Your Comments Please: Business Case for XI

We are a small site commencing a major project that will involve integrating SAP R/3, BW, CRM, and various non-SAP applications (web and client/server). The applications have a number of external interfaces, receiving data from or sending data to external agencies.
I'm trying to understand the costs and benefits of including XI in the solution and would welcome comments from people already using the tool. I've read a lot of the SAP documentation so understand that it is the best thing since sliced bread, but I'd also be interested to hear your general comments and also your thoughts on the following specific points:
(1) Maintenance effort: since we are a small site we don't have teams of people to work on each piece of technology, what is likely to be the time and effort of the training, initial configuration and on-going support?
(2) Data transformation capabilities: are there extensive functions to manipulate the data without writing code? If you are familiar with ETL tools such as DataStage, Informatica, etc. how does it compare?
(3) Performance with large data sets: one of our external data sources will include about two million rows of data per day, how would XI cope?
(4) What is it like to work with? Do you spend half your time searching for, and trying to decipher notes, and applying patches, or is it generally an enjoyable experience? (for someone who doesn't enjoy the above) -- and if so why is this forum so popular?
Many thanks
Rob

Hi Robert,
I have just starting using XI 3.0 and am finding it a good experience on the whole. In answer to your points :
1. Maintenance effort is low. Once you have grasped the concepts and steps for development it is relatively easy with no coding (although you should really have a basic understanding of Java). I would recommend attending the SAP XI 3.0 Fundamentals course for training purposes. The initial configuration has been minimal so far as it is Basis who should perform the basic configuration steps during the installation
2. The mapping tool is a GUI driven tool and has a lot of basic functions for transforming data. It also allows the use of any specific Java functions you may already use to transform data
3. Performance would be driven by the volume of data and the number of integration servers you have. I would personally recommend having an Integration Server solely for use for the very high volume data set you mention.
4. From what I have seen so far, it is an enjoyable experience. Patches should be applied regularly by your Basis team so you shouldn't need to worry too much about that side of things.You are bound to get teething difficulties with such a vast product but once you get to grips with it, it is very good indeed.
Finally, I would definitely recommend attending the XI course I mentioned. It concretes the basic understanding you would get from the SAP documentation.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards
Colin

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Does anyone have a advice on how to build an business case for purchasing partitioning? Is there a good way to demonstrate cost-vs-benefit value?
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-=Joe

I'm going to be contrarian and start from the end of your post.
>
Does anyone have a advice on how to build an business case for purchasing partitioning? Is there a good way to demonstrate cost-vs-benefit value?
>
Yes - forget about cost-vs-benefit. That's the CIOs job not yours. You're an architect. Stick to architecture. Design and implement the architecture needed to meet the business requirements of your projects. If you are given requirements that can't be met with your current infrastructure then that is when you should propose alternative infrastructure.
>
We've grown to the point where I believe we need database partitioning. I believe we are at about 1.5 TB of data. Our largest tables are in the 100 million row counts with relatively wide record lengths (~100 columns). Our just sort of large tables are in the 10 million to 50 million range, however, they have very long row lengths (~300 columns). Based on our future source system plans, our data will become even more granular and there is still a need to maintain our historical data.
Those aren't the only reasons, but are some of the larger driving issues that are making most members of our team think it's time we purchased database partitioning.
>
NONSENSE! That's what ALL of the above statements represent - UTTER AND ABSOLUTE NONSENSE.
Who cares what you believe? Beliefs don't carry weight, facts do. You do list some facts: 1.5 TB of data, 100 million row counts, wide record lengths, large sorts, long rows, data will get more granular, need to maintain historical data.
Ho Hum! So what? How do ANY of those facts indicate any sort of issue or problem, existing or potential, at all? They don't. You haven't provided information that suggests that ANY of those facts illustrate what Justin referred to as 'pain points'.
Unless those facts prevent you from doing your job of providing an architecture that meets the business requirements you don't have a leg to stand on.
My first reaction to your request would be similar to your cio's. Implicit in your cio's response are some questions you need to ask and answer
1. What is it that you do now that you can't do with the current architecture?
2. What is it that you need to do for an upcoming requirement that you can't do with the current architecture?
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That #3 is where my skepticism lies. You seem to have already concluded that partitioning is the answer. Why? What problems do you think it will solve? Why not RAC? Why not a separate data warehouse system? Why not split that historical data off into an OLAP system? Maybe that can reduce the size of the OLTP system to where you won't have whatever problems you are having.
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If my hot queries use a primary key value to retrieve data it isn't going to matter much if the tables are partitioned or not.
That is what sets the context for what Justin is telling you. You and your team need to document the constraints (and SLAs) your system currently has, how close you are to hitting those constraints, your options for avoiding/evading those constraints using the current infrastructure and the options for avoiding/evading those constraints using a modified architecture.
It is up to the CIO to do the cost-benefit analysis of working within the limits imposed by the current infrastructure versus modifiying the architecture.

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Message was edited by:
Ramakrishna Ramisetti

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Your Comments Please: Business Case for XI

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