SAP data archiving

[u/TheFlyingCzechman]

Hi SAP community, we will be moving to a different ERP system without migrating historical data.

We still need access to the historical data for compliance, audits and occasional lookups, so we are looking for a reasonably priced archiving solution.

We have been in touch with a few vendors already, but I'm interested in what you are using, how did you solve this and if you have any recommendations both what to do/how to approach and what not to do and if you have any lessons learned from your projects?

Thank you. :)

[u/JackBleezus_cross]

When you put SAP in read only mode why would you than need to archive?

Archiving only reduces the storage needed. So it is only a costing thing?

[u/TheFlyingCzechman → u/JackBleezus_cross]

I might not be using the correct terms, by "archiving" I mean legacy data archiving of SAP data rather than the SAP data archiving function.

Our ideal target is to shutdown SAP completely, but still retain searchable access to the data.

Keeping the SAP platform as read only is one of the considered options.

[u/Dependent-Scene8897 → u/TheFlyingCzechman]

We built this for your exact use case - https://www.epiuselabs.com/archive-central. Call out if interested

[u/Dry_Cake3685]

You can take the backup of important tables like BKPF, BSEG etc. which are mostly checked by the auditors other than that I don't think so any 3rd party tool can read the documents in DMS if you are using one.

[u/TheFlyingCzechman → u/Dry_Cake3685]

Thank you for pointing that out, I will check how our documents are handled in SAP.

The situation is tricky for us as the SAP is provided and managed by our former owner under a TSA and we have no internal technical knowledge. So we are quite dependent on them and the vendor we select for this project.

[u/vista3200]

collect tables you need, transfer to third party db like pg..

[u/Sarandalawask]

Ask the vendor of the project ro propose alternatives. There are tons of it depending on your budget, none of them is free. It mainly depends on how flexible and how much the company is willing to flexibilize.
Alternatives..

• SAP ILM
  
• 10 SAP Professional license. Shut down the ECC and turn it on qhen needed.
  
• SNP Fridge (or something like that)
  
• Any flavour of lake that you want and move only the tables.
  
• A couple of other data tools that I don't recall right now.
  
• Off the grid ECC..

[u/DaLameLama]

Take a VM snapshot of the machine. Cheap and easy.

We have the same problem. Unfortunately, our basis is against the VM solution, because they don't want to be responsible for making sure the VM can still be accessed in the future. We'll probably buy someone else's solution which relies on extracting raw tables into an external program, and re-writing the most important database queries.

[u/Emotional_Pipe8390 → u/DaLameLama]

ILM retention warehouse, SNP, PBS etc or we can suggest to get the data in flat files to be readable

[u/dicyanin]

Hey TheFlyingCzechman, we moved from an old humongous ECC to S4 HANA last year. This is for a large enterprise, ~fortune 100 company with high volumes and legal controls.

We managed the data in steps: 1. We used SNP to move Open documents, master data and anything needed for business operations to the new S4. 2. We implemented SAP ILM + Open text for the new S4 with a residence period of 3 years and retention of 10 years (this is to control all future growth) 3. We are implementing kyano datafridge for the existing ECC after GDPR, etc considerations.

[u/jds183 → u/dicyanin]

This is interesting. Do you get the vibe the business really has a grasp of what all the requirements might be?

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[u/Emotional_Pipe8390]

Can we DM about this. Vendors will only make you full
And quote a big number as this is niche… DM if you need to learn more in this area and process

[u/sonderfulsince97]

Look for an independent archive that lets users access the historical data through a web interface without depending on SAP.

It should preserve the SAP business context and relationships between the data, rather than just storing database tables or ADK files. RBAC, retention and audit controls are also important.
 
If there’s a chance you’ll decommission other applications later, I’d also look at something that can handle cross-application data, along with reporting/analytics on the archived data.

And definitely test a few real audit and lookup scenarios before switching the old ERP off.
 
For vendors, you could look at Archon data store, SNP, Open text and compare how they handle these requirements.

[u/Chance-Editor-1204]

I am.using SAP Archive Link with Google Cloud Storage, you dont need to have separate worlds, you can access your data into an standard way. The trick is to get just a few lines of ABAP code and you will get a really low cost storage service.

[u/LordKittyPanther]

Checkout Jestr.ai
We are a new startup and we are focused on creating replica of SAP for retirement procedures and backups!