[German]I'm revisiting an old topic that concerns IT decision-makers and administrators who are responsible for SAP. In 2027, mainstream support for the SAP ECC ERP system will expire, and in 2030 the software will also be removed from extended support. Customers will have to switch to s4/Hana, but there are not enough consultants and specialists to manage the migration of existing SAP ECC ERP systems to s4/Hana.
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What is SAP ECC and what is SAP HANA?
SAP ECC is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that runs on-premises. The abbreviation ECC stands for ERO Central Component, for many years one of SAP's flagship products. ECC comprises a large number of independent applications that support the storage, retrieval, analysis and processing of internal data records.
The ERP system supports and automates processes in the areas of finance, human resources, manufacturing, supply chain, services, procurement and more. The problem: free support for SAP ECC 6.0 expires at the end of 2027. Three years later, at the end of 2030, SAP will also end its extended, paid support. By this time at the latest, customers must have migrated to s4/Hana or another ERP system.
SAP S/4HANA is an ERP software solution from SAP SE and the successor to the previous core product SAP ECC. The S stands for simple or suite, the 4 for the fourth product generation and SAP HANA for the underlying database technology. The whole thing is based on the cloud and is implemented in the ABAP (and C) programming language. Linux is used as the operating system.
SAP HANA (introduced in 2010 according to SAP HANA, customers have been able to switch to SAP s4/HANA since 2015) stands for High-performance ANalytic Appliance. It is a multi-model database that stores data in your working memory instead of on a hard disk. The column-oriented in-memory database enables the parallel execution of extended analyses and high-speed transaction processing in a single system.
This enables huge amounts of data to be processed in near real time and data to be queried immediately. By storing the data in a column-oriented database in the main memory and merging online analytical processing (OLAP) and online transactional processing (OLTP), SAP HANA is significantly faster than other database management systems (DBMS) on the market.
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Warning in June 2024
If SAP HANA was already introduced to the market in 2015 as the successor system for SAP ECC 6.0, companies had at least 10 years to plan and implement a migration. But the forces of persistence are preventing a timely switch to SAP HANA. A large number of SAP customers are still using SAP ECC and will not be able to make the switch.
The topic was already on the agenda in summer 2024 – I addressed it in the German blog post EOL für SAP ECC ERP-Falle für Kunden; S4/HANA-Mangel an Beratern und Systemintegratoren. Jens Hungershausen from DSAG (German-speaking SAP user group) spoke to The Register at a user meeting and took a look at the end of SAP ECC support and the problems for companies migrating to s4/HANA.
Hungershausen feared that there would not be enough time to carry out the complex and time-consuming conversion of technical and business processes within the remaining timeframe until 2030 (when support for SAP ECC finally ends) if companies have not yet started the conversion.
There is a cloud transformation program "RISE with SAP", in which (according to SAP's own statement) 6,000 customers are registered. But the SAP customer base is huge and includes large companies such as Walmart, Airbus and VW. According to Hungerhausen, 68% of users had not yet switched over. Customers who have not yet started the migration to s4/HANA are now running out of time. This is because consultants and specialists who could manage the migration are in short supply.
Disaster looms in 2030
According to management consultancy Gartner, 40 percent of SAP customers will not have migrated from SAP ECC 6.0 to SAP s4/HANA by 2030. This is according to this article from The Register.
In January 2025, SAP indicated (according to The Register)
that selected, large customers could be given some leeway for the end of support. According to The Register, observers expect the company to launch a cloud subscription option for ERP customers with large and very complex IT landscapes that need more time to migrate to s4/HANA through the RISE with SAP program. "The option will be offered for the period from 2031 to the end of 2033," The Register quoted an SAP spokesperson as saying in January 2025.
But the interesting question is: what happens to all the small and medium-sized customers who are on SAP ECC 6.0 and have not yet switched to SAP s4/HANA by 2027 or 2030? From 2027, a maintenance surcharge of 2% will have to be paid for extended support. And after 2030, there will be no more support for SAP ECC 6.0. What is the situation in your environment?
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