Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - Migrating critical business applications to AWS Graviton with ease (CMP315)

Summary

Steven Jones, general manager of SAP business at AWS, introduces the session on migrating critical workloads to AWS Graviton.
Stefan Boile from SAP, heading database engineering, and Matt Zinas, running global SAP HANA and database product management and strategy, join the session.
The session covers the partnership between AWS and SAP, the evolution of AWS instances, and the introduction of AWS Graviton.
AWS Graviton is highlighted for its price performance improvement and energy savings, contributing to AWS's commitment to carbon neutrality.
The session delves into the complexity of porting applications to ARM architecture, with a focus on SAP HANA Cloud's journey to AWS Graviton.
SAP HANA Cloud's history, market impact, and multi-model database capabilities are discussed.
The motivations behind SAP's move to AWS Graviton include innovation potential, price performance, and energy efficiency.
Matt Zinas shares the project timeline, challenges, and performance results of porting SAP HANA Cloud to AWS Graviton.
Analytical workloads show significant performance improvements on Graviton, while transactional workloads present opportunities for further optimization.
AWS Graviton4 is introduced with expectations of better performance and larger memory capacities, beneficial for SAP HANA's in-memory database.
AWS provides documentation, a porting assistant, and other resources to help customers migrate to Graviton.
The session concludes with an open Q&A.

AWS's partnership with SAP has been long-standing and focused on customer requirements, leading to the development of custom hardware to support SAP HANA's in-memory database.
AWS Graviton processors, developed in collaboration with Annapurna Labs, represent AWS's commitment to building its own chips to improve price performance and energy efficiency.
The migration of SAP HANA Cloud to AWS Graviton is a complex project involving multiple teams and phases, with a focus on continuous integration and delivery, microservices, and database engine optimization.
The performance of SAP HANA Cloud on AWS Graviton varies by workload, with analytical workloads benefiting more than transactional ones, indicating the need for ongoing optimization.
AWS Graviton4's preview suggests further performance improvements and increased memory capacity, which are particularly relevant for SAP HANA's large-scale, mission-critical databases.
AWS provides tools and resources, such as the porting assistant and documentation, to assist customers in migrating their applications to Graviton, demonstrating AWS's support for customer transitions to ARM-based architectures.
The session emphasizes the importance of innovation, performance optimization, and sustainability in cloud computing, aligning with broader industry trends and customer priorities.