How to shut down SAP legacy systems after the move to S/4HANA

Migrating from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA is a significant milestone for any organization, enabling enhanced capabilities, optimized workflows, and a modern, agile ERP platform. However, after moving to SAP S/4HANA, many organizations face a dilemma: What should they do with the SAP legacy system? Keeping it active for occasional access to historical data or compliance audits can be inefficient. This is where SNP Datafridge comes into play, offering an optimal solution for decommissioning legacy systems while ensuring secure data retention. 

Challenges of running SAP legacy systems after the SAP S/4HANA migration 

Once the transition to SAP S/4HANA is complete, maintaining SAP legacy systems for infrequent or compliance-driven access can lead to several challenges: 

• Technical and infrastructure complexity 
  Maintaining a full SAP environment solely for historical data can be resource-intensive and technically complex. Ongoing support of legacy infrastructure not only raises overhead expenses but also constrains the modernization of IT resources. Establishing practical governance measures and retraining business users to leverage new tools is essential for successful adoption. 

• Complex data access requirements 
  Legacy systems are often used only occasionally post-migration, typically for audits or historical data access. Without an optimal solution, managing and accessing historical data can become a bottleneck, requiring ongoing resources for data retrieval and compliance reporting. 

• Storing the data of obsolete systems 
  Cloud integration should be a core consideration, with data aggregation between systems being essential for effective decision-making and innovation. 

• Compliance and data retention 
  Regulatory compliance is a top priority, especially for sectors such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Organizations must retain legacy data and ensure it remains accessible for audits. Decommissioning the legacy system without jeopardizing compliance and data availability presents a unique challenge. To maintain data integrity and control, it’s crucial to effectively manage the data life cycle and ensure proper oversight across a distributed system architecture. 

SNP Datafridge: Sunset applications without losing access to legacy data 

SNP Datafridge is specifically designed to address the challenges of maintaining SAP legacy systems post-migration. By enabling organizations to store and access historical data securely, it reduces or eliminates the need to keep SAP legacy systems active, leading to cost savings. Let’s explore how SNP Datafridge can help streamline your legacy SAP shutdown.

Deploying SNP Datafridge in the SAP landscape

SNP Datafridge is delivered as an ABAP based add-on and doesn’t require any additional hardware or software, resulting in a straightforward installation on the SAP control system (the system from which the data replication is triggered and from which the access to the legacy data is enabled, usually an SAP S/4HANA system). The project’s build phase involves establishing of the connection between SAP S/4HANA and SNP Datafridge with the chosen cost-effective storage – a read-only environment for SAP legacy data. This supports the decision not to maintain a full SAP stack, leading to lower storage and licensing costs.

Replicating historical data with SNP Datafridge

After deploying the solution in an SAP landscape, it’s time to migrate the legacy data from one or multiple source systems. The data ingestion is simplified with embedded automation and accelerators that boost migration efficiency. Progress monitoring provides clear, centralized statistics on all automated job processes across the SAP legacy systems in scope, enabling easy oversight. In addition, checksum validation is applied to ensure data integrity and consistency throughout the migration.

Accessing SAP legacy data from SNP Datafridge

SNP Datafridge provides data access in a standard SAP UI, featuring over 160 pre-delivered transaction substitutes and an SE16-like table browser. Users can efficiently search, display, export, and analyze historical data, making it easily accessible for auditing purposes, for example. Watch this demo to see SNP Datafridge in action. 

An example of Financial Accounting documents in transaction FB03 in SNP Datafridge

Storing historical SAP data in cloud-based solutions like AWS Redshift, Azure SQL, or Snowflake allows for advanced analytics by integrating third-party applications such as Power BI or Tableau. This setup not only enables robust data analysis but also allows companies to combine legacy SAP data with other sources, facilitating enriched, comprehensive reporting and insights.

Decommissioning SAP legacy systems 

Once historical data is accessible through the simplified SAP UI-like interface in SNP Datafridge, securely stored in the connected storage, and validated by end users during UAT, the customer signs off the go-live. After that, they can proceed with decommissioning their SAP legacy systems.  

Benefits of SNP Datafridge for legacy SAP decommissioning 

SNP Datafridge offers a range of strategic benefits that help organizations improve efficiency and adapt to changing business requirements: 

• Centralized data management: SNP Datafridge provides a centralized platform for accessing data from multiple SAP legacy systems. 

• Enhanced data compliance and security: The SNP Datafridge features retention management and legal hold ensure that historical data remains compliant with regulatory requirements. The solution provides advanced security features to protect sensitive information. 

• Future-proof storage: SNP Datafridge supports storage for SAP legacy data from many leading cloud vendors, e.g. AWS, Azure, Snowflake, and Google, or on-premise storages such as SQL server or SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise. The solution makes it easier for businesses to integrate data across platforms and systems. This enables more accurate and comprehensive analytics, which can lead to better decision-making and a stronger competitive edge. 

• Increased agility: The ability to quickly rearrange and reconfigure processes enables faster responses to market changes and opportunities. The solution is designed to be flexible and scalable, which means it can adapt to various organizational needs, whether for a small business or a large enterprise. 

• Cost-effective IT management: Standardized connectors and data formats ensure seamless communication between solutions, regardless of the vendor. With data accessible in a read-only environment, organizations eliminate the need for costly SAP licenses. 

Maximizing SAP S/4HANA success by sunsetting SAP ECC 

As organizations complete their migration from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA, decommissioning legacy ECC systems becomes a strategic opportunity for cost savings and streamlined operations. SNP Datafridge supports this transition, allowing organizations to archive historical data securely and access it when needed – without maintaining full legacy systems. By ensuring compliance and business continuity, SNP Datafridge empowers organizations to fully leverage their new SAP S/4HANA environment, enhancing the value of their IT investments and enabling a smooth, efficient modernization journey.