Which of the following is an essential component of SAP HANA's hardware configuration?

Memory capacity is a critical component of SAP HANA's hardware configuration because HANA is designed as an in-memory database, meaning it processes data in RAM rather than relying on traditional disk storage. This architecture allows for extremely fast data retrieval and efficient analytics, as it significantly reduces data access times. The ability to load and manipulate large volumes of data in memory is fundamental to achieving the performance benchmarks that SAP HANA is known for.

In addition, while options like a graphical processing unit (GPU), network interface cards (NIC), and storage speed can contribute to the overall performance and efficiency in certain scenarios, they do not fundamentally define the HANA architecture like memory capacity does. Memory is the backbone of SAP HANA, enabling it to handle complex queries and large datasets swiftly and effectively.