SAP to Azure Migration Center¶

The definitive resource for migrating SAP workloads to Microsoft Azure and integrating SAP data with CSA-in-a-Box for unified analytics, governance, and AI.

SAP will end mainstream maintenance for ECC 6.0 and Business Suite 7 on December 31, 2027. Extended maintenance (available through 2030) carries a 2% annual premium, delivers no new features, and provides only critical security patches. Organizations that have not migrated to S/4HANA by this date face increasing operational risk, compliance gaps, and support cost escalation. Start now.

Who this is for¶

This migration center serves SAP Basis administrators, enterprise architects, CIOs, CDOs, federal program managers, and data engineers who are evaluating or executing a migration from SAP ECC/Business Suite to S/4HANA on Azure, modernizing SAP analytics with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI, or integrating SAP data into an Azure-native data and AI platform. Whether you are running a brownfield system conversion, deploying a greenfield S/4HANA instance, adopting RISE with SAP on Azure, or migrating SAP BW to Fabric, these resources provide the architecture, patterns, and step-by-step guidance to execute confidently.

Quick-start decision matrix¶

SAP deployment model decision tree¶

Choosing the right SAP deployment model on Azure is the first critical decision. This matrix compares the three primary models.

Strategic resources¶

These documents provide the business case, cost analysis, and strategic framing for decision-makers.

Migration guides¶

Domain-specific deep dives covering every aspect of an SAP-to-Azure migration.

Tutorials¶

Hands-on, step-by-step walkthroughs for specific migration scenarios.

Technical references¶

Government and federal¶

How CSA-in-a-Box fits¶

CSA-in-a-Box is not an SAP migration tool --- it is the data, analytics, governance, and AI landing zone that SAP data flows into once the SAP workload is running on Azure. The integration model:

• Fabric Mirroring for SAP --- Near-real-time replication of SAP HANA tables to OneLake as Delta tables. No ETL coding. SAP transactional data (sales orders, purchase orders, material movements, financial postings) appears in the Fabric lakehouse within minutes.
• Purview for SAP data governance --- Scan SAP HANA metadata, classify SAP data fields (PII, financial, HR sensitive), enforce data governance policies, and provide unified lineage across SAP and non-SAP data.
• Power BI for SAP analytics --- Replace SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP BusinessObjects with Power BI Premium. Direct Lake mode on OneLake eliminates data import latency. Copilot for Power BI enables natural-language queries on SAP data.
• Azure AI for SAP process intelligence --- Apply Azure OpenAI and AI Foundry models to SAP operational data: invoice anomaly detection, supply chain demand forecasting, predictive maintenance on equipment master data, contract analysis on SAP procurement data.
• ADF SAP connectors --- Batch extraction from SAP ECC/S/4HANA using SAP Table, SAP BW, SAP HANA, and SAP ODP connectors for data warehouse loads and historical data migration.
• dbt models for SAP data --- Transform SAP-extracted data through the medallion architecture (bronze/silver/gold) using dbt, with domain-specific models for finance, supply chain, HR, and procurement.

SAP S/4HANA on Azure                CSA-in-a-Box Landing Zone
┌─────────────────────┐             ┌────────────────────────────────┐
│  SAP HANA (M-series)│──Mirroring─►│  OneLake (Delta Lake)          │
│  SAP App Servers    │             │    ├── Power BI (Direct Lake)  │
│  SAP Fiori          │──ADF───────►│    ├── Databricks (ML/AI)     │
│  SAP BW/4HANA       │             │    ├── Purview (governance)   │
│  SAP PI/PO          │──IntSvc────►│    └── dbt (transformations)  │
└─────────────────────┘             │                                │
                                    │  Azure AI Foundry              │
                                    │    ├── Process intelligence    │
                                    │    ├── Anomaly detection       │
                                    │    └── NLP on SAP documents    │
                                    └────────────────────────────────┘

Migration timeline overview¶

gantt
    title SAP ECC to S/4HANA on Azure (Brownfield, 18 months)
    dateFormat  YYYY-MM-DD
    section Assessment
    SAP Readiness Check + custom code       :a1, 2026-07-01, 6w
    Azure landing zone design               :a2, 2026-07-01, 4w
    section Infrastructure
    Deploy CSA-in-a-Box + SAP VMs           :a3, after a2, 6w
    HANA install + HA config                :a4, after a3, 4w
    section Core Migration
    DMO: DB migration + S/4HANA conversion  :a5, after a4, 12w
    Custom code remediation                 :a6, after a1, 16w
    section Integration & Analytics
    PI/PO to Azure Integration Services     :a7, after a5, 8w
    Fabric Mirroring + Power BI + AI        :a8, after a5, 6w
    section Testing & Cutover
    Integration + regression testing        :a9, after a7, 6w
    Dress rehearsal + go-live               :a10, after a9, 4w
    Decommission on-premises                :a11, after a10, 8w

Audience and roles¶

Prerequisites for SAP migration to Azure¶

Before beginning any SAP migration to Azure, ensure the following prerequisites are in place:

SAP prerequisites¶

• SAP Readiness Check completed (for brownfield conversion)
• SAP S-user with software download authorization
• SAP license keys for target S/4HANA system
• SAP Maintenance Planner access for stack planning
• ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) analysis completed for custom code
• SAP HANA installation media downloaded
• SUM (Software Update Manager) downloaded for current release

Azure prerequisites¶

• Azure subscription(s) with appropriate RBAC roles (Owner or Contributor)
• Azure Center for SAP Solutions provider registered
• Sufficient VM quota for M-series/Mv2 in target region
• Azure NetApp Files quota approved
• ExpressRoute or VPN connectivity to on-premises (if hybrid)
• Azure Bastion deployed in hub VNet
• CSA-in-a-Box data management landing zone deployed

Organizational prerequisites¶

• Executive sponsor identified
• Migration project manager assigned
• SAP Basis team trained on Azure fundamentals (AZ-900 + AZ-120)
• Change management plan for business users
• Go/no-go criteria defined for each migration phase
• Rollback plan documented

Related migration centers¶

Last updated: 2026-04-30 Maintainers: CSA-in-a-Box core team Related: Migration Playbook | AWS to Azure | GCP to Azure | Palantir Foundry