As organizations begin planning their 2027 budgets, infrastructure costs are likely to be an important part of the conversation. As SAP environments grow, so do database sizes, storage requirements, and the resources needed to support them. But before budgeting for additional capacity, organizations should first understand how much of their existing data actually needs to remain in the active environment. 

Not all SAP data has the same operational value. Historical and inactive data can continue to contribute to database growth even after it is no longer needed for day-to-day business processes. Identifying opportunities to archive this data can help organizations reduce their SAP footprint before investing in additional infrastructure. 

To start, you need to first assess your SAP data to identify potential archiving opportunities. Instead of budgeting around continued data growth, organizations can use insights into archiveability and potential storage and licensing savings to make more informed decisions about their SAP environment. 

Start With Understanding Your SAP Data 

Before an organization can reduce its SAP data volume, it needs visibility into what is actually consuming space. A Data Volume Assessment (DVA), also called DB02 assessment, analyzes SAP data, helping organizations identify where database growth is occurring and where opportunities for optimization may exist. 

With tools that automate the assessment process, like Data ASSIST, you can get customizable dashboards that turn complex, high-volume data into visual insights. This gives teams a clearer view of their SAP environment without relying on lengthy manual assessments. Organizations can use these insights to determine where archiving could have the greatest impact. 

An important part of this analysis is the ROI projections. View real-time the return on investment of your archiving projects, recommended objects and potential savings. This allows you to clearly identify and plan for savings as you enter 2027. 

Identify What Can Be Archived 

Understanding data volume is only the first step. Organizations also need to determine which data is eligible for archiving and how different archiving strategies could affect their environment. 

Data ASSIST evaluates SAP data for archivability and identifies information that may be eligible for archiving. With a residence period simulation, you can also model different scenarios before making changes to your production environment. This ensures that from the planning stage, you are preparing for compliance. 

For example, an organization could evaluate how changing the retention period for a particular data group might affect the amount of data eligible for archiving and the associated monetary savings. This allows teams to compare potential outcomes before committing to an approach. The goal is to make data reduction a deliberate decision rather than a one-time cleanup exercise. 

Turn Data Reduction Into Infrastructure Savings 

Reducing the amount of data in an SAP environment can have implications beyond the database itself. A smaller database can require less storage capacity and may influence future infrastructure sizing decisions. 

Data ASSIST provides size-reduction recommendations to help organizations understand the potential impact of archiving before making infrastructure investments. This gives IT teams a clearer picture of what their SAP environment could look like after data reduction. 

Instead of automatically planning for more capacity as data continues to grow, organizations can evaluate whether reducing their existing data volume could change their infrastructure requirements. For 2027 budgeting, that distinction can make data volume management an important part of the planning process. 

Build a Business Case for Archiving 

Data reduction is valuable, but organizations still need to understand what it means financially. Data ASSIST helps connect potential database reduction to business value through ROI projections.  

Rather than simply showing how much data could potentially be archived, the platform can help quantify the financial impact of those opportunities. This gives organizations information they can use when prioritizing archiving initiatives and developing their SAP budget. 

Data ASSIST can help answer: 

• How much data could potentially be reduced?  

• What could that reduction mean for infrastructure costs?  

• Which opportunities could provide the strongest return?  

Waters Corporation partnered with Auritas to reduce its SAP data volume and control the costs associated with database growth. Through a Data Volume Assessment and targeted archiving across four SAP systems, Waters reduced its overall system size by 55%. 

Waters then implemented Data ASSIST to automate ongoing archiving and scheduling, helping maintain a rightsized environment as data continued to grow. The initiative resulted in more than $5 million in projected savings over five years, demonstrating how data reduction can translate into measurable financial value. 

Waters’ results show why organizations should look at their existing SAP data before budgeting for additional capacity. By identifying what can be archived and automating the process, businesses can reduce their SAP footprint while keeping future data growth under control. 

A Smarter Starting Point for Your 2027 SAP Budget 

SAP budgeting does not have to start with the assumption that more infrastructure will be needed. Organizations can first examine their existing data, identify what can potentially be archived, and understand what those reductions could mean for future costs. 

Data ASSIST gives organizations the visibility to analyze their SAP environment and the tools to turn those insights into actionable data management strategies. By connecting data reduction opportunities with potential infrastructure savings and ROI, organizations can approach their 2027 SAP budget with a clearer understanding of what they actually need. 

Before budgeting for more SAP capacity, start with a simple question: How much of your current data do you really need to keep?