Eamonn O’Neill, co-founder and CTO, Lemongrass, on the implications of SAP modernization initiatives.
If your business uses SAP technology, January 1, 2028, could end up being a momentous day – and not in a good way. That’s when many legacy products across the SAP platform will cease to receive updates and support. If you’re still relying on those solutions and don’t have an upgrade plan underway by the start of 2028, you’re in for a rough end to the decade.
But, for organizations that invest in assessing their SAP portfolio and getting ahead of the changes currently taking place, this looming deadline is not a threat. On the contrary, it’s an opportunity for creating new value by leveraging the latest, greatest SAP products – and potentially combining them with third-party solutions, which are now becoming easier to integrate into the SAP ecosystem.
To provide guidance on what the SAP product changes mean and how businesses can prepare, this article walks through the implications of SAP’s modernization initiative for the company’s customers and offers tips on thriving in the midst of these updates. To ground the discussion, I’ll focus on SAP’s data management solutions, but the lessons below apply more generally to most parts of the SAP ecosystem.
SAP has embarked on a broad set of product changes and evolutions aimed at modernizing the company’s solutions. In the realm of data management, the key pivot currently underway is the replacement of SAP Business Warehouse (BW) with Datasphere.
I’m using the word “replacement” a bit loosely because Datasphere and BW will continue to coexist for a long time to come; the one is not fully replacing the other outright. However, as of January 1, 2028, SAP will cease to offer normal maintenance for BW. It will instead support the product under an extended maintenance policy. BW will continue to work, but customers will pay more, and product innovation will cease.
This means that businesses that currently depend on BW – and the many other SAP offerings that are set to undergo similar maintenance policy changes – have an important choice to make: How will they ensure that they can continue to get the most value out of SAP products?
One strategy, of course, is simply to stick with existing solutions and accept the limitations of no longer benefiting from product enhancements. But that’s a poor way to create business value. It’s also not a future-proof strategy because eventually, support for these legacy products will cease entirely.
A better approach is to embrace this change as an opportunity to create new value by modernizing technology stacks. In the case of data management, this means either upgrading to Datasphere, SAP’s modern data management platform, or migrating to a third-party data management solution.
Making the change: Steps for SAP modernization
Whether you opt to remain within the SAP ecosystem or adopt a third-party solution, the core process for modernizing your product portfolio amounts to the following steps.
Select the right solution
First, you need to determine which product to migrate to, based on which one can deliver the greatest overall value. Datasphere is a powerful platform, but so are third-party data management and warehousing solutions. Deciding which strategy is best boils down to factors like which solution integrates most easily into your existing technology stack and which one your team is best equipped to support.
Migrate your data
To move data out of the legacy platform into your new one, you need to undergo a data migration process. This is a complex endeavor, but SAP has developed architectural guidelines and patterns that can help make it smoother and ensure that your data arrives in your new platform in a structure that will optimize data management and analytics.
You’ll also want to ensure during the migration process that you build in proper governance and security controls to keep your data safe inside the new solution.
Maintain and support the environment
After migration, you’ll need to implement the operational processes necessary to support your new environment. This means capabilities like monitoring and dealing with failures that could impede your ability to work effectively with data. The ability to integrate your new data management product with the IT operations tools your business already uses can help smooth this process – as can taking advantage of SAP’s built-in monitoring features if they apply to your environment.
Implement reporting
Putting your data to work requires the deployment of business intelligence and reporting tools that allow users to analyze and process data. Here again, you can opt for SAP-native solutions like SAP Analytics Cloud or choose third-party offerings.
SAP migration: A complex but necessary process
To be sure, migrating away from legacy SAP technology is a complex process and it will take time. This is why now is the time for businesses to start making and implementing a modernization plan. Effective change requires a deep understanding of SAP’s product offerings, as well as potential third-party alternatives, so that businesses can carry out the extensive analysis necessary to chart the best path to new value.
I can’t tell you exactly which path to follow because every company’s experience will be different. But I can tell you that this is a challenge to begin contending with now. New Year’s 2028 will be here before you know it.
