SAP Adds To Internet Of Things Portfolio With HANA-Based Software Packages

SAP is expanding the portfolio of software it offers partners and customers for building Internet of Things networks, unveiling this week new IoT software packages that run on the vendor's HANA platform.

On the eve of its 2016 Sapphire Now conference in Orlando, Fla., next week, SAP also revealed technology alliances with Dell and Hitachi that further extend the software company's IoT ecosystem.

SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, sees the Internet of Things as part of the larger digital transformation that many businesses are undergoing with IoT having "the potential to drive the largest segment of growth in new business value," said Tanja Rueckert, SAP's executive vice president of LoB digital assets and IoT, in a statement.

[Related: Partners See Expanded Business Analytics Opportunities With SAP's HANA Vora]

The software giant already provides infrastructure for IoT systems, including its platform and line-of-business and industry applications, and is committed to building a comprehensive IoT ecosystem of technology and solution provider partners, Rueckert said.

Tata Consultancy Services, the giant Mumbai, India-based IT services company, has been working with SAP as part of its IoT initiatives. "On current engagements, we're helping clients collect data and manage the insights gleaned from that data to enhance efficiency, reduce maintenance costs, improve quality assurance and manage energy," said Akhilesh Tiwari, who manages TCS' global SAP practice.

"TCS has been leveraging the SAP HANA platform to develop smart, achievable IoT applications for our clients. So yes, this new IoT offering from SAP is of interest to TCS," he said.

SAP debuted its SAP HANA Cloud Platform for the Internet of Things one year ago at the 2016 Sapphire show. The system incorporates the company's data and application services, including predictive analytics, telematics and geolocation, among others, to provide an infrastructure for device management, data modeling, IoT messaging and IoT application enablement.

The company also sells a portfolio of IoT software including the SAP Connected Assets and SAP Connected Logistics applications.

New this week is the IoT Foundation Bundle for SAP HANA, a set of data management software for filtering, aggregating and correlating data generated by IoT systems. Core to the bundle are the SAP HANA Vora in-memory query engine, which the company launched in March, and the IoT SIM Management Connector for SAP HANA -- the latter of which allows cellular IoT device connectivity with SAP's Fiori user interface software.

Also new this week is the IOT Intelligent Edge Processing Bundle for SAP HANA, a collection of technologies that run at the edge of networks and link to the IoT Foundation system. The bundle includes a "streaming lite" component, the edge database and sync client, and the SAP Plant Connectivity application.

"TCS' SAP practice is seeing noticeable IoT growth, and there's every reason to believe companies will be spending more as the use cases become clearer," TCS' Tiwari said. "IoT is more than a buzzword, it's a reality." He pointed to statistics showing that 79 percent of all companies have some kind of IoT initiative in place and 45 percent already use IoT to monitor production and distribution.

SAP also announced an alliance with Hitachi under which the two vendors will create and customize industry-specific systems for a range of applications, especially in the areas of smart manufacturing, smart cities, transportation and logistics. And under a new partnership with Dell, SAP's IoT software will run on Dell's Edge Gateway 5000 hardware.