Business-management software maker SAP has revealed a plan to invest $500m to attract customers to its Hana data-processing product in a bid to compete with Oracle.
It has also launched a $337m incentive programme for customers to move to SAP HANA and the SAP real-time data platform.
SAP revealed the full integration of Sybase and unveiled the company’s vision for the SAP real-time data platform, comprising the SAP HANA platform, Sybase data management offerings and SAP systems for enterprise information management (EIM).
The company plans to launch a $155m venture fund for startups that will be used to foster and support an ecosystem of entrepreneurs and investors focused on the development of real-time applications.
SAP supervisory board chairman Hasso Plattner said SAP is redefining the database market by combining the innovation and expertise of SAP and Sybase.
"At its core is the innovative and now proven in-memory database SAP HANA, which helps customers access and deliver information at unprecedented speeds up to 100,000 times faster than before and enables them to envision fundamentally new ways of running their businesses," added Hasso.
The company also made a series of announcements of its recent innovations for the real-time data platform, including the general availability of the SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse component powered by SAP HANA.
SAP Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) will be available as a database option for SAP Business Suite applications.
HANA platform is planned to be the core of the SAP real-time data platform, offering extreme performance for next-generation applications, among others.
SAP will leverage the Sybase data management and movement products which will allow customers to transact, move, store, process and analyse data in real time while reducing costs with common design and landscape management capabilities.
Hana is designed to analyse vast caches of sales, operational information and unstructured data such as e-mail and social media relying on computer memory instead of disk drives to speed up the process.
