I assume you talk of custom or partner development.
Start by reading this comment from Björn Görke:
Then read the chapter about extensibility and the blog and whitepaper which is linked there:SAP S/4HANA Cookbook: What is SAP S/4HANA
Also, to use HANA XS, customer needs a full HANA license (not just a runtime license) in an on premise installation.
And yes, there is obviously a trend to move code to the database or frontend client, but as Björn mentioned, ABAP is not going away. My bet would be to get trained in all technologies.