Azure Backup-SAP HANA DB Backup Delivers More Value at Lower TCO with Reduced Protected Instance Fee

Azure Backup for SAP HANA databases delivers more value at a lower TCO by lowering protection instance fees. Starting from 1^castle September 2024

Our commitment to delivering exceptional value to our customers on Azure remains steadfast. We are excited to announce an important update to our SAP HANA database backup service that delivers improved cost efficiency. Effective September 1, 2024, we are reducing the Protection Instance (PI) rates for “Azure Backup for SAP HANA on Azure VMs.” These changes are designed to deliver more value at a lower cost, making it easier for enterprises to protect critical data without compromising quality or performance.

New pricing structure: More value, lower cost

A new Protected Instance (PI) pricing structure will be implemented starting September 1, 2024.Both SAP HANA Streaming/Backint-based backups and SAP HANA Snapshot-based backups will see reduced costs. The new pricing is as follows:

HANA Streaming Backup: A flat rate of $80 per instance ($2 in Eastern US) applies, regardless of HANA database size, with standard regional upward adjustments.

for exampleFor a 1.2TB HANA database protected on an instance running in the East US2 region, the new PI cost is $80 per month (East US2 region). Previously, the cost was $240 + storage consumed.

HANA Snapshot Backup: $80 per 5TB increase with standard regional adjustments ($2 in Eastern US)

for exampleIf you have a 10TB HANA database on an instance running in the East US2 region, the new PI cost is $160 + used storage. Previously, the cost was $1600 + used storage. If you choose weekly full streaming backups in addition to snapshot backups, as per SAP recommendations, a single PI rate will apply for HANA snapshot backups.

For more information about our new pricing structure, please visit: Pricing – Cloud Backup | Microsoft Azure and Pricing Calculator | Microsoft Azure.

Real World Impact: Customer Scenarios

To better illustrate the impact of this pricing change, let’s consider two common customer scenarios. With the introduction of the new pricing model with compression, we have significantly reduced overall backup costs across all instance configurations, enabling customers to achieve TCO savings ranging from 45% to 62%, resulting in significant cost efficiencies with the new pricing. For large databases, we have implemented fast and cost-effective snapshot backup technology, leveraging the incremental snapshot approach for ever. This speeds up backup and restore operations and reduces the amount of storage required for backups.

1. Contoso (Small Business), Manufacturing and Retail Industry: The customer is running 5 small HANA instances (600GB each) and 2 large HANA instances (4TB each) in the East US2 region, using a weekly full backup and daily incremental backup policy. Using ZRS resiliency, daily backups are retained for 7 days, weekly backups are retained for 4 weeks, and monthly backups are retained for 3 months.
2. Northwind Traders (large company), FMCG industry: FMCG, Customer operating 20 small HANA instances (1TB each) and 5 large HANA instances (10TB each) in East US2 region. Weekly full and daily incremental backup policy – ​​Daily backups are retained for 7 days, weekly backups are retained for 4 weeks, and monthly backups are retained for 6 months using ZRS resiliency.

*The backup calculations above use backint/streaming based backups.

Why should I use Azure Backup for SAP HANA?

Azure Backup for SAP HANA DB provides native backup support that is fully integrated with SAP HANA’s backend API. This solution enables enterprises to efficiently back up and restore SAP HANA databases running on Azure VMs while leveraging the enterprise management capabilities provided by Azure Backup.

Here’s why: Azure Backup Stands out as a top choice for businesses.

1. High-performance backup with 15-minute RPO for rapid recovery

Time is of the essence when it comes to data recovery, especially in the event of a serious system failure or cyberattack. Azure Backup It offers something impressive 15 minute RPO (Recovery Point Objective)You can recover essential data in less than 15 minutes. This significantly reduces downtime and allows your business to recover with minimal impact. In environments with high workloads, backup job speed is critical. Azure Backup achieves impressive performance in the following speed ranges: 1.2-1.5GBpsThanks to multi-streaming support, you can efficiently back up even large databases, minimizing the time it takes to protect your critical data.

2. One-click, point-in-time restore provides continuous protection

In the event of a power outage or ransomware attack, Azure Backup provide Restore to a specified point in time Leverage the power of log backups. With a single click, you can restore your production database to a specific point in time on an alternate HANA server, and Azure manages the backup chain in the background. This is especially important for environments that use: HANA System Replication (HSR)Ensures availability and continuity of critical data even in complex environments.

3. Multiple recovery options for maximum flexibility

Whether accidental deletion, corruption, or disaster recovery occurs, Azure Backup Provides a variety of flexible recovery options.

• Alternate Location Restore (ALR): Restoring a database to the original virtual machine (VM) allows you to recover data in a different environment if the original becomes corrupted.
• Restore to Original Location (OLR): For in-place recovery, OLR allows you to restore data to its original location with minimal infrastructure changes.
• Cross-Region Restore (CRR): To enhance disaster recovery capabilities, you can restore backup items to a secondary Azure paired region, ensuring that your data remains accessible even if one region becomes unavailable.

These various recovery options make it easy to meet your specific recovery needs, from minor system updates to large-scale disaster recovery operations.

4. Long-term retention (LTR) through cost reduction

Many industries require long-term data retention to meet compliance and audit requirements. Azure Backup Support Long term holding (LTR)It allows businesses to store backups for years. It also allows Azure to Storage Layer Reduce costs while remaining compliant and moving older recovery points to less expensive storage options.

5. Unrivaled ransomware protection

Ransomware attacks are a growing threat, and businesses need to protect their backups from these malicious activities. Immutability of Azure Backup This feature ensures that even if an attacker gains access to the system, they cannot modify or delete the backed up data for a specified retention period. In addition, Soft DeleteDeleted backups are kept for 14 days, so they can be recovered even if deleted accidentally or maliciously.

These security measures are combined with: Multi-user authorization, Personal Endpointand EncryptionEnsure your backup data is protected from internal and external threats.

6. Centralized backup management

Managing multiple backup and disaster recovery processes can be complex, but Azure Backup Simplify this Single pane window Monitor and manage backups across your environment. Whether you use the Azure Portal, Azure CLI, Terraform, or SDKs, Azure Backup provides a unified experience to manage all your backup needs at scale.

7. Native compression for storage optimization

With HANA’s basic compression Azure Backup features can reduce storage usage by approximately 100%. 30-50%Enables enterprises to optimize storage costs while maintaining robust backup processes. This default compression helps store data more efficiently without compromising availability or performance.

Maximize storage cost efficiency

In addition to the reduced PI fees, there are several strategies you can use to further optimize your storage costs.

1. Enable native HANA compression: Reduce backup storage consumption by about 30-50% and enable compression via backup policy or while using the “Backup Now” option.
2. Adjust backup policy: Switch from “Daily Full” backups to “Weekly Full” backups with “Daily Incremental” backups to save on storage costs.
3. Utilizing snapshot backups: For large databases (>10TB), snapshot backups are ideal because they start with a full backup and are incremental forever.
4. Select your reservation price: You can get a discount on Azure Backup Storage reserved capacity pricing by committing to a 1-year or 3-year reservation.
5. Use the storage layer: Use the retention tier to retain recovery points for long periods of time.

These changes underscore our commitment to helping you achieve greater cost efficiency and value from your SAP HANA database backups on Azure. We encourage you to review your backup strategy and take advantage of the new pricing and optimization options available.