Migrating Your Solution to the SAP HANA Cloud: Ultimate Guide and Best Practices

Learn more about SAP cloud migration, explore the basics and peculiarities, get implementation best practices, and check a real-life migration example.

Migrating your SAP environment from on-premises to the cloud is a resource-intensive and complex procedure. It requires time, attention, and, in most cases, the use of cloud migration platforms to facilitate data transfer and ensure consistency.

In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of SAP migration to the cloud and illuminate details such as the key reasons for cloud migration, preparatory steps, cloud migration roadmap, and best migration practices.

Key Reasons for Migrating SAP to the Cloud 

Let’s examine the key reasons businesses consider migrating their SAP systems from on-premises to the cloud.

Business reasons and technological trends

These days, enterprises must be agile and resilient to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. In this regard, SAP migration to the cloud is becoming a strategic imperative rather than just a technical upgrade. Modern businesses need real-time insights, seamless integration across platforms and departments, and the ability to deploy new services rapidly. All these options are much better supported in the cloud rather than on-premises. 

Emerging technological trends like AI, machine learning, advanced analytics, and IoT also require flexible and scalable infrastructure, which may be difficult to achieve with traditional on-premise SAP systems. Thus, migrating SAP to the cloud enables businesses to adopt innovations, meet changing market demands, and pave the way to long-term digital transformation.

Potential for lower TCO

Another reason businesses might want to migrate SAP systems to the cloud is the potential for a significantly lower TCO (total cost of ownership). Maintaining on-premise infrastructure requires substantial investment in hardware, data centers, ongoing system support, not to mention the specialized personnel needed for many of these tasks. Utilizing cloud-based environments shifts maintenance costs to an operational expenditure model, where companies pay only for the resources used. Additionally, cloud providers manage much of the basic infrastructure, reducing the burden on internal IT teams and eliminating many hidden costs associated with downtime, patching, and upgrades.

Better scalability and availability

Cloud platforms offer significant scalability compared to traditional on-premise systems. Whether a company is expanding operations, experiencing seasonal demand spikes, or entering new markets, the cloud allows for rapidly scaling SAP workloads without significant infrastructure changes. This elasticity ensures performance stability regardless of demand. Moreover, leading cloud providers ensure availability and built-in disaster recovery, significantly reducing the risk of unplanned downtime and system inaccessibility for other departments in case they need it. This level of reliability and flexibility is crucial for mission-critical SAP systems, where even minor disruptions can have major business impacts.

Cloud Migration Planning and Preparation

Before a business can transfer the SAP system from on-premises to the cloud, a thorough evaluation of current processes, landscape, and migration goals should occur. Thoughtful planning helps avoid technical issues and migration disruptions, ensuring smooth data transition and stable operation of the SAP system in the new environment.

Let's look at key steps.

Evaluation of the current IT infrastructure

The first step in migrating on-premise SAP systems to the cloud is a comprehensive assessment of the existing IT landscape. This includes a detailed inventory of current SAP systems, databases, integrations, customizations, and supporting infrastructure. Understanding system dependencies, performance baselines, and pain points helps organizations identify what should be migrated and modernized, and what can be discarded. IT infrastructure evaluation also reveals potential compatibility issues and provides insights into the technical debt that may need to be addressed before migrating to the cloud.

Setting migration goals

Clear, measurable migration goals are essential to guide and evaluate the process's success. Enterprises should define business and technical objectives, whether reducing operational costs, improving system performance, faster innovation implementation, or increasing system availability. Setting realistic timelines and identifying key milestones also helps businesses anticipate and prevent many potential cloud migration risks to ensure the creation of a single, unified migration roadmap for all the system users and company stakeholders.

Choosing the right cloud provider

Selecting the right cloud provider is a strategic decision that can significantly influence the outcome of SAP migration to the cloud. When choosing the provider, businesses should consider the presence of SAP certifications (such as SAP-certified infrastructure for SAP HANA), experience with large-scale SAP migrations, availability of managed services, security and compliance capabilities, global reach, and support for hybrid and multi-cloud models. 

The most popular options for SAP cloud migration include:

• SAP HANA Cloud
• Microsoft Azure
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Google Cloud

Which one is better? There’s no right or wrong answer; everything depends on your business objectives and target outcomes. SAP HANA Cloud (as a part of SAP BTP) is fully managed and hosted by SAP, so it will have fewer compatibility issues and be a good choice for companies that operate mostly or totally within an SAP ecosystem. Businesses that already use SAP solutions on IaaS or want to host and manage their cloud environment on their own (availability, flexibility) would probably be more comfortable with AWS, Azure, or Google.

Now, let’s proceed with the actual plan on how to migrate your on-premise SAP system to the cloud.

SAP Migration to the Cloud Roadmap

A carefully planned cloud migration roadmap ensures a seamless and successful migration. These four essential steps will help you execute migration with minimal business lags and operational disruptions.

1. Planning and audit

There are several key components to planning your migration:

• Carefully assess your existing SAP landscape: infrastructure, custom code, data volumes, and integration points. 
• Define the scope of the migration (whether you’re planning to migrate the whole system or just some specific modules). 
• Identify key stakeholders and establish clear objectives and goals. 
• Choose the right migration approach (Greenfield, Brownfield, or Bluefield (hybrid)) and work on a high-level timeline, budget, and resource plan. 
• Carefully develop a comprehensive risk assessment framework to guide the project, avoiding potential problems and setbacks during migration.

2. Data and landscape preparation

Once planning is complete, start preparing your on-premise SAP environment for migration to the cloud. Key procedures include cleaning up master and transactional data, archiving obsolete data, and ensuring compliance with governance policies. Don’t forget technical aspects like system consolidation, software alignment, and target platform compatibility insurance. Properly documenting system configurations and dependencies reduces the risk of unexpected problems during migration.

3. Migration of applications and databases

This core phase includes transferring the on-premise SAP applications and databases to the chosen cloud environment. Depending on the migration strategy, tools such as SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SPM), SAP Database Migration Option (DMO), or third-party solutions may be used.

This step is crucial to optimizing system performance, ensuring secure data transfer, and adhering to any downtime windows required by the business.

4. Testing and go-live

Before going live, it is imperative to perform extensive testing to validate the stability, performance, and functionality of the migrated SAP environment in the cloud. Best testing practices combine unit tests, integration tests, performance benchmarks, and user acceptance testing (UAT). Once every detail is checked and validated, and all the inconsistencies and malfunction cases are fixed, the system can finally be launched and operated in production. Even after the SAP has been deployed, it is essential to maintain post-go-live support, monitoring, and performance tuning to ensure a stable and efficient cloud-based SAP environment.

Specific Cases of Cloud Migration Scenarios

Some cases of migrating SAP to the cloud deviate from the classic schemata described above. In these cases, unique technical, functional, and strategic decisions should be made to migrate SAP products to the cloud successfully. Let’s explore some specific SAP cloud migration cases.

SAP ECC → SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Sometimes, business modernization and technological upgrades necessitate migrating from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. This is actually a full-scale digital transformation of the ERP core, typically involving a functional redesign due to differences in architecture, data models, and business processes.

The following SAP S/4HANA Cloud features facilitate ERP modernization:

• Simplified data model (no SUM/Index tables are needed)
• Embedded analytics (SAP Fiori and SAC integration)
• AI/ML capabilities (predictive accounting, intelligent automation)
• Cloud-native scalability (flexible subscription model)

Enterprises that want to migrate from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Cloud have three migration approaches: Greenfield for new implementation, Brownfield for system conversion, and Bluefield (hybrid) for selective data transition. Each has its peculiarities, pros, and cons, so let’s examine each one closely.

Greenfield approach is the best choice for companies that want a fresh start with minimal legacy baggage. The migration process looks like this:

• New S/4HANA Cloud system setup

• Master/data migration only (no historical data unless needed)
• Reimplementation of business processes

As a result, an enterprise gets a new, functional, and clean system with optimized processes. Still, the transition of data may take time and include various data migration challenges.

Brownfield approach suits companies that need to preserve existing customizations while modernizing the overall environment. The migration process looks like this:

• Direct ECC → S/4HANA conversion (using SAP DMO)
• Custom code adaptation (with SAP S/4HANA Readiness Check)

This type of migration allows for the retention of important historical data and doesn’t change processes much, which speeds up user adaptation. On the other hand, saving existing customizations may carry over legacy issues that will require attention in the future.

Bluefield (hybrid) approach serves to migrate specific enterprise modules independently, while keeping some in the previous system to migrate them later (e.g., Finance before Logistics). The migration process looks like this:

• Use SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT) for real-time data sync
• Phase-wise migration

Hybrid migrations reduce risks and allow for gradual adoption without much user resistance. Still, issues related to temporary dual maintenance may arise, requiring attention and resources to fix them.

Key challenges and their solutions

Best practices for success

• Start with SAP Readiness Check & Fit-to-Standard workshops
• Leverage RISE with SAP for simplified licensing & migration
• Adopt SAP Activate methodology (Agile deployment)
• Use SAP Cloud ALM for project management
• Train users early on Fiori UX

Tools to accelerate migration

• SAP Readiness Check (Assess system compatibility)
• SAP Migration Cockpit (Data migration tool)
• SAP Transformation Navigator (Roadmap planning)
• SAP Cloud ALM (Implementation & operations)
• SAP BTP Extension Suite (Custom app development)

SAP HANA On-Premise → SAP HANA Cloud

This type of cloud migration moves an existing SAP HANA database from a customer-managed, on-premise environment to the SAP HANA Cloud, a managed service within the SAP Business BTP. Unlike on-premise setups, SAP HANA Cloud is optimized for hybrid and data-driven architectures.

Migrating from SAP HANA, platform edition (on-premise) to SAP HANA Cloud offers:

• Reduced infrastructure management (which is now fully managed by SAP)
• Automatic scaling & updates (no manual patching)
• Pay-as-you-go pricing (OPEX vs. CAPEX model)
• Native integration with SAP BTP & Analytics Cloud

Companies migrating from SAP HANA, platform edition to SAP HANA Cloud can choose one of the following migration approaches: 

• Lift-and-shift, which is a full migration of the database 
• Hybrid migration for partial database transfer
• Replatforming with optimization for data model modernization. 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these approaches. 

Lift-and-shift, or full database migration, is the best choice for straightforward migrations with minimal customization. The migration process looks like this:

• Provision HANA Cloud instance
• Export on-premise HANA database (SAP HANA HDBSQL or SAP HANA Studio)
• Import into HANA Cloud

This approach requires utilizing SAP HANA Cloud Migration Service and SAP HANA Smart Data Integration (SDI) for better connectivity and process facilitation.

Hybrid migration will suit businesses that need to carry out phased migration, for example, if they need to move analytics data first while continuing to use financial data on-premises. The migration process looks like this:

• Connect HANA Cloud to on-premise via SDA
• Migrate selected schemas/tables
• Gradually shift workloads

Here, you will need SAP Data Intelligence for ETL pipelines and SAP HANA Smart Data Access (SDA) for federated queries.

Replatforming with optimization will be a good choice for those who seek ways to modernize data models during migration. The migration process looks like this:

• Analyze on-premise usage patterns
• Redesign schemas for cloud efficiency
• Migrate using SAP HANA Cloud Migration Cockpit

Replatforming requires tools like SAP HANA Cockpit for performance analysis during migration and SAP HANA Cloud Central for resource monitoring.

Key challenges and their solutions

Best practices for success

• Start with non-production systems
• Use SAP HANA Cloud Migration Service for large DBs
• Leverage SAP HANA Cockpit for monitoring
• Test all custom SQL scripts (some syntax differs)
• Implement data lifecycle management (archiving strategy)

Tools to accelerate migration

In addition to specific case-by-case toolkit choices, migration from SAP HANA, platform edition to SAP HANA Cloud requires the following:

• Primary migration tool: SAP HANA Cloud Migration Service
• Data validation: SAP HANA Database Explorer
• Performance monitoring: SAP HANA Cloud Central
• Hybrid connectivity: SAP Cloud Connector

SAP CRM (on-premise) → SAP CX (Cloud for Customer)

Migrating from legacy SAP CRM (on-premise) to SAP Cloud for Customer (C4C) represents a shift from an on-premise, heavily customized CRM system to a cloud-native SaaS solution focused on sales, service, and marketing. As a result of such migration, a business receives the following improvements:

• A modern, cloud-native CRM platform
• Tight integration with SAP S/4HANA
• AI-driven sales and service capabilities
• Omnichannel customer engagement

Businesses planning to migrate from on-premise SAP CRM to SAP C/4HANA can opt for three migration approaches: Greenfield for new implementation, Bluefield (hybrid) transition for partial migration, and data-centric migration, which focuses on data more than processes. Let’s investigate them further.

Greenfield implementation will best suit companies that want to redesign their processes within a new system completely. The migration process looks like this:

• New C4C implementation
• Master data migration only
• Process re-engineering

This approach allows businesses to have a new start, re-shaping their processes with SAP best practices. 

Hybrid transition is best for businesses that prefer a phased migration to partially move their landscape to the new environment while being able to use modules that haven’t been moved yet. The migration process looks like this:

• Run CRM and C4C in parallel
• Migrate modules incrementally
• Use SAP BTP for integration

This approach lowers the risk of data loss and business lags. There will be temporary duplicate maintenance during migration.

Data-centric migration is an ideal approach for businesses that must preserve historical data. The migration process looks like this:

• Extract CRM data (transactions, master data)
• Transform for C4C model
• Load via C4C OData APIs

Data-centric migration allows for data continuity to be maintained within the new SAP S/4HANA environment. Still, this data-centricity may cause issues with complex data mapping because of differences in data models.

Key challenges and their solutions

Best practices for success

• Start with a pilot (e.g., Sales module first)
• Use SAP Activate methodology
• Involve business users early in UX testing
• Leverage SAP Premium Engagement for support

Tools to accelerate migration

• Data Migration: SAP Migration Cockpit, SAP Data Services
• Integration: SAP BTP Integration Suite
• Testing: SAP Cloud ALM
• Training: SAP Enable Now

Tools and Technologies to Migrate SAP to the Cloud

Migrating on-premise SAP systems to the cloud requires special tools that facilitate the process by ensuring data integrity, minimizing disruption, and optimizing the performance of the post-migration environment. Below, there are three essential instruments that help most businesses streamline cloud migration:

SAP Rapid Data Migration

SAP Rapid Data Migration (RDM) is a powerful toolkit designed to simplify and accelerate the process of migrating data from legacy systems to cloud SAP solutions. Built on SAP Data Services, RDM offers preconfigured content and ETL templates tailored to specific SAP applications (e.g. SAP S/4HANA). SAP RDM ensures high data quality and consistency by embedding data validation and cleansing routines into the migration workflows.

RDM’s potential is best observed in Greenfield implementations and data consolidations from multiple systems, offering a faster time-to-value and reduced risk of disruptions.

SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT)

SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server (SLT) is a real-time data replication tool that allows businesses to seamlessly transfer their data from on-premise SAP (and non-SAP) sources to new cloud environments. SLT supports both initial loads and ongoing data synchronization, which makes the tool a perfect choice when business continuity and minimal downtime are critical. With its real-time data movement functionality, SLT ensures that migrated systems remain aligned with current business operations. 

STL is typically chosen for Brownfield and selective data migration scenarios, where system consolidation, data harmonization, and legacy decommissioning take place.

RISE with SAP

RISE with SAP is a comprehensive digital transformation business offering a holistic approach to cloud implementation for SAP customers. It is not a data migration tool but a full-scale digitalization service that allows businesses to adopt cloud infrastructure and move to SAP S/4HANA. It simplifies the cloud migration by bundling infrastructure provisioning, technical migration services, and continuous innovation capabilities.

RISE with SAP suits large-scale organizations aiming to shift from traditional on-premise models to a cloud-first approach. It offers a streamlined framework that reduces complexity and cost while accelerating digital transformation.

Best Practices in Migrating SAP to the Cloud

SAP migration from on-premises to the cloud is a complex task that requires a strategic approach, technical skills, and professional assistance. The following are the most prominent best practices for transitioning on-prem SAP to the cloud environment.

Clean and optimize data before the migration

It is impossible to do a high-quality job when initial data is messy, poorly organized, unstructured, redundant, or missing and incomplete. So, to ensure the success of your cloud migration, you need to eliminate redundant, obsolete, or incorrect data to reduce complexity and improve performance in the new environment. 

Leverage professional tools

Use certified data migration tools such as SAP SUM, SAP SLT, SAP RDM, or other migration facilitators to clean and prepare data, automate repetitive tasks, minimize errors, and speed up the overall cloud migration process.

For example, you can use LeverX’s native DataLark, which was designed specifically for SAP data migration purposes.

Engage experienced partners

Cloud migration requires professional assistance. Partnering with LeverX, an SAP Golden Partner, you benefit from our 20+ years of SAP experience and get access to expert guidance, proven methodologies, and 24/7 support, reducing risk and improving delivery timelines.

Ensure security and compliance

Cloud environments must meet industry-specific compliance requirements and data privacy standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA). As part of the migration plan, implement role-based access controls, encryption, and secure integration models.

Have a backup plan

A foolproof backup plan will help restore processes if migration does not go as planned. Establish clear fallback procedures and communication plans to let you act quickly in an emergency and minimize business disruption. Consider near-zero downtime migration techniques for mission-critical systems or use shadow systems to reduce cutover risk.

Invest in personnel training

Migrating on-premise SAP systems to the cloud will likely change user interaction patterns due to new workflows and interfaces. To ease the transition and improve user adoption, provide your employees with comprehensive training, detailed documentation, and change management support.

Common Mistakes and Risks during SAP Cloud Migration

Migrating on-premise SAP systems to the cloud is a challenging process. Many businesses encounter pitfalls that can postpone the project go-live, increase costs, or compromise business data. While all of this is avoidable with the help of careful planning, proper toolkits, and professional help, you should be aware of the risks to be able to consider them in advance when planning your cloud migration strategy.

Underestimating volumes

One of the most “popular” mistakes during SAP migration to the cloud is underestimating the volumes and complexity of the data, processes, and system interdependencies involved in the migration. Organizations often miscalculate the total volume of data and the storage, compute, and network bandwidth requirements needed to handle it effectively in a cloud environment.

This miscalculation can lead to improperly allocated resources, performance bottlenecks, underestimated migration timelines, and unplanned costs. In addition, this can cause misconfigurations in cloud environments that lead to performance and budgeting issues. This again underlines the necessity of a detailed system assessment and migration planning before the actual migration activities start.

Data losses and business downtime

Another significant risk when migrating SAP systems from on-premises to the cloud is the potential for data loss and prolonged business downtime. This may happen because of improper planning, incomplete or absent backup plans, or flawed data migration processes, eventually leading to missing or corrupted records and disrupted operations.

Business downtimes may also occur because migration cutover windows are poorly estimated or cutovers are not aligned with business cycles. Organizations whose work and operations depend greatly on business continuity should plan migrations ever more carefully, paying attention to data backups and testing.

Choosing the wrong cloud provider or model

Selecting an inappropriate cloud model or service provider may significantly affect the result of migrating SAP from on-premises to the cloud. This mistake usually comes from an unnecessary rush when companies choose based only on pricing, existing vendor relationships, and/or surface-level features. A thorough system evaluation will help determine whether the cloud solution aligns with specific SAP workloads and if long-term goals might lead to prolonged migration times, compatibility issues, certification problems, and system unavailability in some regions.

To avoid these costly mistakes, companies must choose from a range of SAP-certified, reliable cloud providers with service-level agreements (SLAs), support capabilities, cost transparency, and global availability. Selecting the correct cloud architecture is necessary to ensure the business’s scalability, compliance, availability, and operational efficiency after the migration.

Summing It Up

Migrating on-premise SAP environments to the cloud is a complex and resource-intensive yet rewarding activity that pays off with growing profits, business expansions, and new opportunities and partnerships. It’s a way to implement new technologies, businesses need to stay competitive in the rapidly digitalizing landscape and ensure business continuity for many years.

This comprehensive guide on SAP cloud migration should help you carefully plan your data migration activities, follow the best industry practices, and avoid common pitfalls. Feel free to contact LeverX experts if you have questions or need assistance choosing the right cloud migration solution for your business.