Nostalgic Moments - completed 10 years involvement with SAP HANA

SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 is now in progress...

While posting the news and attending the same - I am quite nostalgic.

Remembering my involvement on HANA & SAPPHIRE 2011 - 10 years ago...it was really thrilling but satisfactory one.

That time, I was consulting in Cisco HQ at San Jose, for their UCS based server to be certified for HANA.

Our engineering team was small but our whole-hearted effort put Cisco in one of front-runner of HANA Certified H/W. I have to do lot of travels between San Jose and Walldorf to make it through. Apart from the hands-on work, I have to manage the required documentation ready and some workshops for the Cisco Sales wing for HANA technical awareness.

Meanwhile, I got the news from Cisco Mgmt. that some servers to be ready for SAPPHIRE event. Again, I have to prepare the new hardware - starting from the new CPU placement (Intel directly shipped to Cisco HQ). Also, I have to install and build necessary drivers for Fusion-IO cards. After that only HANA installation can be done - which provided from SAP. If I can remember correctly, I have successfully installed SAP HANA (then it was IMDB Server 1.0 Build 05) for the first time on Cisco UCS Server. As I was fully responsible for HANA Certified H/W, even the packing of HANA Server for SAPPHIRE after consulting with SAP Co-Innovation Lab(COIL), Palo Alto.

(This screenshot is not from SAPPHIRE allocated system – it is taken from other system during that period)

SAP COIL and other SAP officials also asked technical help from me during SAPPHIRE - as they are totally novice about Cisco UCS Servers. SAP HANA installed on Cisco Server was used for the demo during SAPPHIRE keynote presentation made by Dr. Hasso Platner & Vishal Sikka.

In my opinion, if you forgot that or still didn’t watch SAPPHIRE 2011 Keynote presentation and demo, then you really missing something. Here it is.

Also, during the whole SAPPHIRE, Cisco Server was used for Smart Meter Analytics demo; I can remember Ben Eiref and myself managed to put Cisco logo at the middle of the server temporarily for better visibility (original position was in the corner).

If you want to watch this historic demo - Ingo Brenckmann from SAP, showing a demo on Smart Meter Analytics; then here it is.

Logo adjustment story - what I have discussed here :)

I also discussed about first HANA installation for Medtronic. Here is the link.

While watching these old videos, I can't resist to post the following three videos:

1. One of the best advertisements for SAP HANA - my favourite one.

2. Celebrating 10 years of SAP HANA.

3. Most interesting one – SAP HANA explained by 10 years old kids.

And lastly, for the first time, I am revealing the HANA Guide for Cisco UCS Server - which I have made 10+ years ago. Authorization for viewing can be requested.

It was great honour to work with fabulous people (colleagues & partners) - without their help & contribution, it never be successful.

Cisco: Satinder Sethi/Sivakumar Kuppuswamy/Ulrich Kleidon/Ben Eiref.

SAP: Uwe Hienz/Adolf Brosig/Uddhav Gupta/Ike Nassi/Rainer Brendle/Austin Chynne.

TCS: Pramod Ramamurthy/Vijayakumar Durairaj/Ranga Madhanagopal.