Overview
A leading beverage and bottling company based in Plano, Texas, faced a critical challenge: migrating their massive SAP ECC system, spanning over 24 TB, to SAP S/4HANA within a restricted time window. With a clear focus on cost efficiency, system performance, and future scalability, the company partnered with experts to implement a data archiving strategy that would enable a smooth transition to their next-generation SAP landscape.
Business Challenge
With a large and complex ECC environment supporting operations across multiple business units, the company identified several obstacles on their path to S/4HANA:
- Data Volume: Over 24 TB of data accumulated over years of operations posed a challenge for migrating to an in-memory HANA appliance, both in terms of cost and technical feasibility.
- Tight Timeline: The migration had to be completed within a narrow time window, adding pressure to reduce complexity and streamline system preparation.
- Cost Constraints: Minimizing the size of the HANA appliance was crucial to control infrastructure and licensing costs.
- Performance and Scalability: Ensuring optimal performance post-migration while leaving room for future data growth was a key priority.
Strategic Approach
To overcome these hurdles, the company adopted a focused Data Volume Management (DVM) strategy built around pre-migration data archiving and transparent access solutions:
Aggressive Pre-Migration Archiving
The project team archived large volumes of completed and historical transactional data before initiating the migration. By shifting data that was no longer operationally necessary out of the primary database, the company dramatically reduced the footprint of the ECC system.
Transparent Access to Archived Data
An SAP-certified add-on solution was implemented to ensure that business users retained seamless access to archived information. This guaranteed continuity, allowing users to retrieve data from the archive without needing to access the legacy ECC system.
Results & Impact
✅ Significant Data Reduction. The data archiving strategy led to a high reduction in the overall data volume, allowing the company to:
- Fit the target S/4HANA system within the size constraints of the planned HANA appliance.
- Lower infrastructure and operational costs through a smaller in-memory footprint.
✅ Accelerated Migration. With a reduced system size, the actual migration to S/4HANA was completed faster and more efficiently. The team was able to meet the tight migration and cutover window, avoiding potential delays and business disruption.
✅ Enhanced User Acceptance. Business users quickly adopted the new system due to the transparent access to archived "legacy" data, minimizing resistance to change and maintaining productivity across departments.
✅ Improved Performance and Future Scalability. Post-migration, the company reported a more responsive system environment, with improved processing times and room to scale as new data accumulates in S/4HANA.
Ongoing Optimization with DAaaS
The success of the migration set the stage for a long-term partnership focused on sustainability and efficiency. After the migration, the company adopted Neev Data's Data Archiving as a Service (DAaaS) solution to continuously manage data growth and ensure the S/4HANA environment remains lean and high-performing.
DAaaS provides the company with:
- Automated, ongoing archiving of business-complete data with minimal manual effort.
- Built-in compliance with retention policies and audit requirements.
- Secure and scalable cloud storage for archived data, backed by encryption and role-based access.
- Transparent, real-time access to archived documents directly from the SAP system.
- Proactive monitoring and performance optimization, delivered by Neev's expert services team.
By leveraging DAaaS, the beverage and bottling company continues to control infrastructure costs, maintain system speed, and manage long-term data retention without reintroducing complexity or risk into their SAP landscape.
This case underscores the importance of proactive data volume management as a foundation for successful S/4HANA migration — and the continued benefits of DAaaS for sustaining performance, compliance, and agility.
With a future-ready archive infrastructure and real-time access to historical records, the company is well-positioned to expand its S/4HANA capabilities across finance, supply chain, and operations, free from the burden of data bloat.
Planning your move to S/4HANA? Let us help you reduce data volume, accelerate migration timelines, and boost system performance — while ensuring secure, seamless access to the information you need.