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Despite cloud euphoria, it's the data that counts

This year's Sapphire was all about the cloud. Even if the modern functions of the cloud such as AI or analytics were rightly talked about, the importance of data was emphasized again and again.
Thomas Failer, Data Migration International
July 25 2019
Despite cloud euphoria, it's the data that counts
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This text has been automatically translated from German to English.

After all, they are seen as the business foundation that will help companies become smarter. Three statements make people sit up and take notice in this context: the complete separation of the data layer from the compute layer, the preference for data access over data movement, and the retention of data even outside of Hana's in-memory storage.

But existing SAP customers continue to struggle with planning and preparing for migration to the new S/4 world. Before the switch, many SAP implementations need to be harmonized and consolidated. After all, it is far easier to migrate to S/4 from a central SAP environment.

However, this is immediately followed by two questions: What happens to the legacy systems and should all the data from the legacy systems really be migrated to the new world? These two questions are not only relevant from a technical and business perspective.

Rather, they have a very practical significance in light of the official end of support for SAP Business Suite 2025, because there are not enough consultants in the market to handle all migration projects.

Against this backdrop, the good news is that SAP is showing the way with the aforementioned architectural principles. For example, users should separate the data from the applications as much as possible even before the migration, separate the data necessary for operations from the rest even during the ongoing preparation and consolidation, and store it in a separate environment in a legally secure manner.

It is precisely because of the expected massive increase in information volumes that such a separate environment for legacy information will play an increasingly strategic role in the future. This is because, especially against the backdrop of Big Data and analytics scenarios, it makes neither technical nor business sense to keep all data in Hana's in-memory storage.

Separating the data from the applications and managing the lifecycle of legacy information using a dedicated platform allows the volume of data to be migrated to be reduced by up to 75 percent while maintaining full legal certainty. This saves operating costs by up to 80 percent. Most importantly, the migration effort is generally reduced by half.

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Thomas Failer, Data Migration International

Thomas Failer is the founder and Group CEO of Swiss Data Migration International and is responsible for the management, strategy, business and product development of the international provider. Since the generation change from SAP R/2 and R/3, the graduate computer scientist (FH) knows how the problem of legacy data and systems can be solved intelligently in transformation projects and turned into a real opportunity for the digital enterprise.


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Working on the SAP basis is crucial for successful S/4 conversion. 

This gives the Competence Center strategic importance for existing SAP customers. Regardless of the S/4 Hana operating model, topics such as Automation, Monitoring, Security, Application Lifecycle Management and Data Management the basis for S/4 operations.

For the second time, E3 magazine is organizing a summit for the SAP community in Salzburg to provide comprehensive information on all aspects of S/4 Hana groundwork.

Venue

More information will follow shortly.

Event date

Wednesday, May 21, and
Thursday, May 22, 2025

Early Bird Ticket

Available until Friday, January 24, 2025
EUR 390 excl. VAT

Regular ticket

EUR 590 excl. VAT

Venue

Hotel Hilton Heidelberg
Kurfürstenanlage 1
D-69115 Heidelberg

Event date

Wednesday, March 5, and
Thursday, March 6, 2025

Tickets

Regular ticket
EUR 590 excl. VAT
Early Bird Ticket

Available until December 20, 2024

EUR 390 excl. VAT
The event is organized by the E3 magazine of the publishing house B4Bmedia.net AG. The presentations will be accompanied by an exhibition of selected SAP partners. The ticket price includes attendance at all presentations of the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2025, a visit to the exhibition area, participation in the evening event and catering during the official program. The lecture program and the list of exhibitors and sponsors (SAP partners) will be published on this website in due course.