For organizations aiming to leverage SAP RISE or migrate to SAP S/4HANA, an efficient data management plan is essential for success. These initiatives promise enhanced agility, scalability, and innovation, but they also pose significant challenges, particularly in managing data effectively when preparing for the migration process.
Two key strategies, data tiering and data archiving, play pivotal roles in modern data management frameworks. While often perceived as interchangeable, these strategies serve distinct purposes that are crucial to understand, especially in the context of large-scale ERP migrations.
Data Tiering involves categorizing data based on its access frequency and aging characteristics, aiming to optimize storage performance and costs. It involves placing frequently accessed data on high-performance storage (hot tier) and less accessed data on lower-cost storage (cold tier), or a “middle” ground (warm tier). This approach is beneficial for managing active data efficiently but does not inherently address long-term data retention or regulatory compliance requirements.
In contrast, Data Archiving focuses on transferring inactive, not frequently accessed or historical data to a cost-effective storage. This strategy not only reduces primary storage costs but also simplifies data management, ensures compliance with regulatory requirements, and streamlines the migration process by minimizing the volume of data that needs to be transferred.
As organizations embark on the journey to SAP RISE or S/4HANA, understanding the nuances between these data management strategies becomes crucial. Let’s deconstruct common misconceptions, highlight the technical advantages, and ultimately underscore why data archiving emerges as the superior choice for ensuring a smooth, cost-effective, and compliant migration experience.
Data Tiering: Prioritizing Data Based on Usage
Data tiering involves categorizing data into different priority levels based on how frequently the data is accessed. While the benefits of data tiering are extensive, it is important to clarify come misconceptions of tiering
Deconstructing Data Tiering Misconceptions:
- It does NOT accelerate the migration: Contrary to popular belief, data tiering does not expedite the migration process. It focuses on the efficient storage of data based on access frequency rather than facilitating quicker data transfers. The complexity of the transition is also enhanced with multiple storages to address.
- It does NOT ensure regulatory compliance: Data tiering is not designed to address regulatory compliance. Instead, it focusses on categorizing data to optimize performance and cost, not putting retention and regulatory policies as a priority.
- It does NOT help with simplifying data management: Managing multiple database types can complicate the data management process. By having different types of data per tier, companies need to keep up with regulatory needs for each, while ensuring it is in the correct storage level when there are any changes in processes or business goals.
- It is NOT a one-time effort: Data tiering is an ongoing process. Data tiering requires continuous monitoring and adjustments to ensure data is in the appropriate tier.
- It does NOT provide long-term savings: While data tiering can offer short-term cost benefits, the long-term expenses can be unpredictable and may rise over time. It is more suited for short-term optimization rather than sustained cost reduction.
Data Archiving: Cost-Effective Long-Term Storage
Data archiving involves identifying and transferring data that is no longer actively used to separate, cheaper storage. This strategy helps organizations manage their data lifecycle effectively, ensuring that inactive data does not consume valuable resources. Data archiving also considered retention management requirements to ensure compliance.
Benefits of Data Archiving:
- Reduce Migration Volume: By archiving data that is no longer actively used, organizations can significantly reduce the volume of data that needs to be migrated to newer systems like S/4HANA. This reduction lowers migration costs and complexity.
- Regulatory Compliance: Data archiving provides robust retention management capabilities, ensuring that organizations meet regulatory requirements for data storage and retention. It offers structured, compliant storage for long-term data retention.
- Ease Management: Archiving simplifies data management and maintenance by reducing the active dataset size. This reduction minimizes overhead and streamlines data management processes.
- Long-Term Savings: Unlike data tiering, data archiving offers predictable long-term cost savings. It shifts inactive data to more cost-effective storage solutions, reducing ongoing storage expenses.
Many companies stay away from data archiving, claiming it is a longer process compared to data tiering. However, with an archiving phase approach, they can reduce the time spent in the preparation phase and finalize the archiving process after SAP RISE. This will allow the organization to take advantage of the benefits of archiving.
For organizations migrating to SAP RISE or S/4HANA, data archiving is the superior strategy for long-term thinking. It addresses the unique challenges of migration, offering a streamlined, cost-effective, and compliant approach to managing inactive data. By embracing data archiving, organizations can optimize their data management practices, reduce costs, and ensure a successful transition to their new SAP environment.
Learn how data volume management helped this company reduce database size in 80% in preparation for SAP RISE.
