Introduction to the Client
Arla Foods UK Limited, a major dairy company based in Leeds, is a subsidiary of the Swedish-Danish Arla Foods Group. After acquiring a UK business, Arla migrated all their SAP company codes to a single SAP instance. With this migration, the UK SAP instance became ‘legacy,’ prompting a focus on legacy data migration. Our journey began with a design thinking approach, exploring innovative ways to transition this legacy data to the cloud.
Business Challenges
When it comes to sunsetting SAP and non-SAP legacy systems, our approach differs from traditional archiving methods. Legacy data migration presents unique challenges that many businesses face, including:
- Data Growth: Businesses are grappling with vast amounts of growing information.
- Legacy Systems Complexity: Legacy and enterprise applications house diverse and complex data.
- Costly Maintenance: Many enterprises lack a clear sunsetting strategy, resulting in millions of euros spent annually on maintaining legacy applications.
Specific pain points include:
- Data Growth and Retention: Rising costs for storing data and ensuring compliance with data retention legislation.
- People and Skills: The scarcity of specialised resources to maintain ageing legacy systems.
- Risk and Capability: IT departments are under strain, especially amid cost-cutting efforts.
- Cost and Control: Multiple legacy systems across various environments increase management strain.
Solution Overview
Bluestonex guided the project through several phases: Discovery, Value Proposition, Detailed Planning, Execution, Management, and Operations. After a thorough analysis, we recommended moving the entire ECC6 environment to the cloud, streamlining the legacy data migration process. This approach was significantly more cost-effective than traditional archiving, where identifying and retaining required data objects can be resource-intensive.
The entire legacy SAP ERP dataset, along with its associated Content Server, was migrated to Microsoft Azure. This legacy data migration involved exporting databases from the data centre, building a secure cloud environment, and importing the data, followed by extensive testing. Once the migration was complete, the legacy system was decommissioned but could be reactivated on demand for audits or compliance purposes.
The scaled-down system is now optimised for a few users, with ‘read-only’ access and limited functionality such as printing. However, all data objects remain accessible when needed. The transition to cloud also involved shutting down the previous on-premise hosting services and ensuring the secure destruction of hardware.
Key Solution Benefits
This legacy data migration resulted in a 98% reduction in operational costs, with capital expenditure significantly more economical than traditional archiving or on-premise storage. Running costs are now minimal, and the legacy system can be reactivated as needed, ensuring long-term data retention at a fraction of the previous cost.
Collaboration with Bluestonex
Bluestonex specialises in ECC and S/4 HANA with a strong focus on user experience and simplification through tools like SAP Fiori and SAP Screen Personas. Our innovation and design thinking practices have maximised the value of SAP technologies, including in areas like legacy data migration. Our innovation labs also produce new SAP software products, such as Maextro, a solution for SAP Master Data and Process Management.
