Getting software to talk to SAP HANA
In order to allow software to talk to SAP HANA and extract data from the system, a database driver is needed. A driver permits two things:
Connection to the database using a given protocol
Querying the database using a specific language
A connection protocol is the tool used to allow two pieces of software to talk to each other. It is basically a common language that SAP HANA and the reporting software use. SAP HANA includes some native drivers developed by SAP, and can also understand some more generic languages.
Tip
Where possible, it is usually best to use a native driver provided by SAP to connect to your HANA system. Think of the communication protocols as languages humans speak. A German and a Hungarian might be able to communicate by both speaking English, but two Germans speaking their native language communicate much better and more efficiently. With SAP HANA it's the same; communication using a generic protocol will work, but won't be as optimized...
