For many organizations, data volumes in SAP environments are growing at unprecedented rates, driving up storage, hardware, and operational expenses. As companies are pressured to adopt the cloud and embark on the RISE journey, failing to manage their data could result in inflated costs, prolonged project timelines, and avoidable risks.
Also, as the 2027 deadline for migrating to SAP S/4HANA looms closer, SAP customers are under increasing pressure to prepare their systems, landscapes, and budgets for the shift. For many, 2026 will be a make-or-break year, the final stretch to improve operations and ensure a smooth transition. However, alongside the technical migration challenge comes another concern: high & rising infrastructure and licensing costs.
One of the most powerful tools SAP users can leverage is data archiving.
What Is SAP Data Archiving?
SAP data archiving involves moving infrequently accessed or obsolete data from the primary database to secondary, cost-effective storage. The archived data remains accessible when needed but is no longer burdening the production environment. It’s a strategic way to control data growth while maintaining compliance and system performance.
In 2026, data archiving is not just a technical task; it’s a strategic enabler. It directly addresses many of the struggles companies face, like escalating licensing fees, aging infrastructure, performance slowdowns, compliance pressures, and the challenge of managing legacy systems.
Here are eight ways SAP data archiving can deliver immediate and long-term value:
1. Lower SAP Licensing Costs
SAP’s licensing model is often closely tied to the volume of data within a company’s system, whether that’s based on database size, memory consumption, or overall system usage. As the amount of active data grows, so does the cost of maintaining it. This becomes even more significant when businesses begin planning for a migration to SAP S/4HANA, where the efficiency and size of the system directly influence both the complexity and the cost of migration.
Implementing an SAP data archiving strategy is one of the most effective ways to reduce the size of the active production environment. By moving historical or infrequently accessed data out of the live system and into lower-cost, secondary storage, companies not only reduce operational load but also experience considerable cost savings.
Archived data, while still accessible if needed, no longer consumes expensive memory or computing resources. This reduction in active data volume reduces TCO. According to Auritas studies, businesses that implement data archiving strategies can save between 40% and 50% on storage-related expenses alone.
For instance, by implementing a data volume management strategy, Grainger cut data volume by 60%, while reducing ongoing growth by 85%. This enabled a faster, net-zero downtime S/4HANA migration and delivered $4.4 million in savings over three years. By reducing the volume of data that needed to be migrated and maintained, they significantly lowered both transition and operational costs, highlighting the critical role that data archiving can play in SAP system management and digital transformation.
2. Hardware and Infrastructure Savings
As data volumes grow, so do your infrastructure demands. Larger SAP systems require more than just additional storage; they need faster processors, expanded memory, and more sophisticated backup and recovery strategies.
In contrast, a smaller system footprint means faster backup and restore times, less strain on system performance, and simpler disaster recovery processes. SAP data archiving ensures that only current, relevant data remains in the production environment, while older, less frequently accessed data is securely stored in a lower-cost, compliant archive. It allows you to simplify infrastructure while supporting long-term data compliance and access.
For example, Allison Transmission achieved savings of over $1 Million by reducing its hardware and hosting expenses through effective data archiving. The company was able to reduce the size of its database by 84%, showing how a leaner production system can directly translate into substantial financial benefits.
3. Improved System Performance
An overloaded SAP system = a slow SAP system. As database sizes grow, essential tasks like report generation and transaction processing slow down. The buildup of inactive or outdated data strains system resources and lowers team productivity as tasks take longer to complete.
Implementing SAP data archiving alleviates this pressure by offloading old or rarely accessed data from the active database. This improves response times, system throughput, and overall operational efficiency. By focusing resources on current, relevant data, organizations can deliver faster, more reliable performance, minimize delays, and reduce downtime risk.
For example, TTI Inc. enhanced system performance by 19% after implementing Data ASSIST by Auritas. The solution also reduced database size by 60%, lowered hardware and hosting costs, and significantly improved scalability to support future growth.
Uncontrolled data growth also drains IT resources like backups, restores, and tuning take longer and become more complex. A well-executed SAP data archiving strategy reduces active database size, enabling faster backups, fewer performance issues, and less infrastructure strain. The results: fewer bottlenecks, shorter maintenance windows, and smoother system management. Business users benefit from quicker transactions, faster access to relevant data, and improved productivity across SAP applications.
4. Risk Mitigation and Compliance Readiness
Many industries are subject to strict data retention and compliance regulations. These rules often mandate that certain types of data be stored for specific periods, in defined formats, and remain easily retrievable during audits or investigations.
Failing to meet these requirements can lead to substantial financial penalties, legal exposure, and reputational damage. In a study conducted by Ponemon Institute, findings showed that organizations lose an average of $5.87 million in revenue due to a single non-compliance event.
SAP ILM plays a critical role in helping businesses stay compliant by ensuring that only the right data is retained, for the correct duration, and in the appropriate format. Instead of relying on disorganized external storage, organizations can implement structured archiving and retention policies that automatically govern data lifecycle management. This ensures consistent adherence to industry standards and regulatory frameworks.
5. Legacy System Planning
Gartner reports that an average of 72% of IT budgets is spent on maintaining legacy systems. This includes infrastructure, software licenses, and skilled personnel required to support technologies that may no longer align with current business goals.
Many companies delay S/4HANA migration because they’re still dependent on legacy SAP systems that contain historical data. As a result, they incur their unnecessary costs of maintaining those systems active. Without a strategy for handling historical data, shutting down legacy systems becomes a high-risk move, especially in industries with strict audit and regulatory obligations.
In some cases, organizations can decommission systems as they are, with their data intact, and still maintain full accessibility through solutions like Data GUARD. This approach allows companies to retire the entire legacy systems without losing access to valuable historical information, reducing infrastructure costs while ensuring compliance and data availability. By keeping archived data easily retrievable, solutions like Data GUARD helps businesses simplify their IT landscape, streamline operations, and support long-term data management strategies.
6. Faster Data Access & Retrieval
Archiving brings structure and discipline to data management. By implementing clearly defined data lifecycle policies, such as retention periods, organizations can gain better control over their growing data assets. As Feroze, our Senior Director of Product Development & Operations, explains, “This structured approach helps reduce data growth and ensure that data is stored in the most appropriate environment.”
Efficient archiving organizes data in a centralized, searchable format, making it faster and easier for employees to locate the information they need. Instead of manually sifting through outdated or duplicated files, teams can retrieve accurate records with just a few clicks. This not only supports compliance by ensuring the right data is available for audits or reporting but also improves transparency across departments by breaking down data silos. With better-organized data, teams are motivated to operate more strategically, focusing on insights rather than managing clutter. This leads to more agile decision-making, lower storage costs, and improved operational performance across departments.
7. Futureproofing for S/4HANA
S/4HANA is designed to run efficiently by using the HANA in-memory database, which stores data in RAM instead of traditional disk storage. This allows for much faster data processing and real-time analytics, but it also means systems need to stay free of unnecessary data. However, moving large volumes of outdated or redundant legacy data into S/4HANA can overwhelm the system. Since in-memory storage is more expensive and performance-sensitive, migrating everything ‘as-is’ defeats the purpose of S/4HANA’s simplified, high-speed architecture. Bringing all that data into the new system not only inflates storage requirements but also significantly increases the complexity, cost, and duration of the migration project.
This is why companies like Waters, which achieved a 55% database reduction before moving to S/4HANA RISE, were able to save $5.5 million in total migration and infrastructure costs. Strategic data reduction not only supports better performance post-migration, but it also delivers measurable ROI during the transition itself.
Archiving legacy data before migration is a strategic step toward futureproofing your SAP landscape. By removing outdated, irrelevant, or inactive data from the system before the move, organizations can significantly reduce the volume and complexity of data being migrated. This helps mitigate several key risks, such as extended system downtime during cutover, data transfer errors, and the migration of poor-quality data. Fewer data errors mean fewer post-migration issues, and a smaller data footprint speeds up system performance tuning. As a result, the overall project timeline shortens, the transition becomes smoother, and the total cost of migration is reduced.
8. Growth Control
For organizations that have transitioned to SAP S/4HANA, whether they have done data archiving prior to the migration or not, the challenge now is not just “What data to archive?” but rather “How do we control ongoing growth of the database in this new platform?” Instead of relying on manual efforts, implementing an automated archiving workflow ensures that non-essential data is regularly identified and moved out of the live system. This means your database size remains under control, query performance remains stable, and you avoid surprise costs tied to storage, memory usage, backup windows and system tuning.
With automation tools like Data ASSIST, organizations can eliminate the need for manual intervention when running jobs on a set schedule. Its advanced scheduling capabilities allow businesses to automate archiving processes and ensure they run seamlessly keeping database size optimized and system performance high. “With a centralized dashboard to monitor both database health and job status, automated archiving can help save millions over time,” explained Lisa Haag, Sr. VP of Professional Services at Auritas.
By bringing automation into your archiving strategy, you’re not just executing a one-off cleanup, you’re establishing a sustainable control mechanism for 2026 and beyond.
Why 2026 Is the Critical Year
With SAP ending support for ECC in 2027, 2026 is the last full year to complete your S/4HANA migration. However, it’s important to recognize that the entire migration process can take anywhere from 18 to 24 months, depending on the size and complexity of your SAP environment. That means organizations aiming to meet the deadline must begin their preparation no later than early 2026. This deadline creates a hard cutoff that puts significant pressure on businesses to act decisively.
Delaying archiving until the last moment risks ballooning costs, migration delays, and unnecessary complexity. Starting late in 2026 is too late to reap the benefits of a well-executed archiving strategy fully. That’s why now is the time to act. SAP data archiving isn’t just a technical exercise; it’s an important strategy that can promote cost savings, boost performance, and enhance your journey to S/4HANA.
What now?
To take the next step, start by assessing your SAP database with the help of a trusted SAP partner. Auritas offers a complimentary Data Volume Management Assessment that provides a clear breakdown of your system’s data landscape. This assessment helps identify what data can be archived or deleted, estimates ROI, and sets the foundation for long-term performance improvements, especially valuable if you’re planning a move to SAP S/4HANA or RISE with SAP. By understanding your current data volume and acting on targeted recommendations, you can reduce system complexity, improve efficiency, and extend the life of your SAP environment.
