BW Upgrade Strategy

When considering a BW (Business Warehouse) to BW on HANA upgrade strategy, several factors need to be taken into account. Here are some key considerations:

1. System Landscape Assessment: Evaluate your existing system landscape, including the versions of BW and databases in use. Determine the hardware requirements and compatibility of your current environment with BW on HANA.

2. Data Volume and Performance Requirements: Assess the size of your data warehouse and the expected growth. BW on HANA provides significant performance improvements, especially for large datasets. Consider whether the increased speed and processing capabilities are necessary for your business needs.

3. Migration Strategy: Decide on the migration approach based on your specific requirements. Two common strategies are the “Brownfield” and “Greenfield” approaches:

   a. Brownfield Approach: In this approach, you upgrade your existing BW system to BW on HANA while preserving your existing data models, data flows, and reports. This approach requires less effort for migration but may not fully leverage the capabilities of HANA.

   b. Greenfield Approach: With the greenfield approach, you build a new BW on HANA system from scratch, allowing you to optimize your data models, data flows, and reports to take full advantage of HANA’s capabilities. This approach requires more effort for migration but offers better performance and flexibility.

4. System Customizations and Add-ons: Assess any customizations, modifications, or third-party add-ons in your current BW system. Determine if these components are compatible with BW on HANA or require adjustments.

5. Testing and Validation: Develop a comprehensive testing plan to ensure the functionality and performance of your upgraded system. Validate the data integrity and verify the performance improvements compared to your previous system.

6. Training and Change Management: Provide training and support to your users and IT teams to adapt to the new features and capabilities of BW on HANA. Ensure proper change management to minimize disruptions during the upgrade process.

7. Post-Upgrade Monitoring: Define monitoring procedures to track system performance, identify bottlenecks, and optimize the performance of your BW on HANA system.

8. Future Roadmap: Consider your long-term goals and future roadmap. BW on HANA is the foundation for SAP’s data warehouse strategy, so it’s important to align your plans with SAP’s direction.