How Intel Xeon 6 and CXL Are the New Secret Weapons to Tame SAP Data

The constant tug-of-war between performance and cost is a familiar feeling for organizations using SAP S/4HANA. On the one hand, the ever-growing transactional and analytical workloads require more memory. At the same time, every gigabyte added puts more strain on the budget allocated for the system’s operations. Overprovisioning was the only option to guard against performance degradation in such circumstances.

A Triple-Threat Collaboration

However, a groundbreaking collaboration between Intel, SAP, and Microsoft, centered around the new Intel Xeon 6 processor, provides a new path to succeeding with SAP S/4HANA. Released in February 2025, this new technology, specifically its support for Compute Express Link (CXL), resolves one of the most persistent headaches in the SAP world—balancing the need for data with the budget.

This collaboration highlights a shared vision for a more efficient future. Bill Pearson, Vice President of Data Center and Artificial Intelligence at Intel, emphasizes this: “Intel Xeon 6 represents a significant advancement for Intel, opening up exciting business opportunities to strengthen our collaboration with Microsoft Azure and SAP. The innovative instance architecture featuring CXL Flat Memory Mode is designed to enhance cost efficiency and performance optimization for SAP software and SAP customers.”

Stefan Bäuerle, SVP and Head of BTP, HANA & Persistency at SAP, notes, “Intel Xeon 6 helps deliver system scalability to support the growing demand for high-performance computing and growing database capacity among SAP customers.”

According to Elyse Ge Hylander, Director of Azure SAP Compute, “We are thrilled about the potential of Intel’s new Xeon 6 processors with CXL and Flat Memory Mode. This is a big step forward to deliver the next-level performance, reliability, and scalability to meet the growing demands of our customers.”

Beyond the Core

The Xeon 6 6700 series with P-cores delivers a performance boost for SAP S/4HANA and can scale up to 64TB of memory. However, its support for the CXL standard, specifically, Intel’s CXL Flat Memory Mode, is the real game-changer.

Instead of being limited to expensive large capacity DDR5 memory DIMMs that are plugged into the system to reach a specific capacity, CXL Memory allows organizations to build the desired capacity in combination with less expensive CXL Memory Modules that jointly createa larger, unified memory pool. The CXL flat memory mode enables users to expand SAP S/4HANA’s memory capacity more cost-effectively, perfectly aligning the compute-to-memory ratio with actual business needs. For an in-memory database like SAP S/4HANA, this flexibility means better scalability without sacrificing performance. Moreover, it directly tackles the challenge of managing enormous data sets while keeping costs in check.

Finally, for SAP professionals, the combination of Xeon 6 and CXL is poised to redefine infrastructure strategy, offering a powerful new tool to build more efficient, scalable, and cost-effective SAP S/4HANA systems.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Performance is paramount in the SAP S/4HANA era. The migration to SAP S/4HANA is fueled by the need for real-time analytics on growing data volumes. SAPinsider research confirms that improved performance is one of the top two benefits realized (cited by 52% of respondents) among users who have already migrated. This trend highlights the critical importance of underlying hardware that can deliver the speed and efficiency necessary to manage demanding in-memory workloads.

The Intel-SAP partnership is a strategic advantage. SAP software’s performance on Intel Xeon platform results from a decades-long strategic partnership where Intel engineers work directly with SAP, gaining early access to new technology. This co-innovation has ensured that SAP S/4HANA is deeply optimized to leverage Intel’s Xeon capabilities to drive improve performance and capacity in transactional and analytical workloads.

Modern processors offer more than performance. New platforms like Intel Xeon 6 offers architectural advantages that directly impact data management for SAP systems. Technologies like CXL increase memory and address capacity constraints and enhance scalability for in-memory databases like SAP HANA. These advancements provide the flexible and powerful foundation required to manage massive in-memory databases efficiently and cost-effectively.