP, R/3, the SAP logo, mySAP.com, mySAP and all other SAP product and service names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and several other countries. Intel, the Intel and Intel Inside logos, Pentium and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Copyright ©2002 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Information regarding third party products is provided solely for educational purposes. Intel is not responsible for the performance or support of third party products and does not make any representations or warranties whatsoever regarding quality, reliability, functionality, or compatibility of these devices or products. II
