Lesson 4 of 5
Planning around end-of-maintenance dates
10 min
Some calendar entries are years away and still drive decisions today. For SAP customers, the end of 2027 is the big one: several widely used products leave mainstream maintenance that year. Contoso's move from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA is itself a response to one of these dates. This lesson collects the dates that matter for a typical ECC-to-S/4HANA program, with SAP's own sources, and shows how to turn them into plans and test work.
| Product | SAP's stated date | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAP Business Suite 7 core applications (for example SAP ECC 6.0) | Mainstream maintenance through the end of 2027; optional extended maintenance to the end of 2030 | Extended maintenance costs a premium; without it, systems move to customer-specific maintenance | SAP News, February 2020 |
| SAP Solution Manager | Mainstream maintenance ends December 31, 2027 | SAP recommends completing the transition to SAP Cloud ALM before then | SAP Support Portal, transition to SAP Cloud ALM |
| SAP Process Orchestration on SAP NetWeaver 7.5 | Mainstream maintenance by the end of 2027; extended maintenance option to the end of 2030 | Plan migration of interfaces, typically to SAP Integration Suite | SAP Learning, PO to Integration Suite migration |
| SAP S/4HANA base releases from 2023 | Seven years of mainstream maintenance per release | At least one upgrade every seven years to stay in mainstream maintenance | SAP Learning, private edition release upgrades |
Dates as SAP has stated them. Confirm the dates for your exact product versions in the Product Availability Matrix.
SAP has also announced options beyond these, such as a transition option for some customers moving SAP ERP to a private cloud edition with support beyond 2030. Eligibility and terms are specific, so treat any such option as something to confirm with SAP for your contract, not as a calendar default.
- Q3 go-live yearContoso on SAP S/4HANA 2025ECC kept read-only for history; interfaces cut over
- December 31, 2027End of mainstream maintenanceSAP ECC (Business Suite 7), SAP Solution Manager, SAP Process Orchestration 7.5
- End of 2030End of extended maintenance optionsBusiness Suite 7 extended maintenance; Process Orchestration extended option
- About seven years after 2025 releaseEnd of mainstream for SAP S/4HANA 2025Exact date in PAM; Contoso must be on a later release before then
What each date means for Contoso
SAP ECC. Contoso retires ECC as a live system after go-live, but keeps it for history and audit access until the data is archived or moved to a legal archive. That residual system still needs security notes and a decommissioning plan, and Dan needs read access for prior-year audits. The decommission date belongs on the calendar.
SAP Solution Manager. If test cases, test plans or change documents still live in Solution Manager, they need to move. Contoso already runs testing in SAP Cloud ALM for the S/4HANA program, so the remaining work is archiving historical test evidence that auditors may ask for.
SAP Process Orchestration. Each interface still running on Process Orchestration needs a migration slot, a rebuilt integration flow in SAP Integration Suite, and an interface test that proves the same messages flow with the same results. Migration work competes with releases for testers, so it belongs on the same calendar.
SAP S/4HANA itself. The seven-year rule means the upgrade question is never closed. With base releases every two years, Contoso can plan to take every second or third release, but it must be on a later release before SAP S/4HANA 2025 leaves mainstream maintenance. A base release upgrade is a project with months of regression testing, so it should appear on the multi-year calendar now.
- Is the product still needed for live business after the date?No → plan decommissioning (archive, access for audit, shutdown) · Yes → continue
- Is there an SAP successor (Cloud ALM, Integration Suite, a newer release)?Yes → plan the migration and its testing before the date · No → continue
- Is extended or customer-specific maintenance acceptable for the remaining period?Yes → budget it and record the reduced scope as a risk · No → bring the migration forward
What would you do?
Grace suggests leaving Contoso's historical test evidence in Solution Manager "until auditors ask", since mainstream maintenance only ends at the end of 2027. What should Priya recommend?
- SAP ECC (Business Suite 7): mainstream to the end of 2027; optional paid extended maintenance to the end of 2030.
- SAP Solution Manager: mainstream ends December 31, 2027; SAP recommends moving to SAP Cloud ALM before then.
- Process Orchestration on NetWeaver 7.5: mainstream to the end of 2027, extended option to the end of 2030.
- S/4HANA base releases get seven years of mainstream maintenance; plan the next upgrade years ahead.
- Decommissioning and migrations need test plans and calendar slots of their own.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Until when does SAP offer optional extended maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 core applications?
2. When does mainstream maintenance for SAP Solution Manager end?
3. What does SAP Learning say about SAP NetWeaver 7.5, the basis of Process Orchestration?
4. Why must Contoso plan an S/4HANA upgrade years in advance?