SAP made it official and granted SAP customers an option to extend the move to SAP Cloud from on-premise ERP by three years. But there are a few wrinkles you need to know.
The company, which outlined the extension on its fourth quarter earnings call, said the formal SAP ERP, private edition, transition option rollout will come in the second quarter.
For SAP, the offering is designed to help large complex enterprises that weren't going to meet a 2030 deadline. Key points about SAP ERP, private edition, transition option include:
- The offering is a new cloud subscription that revolves around SAP ECC and a set of services focused on moving to SAP Cloud ERP.
- SAP ERP, private edition, transition option will support enterprises with patches for security, legal and software issues.The subscription will be available in 2028 and be active to use from 2031 to 2033.
- SAP ERP, private edition, transition option is an additional subscription. Customers that can complete the move to SAP Cloud by the end of 2030 won't need it.
- While SAP ERP, private edition, transition option is centered on SAP ECC it won't include all of the features in SAP Business Suite 7, which will be available until the end of 2030.
- SAP HANA is the only supported database for SAP ERP, private edition, transition option. Older versions of Java and third-party technology aren't supported.
- SAP said SAP ERP, private edition, transition option is not an extension of maintenance. There aren't changes for customers running on-premises SAP ERP systems after 2030.
Got all of that? Now you know why SAP is disclosing SAP ERP, private edition, transition option early. There are a lot of moving parts and SAP said more details will roll out closer to the 2028 availability.
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Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said the extension doesn't mean SAP customers can coast. Mueller said:
"SAP did not manage to keep the hard deadline of 2027, and is now extending the offering to its customer by three years – but with a catch – all customers join the RISE program. With this move, SAP now can show higher adoption numbers for the years to come.
For customers it is good as they gain more time. But they cannot sit and let the year go by – as they have in the past – but must move to HANA, clean up the tech stack, and make sure they are licensed.
Even with three more years available – it is time for SAP customer CxOs to get going with its migration towards S/4HANA – probably best for the public cloud edition. The big variable for 2025 is going to be success and adoption of SAP Business AI. If SAP creates enough value, customers will be self-motivated to move to S/4HANA as soon and as fast as they can. So, 2025 is a critical year for the SAP customers, SAP and the SAP ecosystem. All eyes on the value and uptake of the AI offerings (that are gated to the public cloud)."
Indeed, SAP is preparing to launch a big agentic AI push as part of its SAP Business AI strategy. By launching new innovation, SAP is hoping to woo customers still holding out. SAP said it is positioning Joule as the new UI for its software.
- Amazon Bedrock integrated into SAP AI Core, SAP to use AWS chips
- SAP gives ABAP code a genAI boost, adds data lake capabilities to Datasphere
- SAP’s Joule everywhere plan: ‘We are not developing AI just for the sake of AI”
SAP's German speaking user group, DSAG, commented on SAP ERP, private edition, transition option when reports surfaced last month. DSAG said it generally welcomed the program and the extension, said SAP was obviously trying to convert customers to RISE and still forcing a switch to the cloud.
DSAG: SAP's innovation focus on cloud, discriminates against on-premise users
A translation from a German statement in English indicated DSAG wanted more flexibility in the program, but was constructive on the move.
DSAG is likely to have more comment when it reviews the additional details.
