Using the power of SAP HANA

[Sabrina_dup_279]

Hi Community,

i want to use data from a HANA database (connected to Alteryx via ODBC) - where are the different steps in Alteryx processed? Is the power of the in-memory technology of HANA used?

Thanks!

Best,

Sabrina

[AndrewL · Accepted solution]

Hi Sabrina,

Great question! The short answer is not really, the longer answer is sort of. Within the Input Data tool you can create custom SQL queries using the SQL editor and in there you can do joins and whatever else you need to do. Those queries are executed within the database itself without bringing anything into Alteryx so the processing of those queries is generally faster.

The general recommendation is to only bring in to Alteryx what you need to in order to optimize the processing time. Once the records pass into Alteryx through the Input Data tool, everything is done within Alteryx using the in-memory processing that is leveraged as much as possible.

[britanneywiley]

Hi Sabrina!

When you connect Alteryx to SAP HANA through ODBC, how much of HANA’s in-memory power you use depends on where the processing happens.

If you’re only reading data into Alteryx and running most transformations within Alteryx itself, the processing occurs on the Alteryx side, meaning you’re not leveraging much of HANA’s in-memory performance. However, if you use In-Database (In-DB) tools or pushdown SQL queries, Alteryx sends those operations directly to HANA. In that case, the query execution and aggregation happen inside HANA—fully utilizing its in-memory computing and columnar processing capabilities

.

I actually came across a similar point while going through Pass4Future’s SAP HANA study content, where they explained that to really benefit from HANA’s speed, you should design workflows that push the heavy processing to the database instead of pulling large datasets into Alteryx.