Why data management will make or break your RISE with SAP migration

Every SAP leader I speak with across ANZ, Southeast Asia, and Japan is under the same pressure: move to RISE with SAP, do it fast, and don't disrupt the business. What almost none of them are asked about - until it's too late - is what happens to the terabytes of legacy data sitting quietly in the background while everyone focuses on the cloud target.

That silence is expensive. And in 2026, it is no longer optional to ignore it.

The bill is already coming due

SNP benchmark data shows that a quarter of companies lose over €100,000 every month to underperforming SAP environments, largely driven by bloated, uncleansed databases and legacy systems kept alive "just in case." Add slow transaction times - sometimes six seconds per click - and you're not just paying for storage you don't need, you're paying for lost productivity across every team that touches the ERP.

For Asia Pacific organizations in particular, many of which are running lean IT teams across multiple markets and currencies, this isn't an abstract efficiency problem. It's real budget being diverted from innovation to simply keeping the lights on for data nobody is using.

Why this matters now, not later

RISE with SAP is being sold - rightly - as a transformation opportunity: agility, scalability, AI-readiness. But that promise only holds if what you migrate is clean. Bring your legacy baggage into the new environment, and you've simply moved the problem to a more expensive postcode.

The numbers make the case better than I can: only 25% of migrated systems retain more than half their original data volume after a proper selective migration. That means three-quarters of organizations could be carrying substantially more data - and cost - into their cloud future than they need to. Meanwhile, 90% of SAP systems we benchmark carry more irrelevant customizations than relevant ones, adding complexity, risk of error, and drag on every process built on top of them.

This is the hidden cost of procrastination. Every quarter you delay housekeeping, archiving, and decommissioning, the migration gets harder, the price tag grows, and the compliance exposure compounds - particularly with retention obligations of ten years or more for financial and tax data under frameworks like GDPR and equivalent regional regulations now tightening across Asia Pacific markets.

Three moves that change the equation

The good news is that this is a solvable problem, and it doesn't require reinventing your transformation plan. It requires sequencing three things properly:

Housekeeping first. Before a single byte moves to S/4HANA, clean it. Obsolete, temporary, and outdated data should never make the trip. Done well, housekeeping alone can cut database volume by up to 50% - which translates directly into a faster, cheaper, lower-risk migration.

Archive what you must keep, not what you're used to keeping. Inactive data that's still required for audit or compliance doesn't need to live in your production environment or your new cloud landscape. Moving it to purpose-built, compliant storage keeps it accessible without dragging down performance or cost.

Decommission what's genuinely done. Legacy SAP systems kept running purely for historical access are one of the most avoidable costs in any landscape. Modern decommissioning approaches retire the system entirely while preserving secure, audit-ready access to the data -   a separate lever from housekeeping that can cut storage costs by a further up to 50%, with ROI typically realized within six to eighteen months.

One American multinational client decommissioned four legacy SAP systems and moved over 40TB of structured data to cloud storage - cutting costs while actually improving audit processes and data accessibility. That's not a trade-off between compliance and efficiency. It's proof you can have both.

Beyond cost: the ESG and security case

There's a broader reason this matters to boards, not just IT budgets. Legacy, on-premise environments are energy-intensive and increasingly scrutinized as part of ESG commitments. They're also the weakest link in your security posture - unsupported software and outdated protocols are exactly what attackers look for. Every legacy system you decommission shrinks your attack surface. Every dataset you properly archive with automated retention and legal hold reduces exposure, not just to breaches, but to regulatory penalty. In a region where data sovereignty and privacy regulation are moving fast, this is no longer a "nice to have" conversation for a future roadmap review - it's a current-quarter risk conversation.

The window is now

Here's the uncomfortable truth: data management should be addressed at the very start of your RISE or S/4HANA journey, not bolted on afterward. Organisations that treat it as an afterthought end up paying twice - once in delayed, more complex migrations, and again in the ongoing cost of legacy sprawl they never dealt with.

Organisations that get ahead of it - engaging IT, compliance, and business stakeholders early, analyzing what's genuinely "hot" versus "cold" data, and building a disciplined, automated approach to housekeeping, archiving, and decommissioning - don't just save money. They move faster, with less disruption, and they walk into their cloud future with a landscape that's actually ready for what comes next: AI-driven analytics, rapid regulatory adaptation, and a genuine competitive edge.

The technology to do this exists today, and it's proven at scale. What's missing in most transformation plans isn't capability - it's urgency. Every month of delay is a month of compounding cost, risk, and complexity.

If you're leading a RISE with SAP journey anywhere in Asia Pacific right now, the question isn't whether data management belongs on your roadmap. It's whether it's already too late in your timeline to do it properly. For most organizations I talk to, it isn't - yet. But that window is closing with every sprint that goes by without a plan.

The window won't stay open for long.