When it comes to S/4HANA migration, the decisions you make around data will have a massive impact on your overall migration strategy.
Sometimes the data conversation is oversimplified. The received wisdom is you’re either:
In reality, there are multiple approaches you can take to data migration as part of your S/4HANA journey, and choosing the right one will have a massive impact on your approach and the overall success of your program.
“According to both Gartner and the SAP User Group, data migration is one of the major causes of risk in the migration to S/4HANA. This is simply because companies address the scope and challenges of data migration too late. The more ambitious the business transformation, the more complex the data transformation. Companies can mitigate the risk of problems during data migration by bringing forward some of the discovery work related to data migration in order to get an early view of scope, approach, plan and challenges.”
Expert Tip
“When it comes to data you should think holistically. Your focus is likely on the
production system – getting it set up right to run the business in the most efficient way possible. However many SAP customers ignore or forget that the non-production landscape is larger in terms of size and cost. This is why selective data transition (SDT)can be a key enabler.”
Expert Tip
Here are 9 different approaches to data migration you should consider when defining your S/4HANA migration strategy.
Convert your ECC system to S/4HANA and migrate all of your data across (classic brownfield).
Take all of your data scope but pick a cut-off point in time and only take historical data after that point in time. This reduces your data footprint (and cost – remember HANA is an in-memory DB so you’re paying more for your data storage than you would have done with traditional ‘disk’ storage).
Take one company code and all of its associated data across. Repeat this process for each company code into your new S/4HANA environment.
Combine data structures (company codes or other enterprise structure
elements) as you transfer, enabling selective migration at the same time as data rationalization.
Continue using your existing system and slice out the data you no longer want, leaving you
with a leaner system to upgrade to S/4HANA.
Make a clean copy of the code base of your existing system and selectively slice data into it, reducing downtime and simplifying your cloud migration.
Spend time moving your old data into archive to reduce the size of your current ECC data footprint.
Put all of your old ECC data into cold storage so that it can be accessed afterward (some industries demand 7 or more years of data to be retained) either stand-alone or via your S/4HANA solution.
Run your existing ECC system for some data scope alongside your new S/4HANA system for other data scope (e.g. company code) to reduce disruption to your business operations and stretch out the cutover window.
“The two defining elements of a selective data transition (SDT) are a shell system copy and a data migration using landscape transformation software. SDT is a powerful option that can reduce the time and effort by half for those organizations who want to drive targeted change rather than wholesale change from their migration to S/4HANA”
Expert Tip
“You can migrate only the information that is needed to live systems reducing the data volume by up to 75%. Typically this results in a 50% lower migration cost.”
Expert Tip
If this advice has been useful then download “50 shades of blue: the secrets to taking control of your S/4HANA journey” for more advice like this on key topics like code remediation and storage and compute.
Click the link to get your copy.