SAP inks Hadoop deals with Intel and Hortonworks

SAP has partnered with Intel and Hortonworks to resell the two companies' Hadoop offerings, as the enterprise software giant tentatively gets involved with the new fashionable data platform. The announcement was made on Wednesday at Techcrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, and means SAP will be able to sell SAP's HANA in-memory …

[Magister]

..it means longtime SAP customers can likely get the software wrapped in with their ongoing contracts<<

Of course they can; SAP are more than happy to give away software very cheaply or even free if they can lock in customers for the long haul.

But then the customer gets to pay through the nose for annual "support" charges, licensing renewal and consultancy costs. And the business managers are reluctant as hell to look at any alternatives as they are scared that any changeover will be as costly and painful as their initial SAP project.

Most companies running SAP will not see the suggested ROI unless they are prepared to stay with it for 15-20 years.