As AWS is widely adopted across the globe for deploying SAP, one of the key challenges observed is to deploy the SAP versions on AWS that are out of maintenance; some of these application versions also have no support from SAP and AWS for a deployment on cloud in specific cases. There are various mechanisms that can still be used, including the modernization option for moving to the AWS platform. The possible options and their pros and cons are evaluated in this article.
What are Legacy Versions? SAP has been an industry-leading ERP software and has been in use for close to 50 years now. The versions have evolved in these years, and while many customers keep up with the pace of innovations, there are many of them who are unable to upgrade owing to logistics, costs, and various other reasons. The flagship SAP product, SAP ERP 6.0, was released as a successor of the previous R/3 releases, in the year 2005, and this product suite ends its support in December 2025 with some latest versions supported until December 2027. In line with SAP's strategy, AWS provides support for all the ERP products, and technically, this is based on the underlying SAP Kernel as well as the corresponding Operating System and Database Version. The term legacy in this context is used for any SAP version that is older than the ones currently supported together by SAP and AWS ( as described in SAP Note 1656099, me.sap., login required).