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February 05, 2021

The Growth of SAP Migration Strategies



SAP (News - Alert) is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software meant to coordinate information, resources, and activities to operate as efficiently as possible and draw insights to improve their business processes. An SAP system's applications include checking security and data integrity, production planning, order fulfillment, human resources management, and more.



Many organizations are still using the SAP R3 ERP Suite, which has been standard since the 90s. This tech is now outdated, and SAP intends to cut support for this version by 2027. This gives organizations several years to upgrade to the latest version of the business suite—SAP S/4HANA. Moving to the new system isn't an easy or quick process, however. Organizations will need to perform extensive SAP migration to get up to speed. It is worth the effort, though, since SAP HANA will allow for much easier data management, speed up business processes, and leverage data for better insights. The migration process can be handled in a few different ways.

What is data migration?

Put simply; data migration is just the process of moving data from one system to another. While it sounds simple, the process is complicated because the two systems involved may have different data formats, operating systems, or other differences that make the journey difficult. Classic migration mistakes include cutting corners on complexity or having a lack of data science expertise. In some cases, you may be able to use a data migration assistant, but you'll otherwise have to find your own way to transfer from the source system to the new one. Here are a few strategies for your migration project to avoid error messages and how strategies have grown.

Big Bang (News - Alert) Migration

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This is a database migration option where you're trying to complete the entire process in one window of time. This can be the most efficient DB migration method, but it requires extensive preparation. You'll need to thoroughly analyze your current data and business processes to determine how they'll align with HANA upgrades. You'll also need to determine how you want to use SAP HANA, so you can start improving your technology and processes as quickly as possible. These days, the best way to ensure your data is ready is to use a master data management system for backup to ensure your data can be reliably transformed and loaded into the new SAP application.

4HANA Migration Cockpit

This is a database migration option where you'll use an automated tool to assist with the DB migration. The 4HANA migration cockpit is provided to customers to help them find a migration solution with no need for programming on the customer's part. The system can automatically map data between the source system and the new one and integrate custom objects and provide templates for migration.

The 4HANA migration cockpit can transform and move data to public cloud systems or move data on-premises. The system is also browser-based, so there's no additional work for customers to activate it. It can even move data from a non-SAP application so long as its migration templates allow it.

SAP Partnerships

Today, it's even possible to take advantage of an SAP partnership to ensure a successful migration to the HANA system. Partner portals also provide access to marketing resources, product information, customer support, demos, education services, and more. Of course, they also ensure that only the best practices are used for your migration. In addition to 4HANA support, partnership portals also offer services across the entire SAP landscape, including SAP Business Objects (News - Alert) Suites.

No matter what strategy you decide to use, it's important to start your SAP advanced data migration as soon as possible. Sure, you technically have until 2027 to do it, but there's no sense in wasting the benefits you could use right now.



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