Interest in SAP cloud migration triples in its biz heartland

User group chairman warns, however, that ERP giant's pace is not feasible for every org

Europe's German-speaking SAP user group is reporting a sharp uptick in organizations signing up or planning to sign up for the application vendor's preferred cloud migration route.

DSAG, which represents users in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, found in its survey that 48 percent of users had enrolled, or plan to enrol, to RISE with SAP. This is SAP's lift-shift-and-transform approach to updating applications and moving to the cloud, introduced in early 2021.

The figure compares with just 16 percent in 2024, marking a sharp uplift in customers' concern to kick-start their cloud migration and upgrade strategy amid SAP's efforts to get its installed base onto a SaaS model and its latest software.

Figures from research group Gartner show worldwide that of users with licenses for ECC, SAP's legacy ERP system, only 39 percent – from a total of 35,000 – had bought or subscribed to licenses to start their transition to SAP S/4HANA, the in-memory platform first launched in 2015.

The research group has warned that the trend shows a significant number of ECC users – including some of the world's largest companies – will struggle to migrate ahead of the end of mainstream support in 2027. Even when extended support ends in 2030, as many as 40 percent of ECC users are likely not to have migrated, Gartner estimates.

The DSAG survey of 243 individuals in January and February indicated a dawning of reality for a growing number of customers, revealing a significant drop in users not planning to sign up to RISE with SAP. The figure fell from 61 percent in 2024 to 23 percent this year.

"Companies are increasingly realizing that there is no way around the cloud in the long term – not least because of SAP's roadmap and maintenance strategy or the approaching end of maintenance for numerous on-premises solutions," said Jens Hungershausen, DSAG board chairman.

"Some customers feel under pressure from SAP to move to the cloud. The pace that the software manufacturer is setting here is not feasible for every company. SAP must not pressure its customers to make quick decisions for the sake of its own share price. Instead, SAP must ensure that companies have a realistic, economically viable and strategically sensible migration perspective. Freedom of choice, long-term planning security and fair conditions for on-premises customers are still needed."

Under RISE with SAP, customers sign up for a deal with SAP, which in turn manages contracts with systems integrators and hyperscalers to complete projects and host the software.

Gartner has also seen a significant increase in SAP ERP users interested in the RISE deal, but Christian Hestermann, senior director and analyst for business applications, said this was partly down to customers finding it more difficult to negotiate migration deals outside of the SAP's preferred model.

"A number of those are being told that SAP would not offer them a different construct anymore. So they experience a lot of pressure," he told The Register. ®