Manual SAP

One of the strengths of SAP applications

is scalability, with a three-tier client/

server environment that takes much of

the load away from the database. Still,

for many companies, the database

remains the weakest part of their IT

system. If you have stretched your

database’s capabilities to their limits, and

need ways to manage the ever-expanding

amount of data generated by your enterprise

applications, you have two options:

expand your systems, or eliminate old

data by deleting or archiving it. Many

companies have realized that the key to

managing rampant data growth is data

archiving — it’s a less risky option than

erratically deleting old data, and a better

long-term solution than simply expanding

your systems.

Data archiving reduces storage needs

by taking data no longer accessed in

everyday business processes, removing

it from the database, and writing it to

archive files; later the archive files can

be moved to less expensive media like

tape or CD, if required. If initiated

during go-live and performed regularly,

data archiving will have dramatic effects

on controlling the growth of a company’s

data and consequently lowering the total

cost of ownership (TCO) of its systems.

But in addition to these space or

cost-related arguments, companies often

look to their archiving projects for another

benefit: improving system performance.

In fact, companies often make the

mistake of entering an

archiving project

assuming that these

goals — reducing

storage costs, freeing

up data space, and

improving performance

— can all be achieved

by the same means (that

is, archiving the largest

files). More and more

archiving projects are

moving forward with the objective of

increasing system performance, but with

the practice of analyzing for space — a

mindset that is incorrect. Some projects

successfully reduce the amount of data

in the system, only to find that performance

remains unaffected.This article

will help explain why, and where to

target your archiving project resources

with performance in mind.

Revising Assumptions About

Data Archiving and Performance

Understandably, many customers come

to the conclusion that an archiving

project that reduces the amount of

data in the system will automatically

improve performance, and that the

relationship between saved disk space

and performance is more or less proportional.

In other words, they initiate

the project believing that if the data

volume is reduced by a certain amount,

the performance will automatically

improve by the same degree.

Data Archiving

Improves

Performance —

Myth or Reality?

Regular Feature

Performance and

Data Management

Corner

Dr. Bernhard Brinkmöller, SAP AG Georg Fischer, SAP AG

With a superficial look at your system,

these assumptions may appear to be

supported. For example, in an initial

analysis based on data in a customer

system, we monitored the growth of

the table MSEG, which holds line items

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