Challenge

The client faced several challenges in their existing SAP BYD environment that necessitated a strategic data migration:

• Data Volume Growth: Over recent years, especially from 2022 to 2024, the volume of data stored in SAP BYD grew significantly. This rapid increase in data size posed risks to the performance and stability of the existing system. The client needed a solution that could handle both the current data load and anticipated future growth without causing operational disruptions.


• Operational Continuity During Migration: The client required uninterrupted business operations during the migration process. This meant adopting a phased approach that enabled ongoing data ingestion into the production environment while the bulk of historical data was migrated separately. Ensuring minimal downtime and avoiding performance degradation were critical for maintaining day-to-day activities and customer satisfaction.


• Data Integrity and Accuracy: With a high volume of diverse data types, the client needed a robust strategy to ensure that data integrity and accuracy were maintained throughout the migration. This included managing complex relationships between data sets, such as those found in financial and transactional data, to ensure that all data remained consistent and reliable in the new environment.


• Complex Data Extraction Requirements: Extracting data from SAP BYD for migration was challenging due to the limitations of OData services, which required splitting large datasets into multiple parts. Handling data extraction efficiently while avoiding performance issues on the source system needed careful planning, particularly for highly transactional data sources like the General Ledger.


• Enhanced Data Accessibility and Integration: The client wanted to enhance the accessibility of their data and improve integration with business intelligence (BI) tools. Their existing setup lacked the flexibility needed to support advanced analytics and real-time reporting. The goal was to make data more readily available and usable for decision-making purposes by consolidating it onto the Azure platform.


• Security and Compliance Requirements: Migrating sensitive and critical business data from SAP BYD to Azure Data Lake involved stringent security and compliance requirements. The client needed to ensure that the data migration process met all relevant regulatory standards, including data privacy and protection measures, to avoid any potential legal and financial risks.


• Data Transformation Complexity: Migrating to Azure required transforming SAP BYD data from its native JSON format into a columnar format suitable for analysis and reporting. This process was complex, involving multiple layers of transformation (bronze, silver, and gold) to ensure the data was cleaned, normalized, and ready for use in various applications, including Power BI.

Solution

Aventra Group designed a comprehensive Data Migration Plan that included strategic data mapping, extraction, transformation, and loading processes to address these challenges.

• Data Mapping and Extraction: Utilized SAP BYD Datasource Level OData services for data extraction into Azure Data Lake's bronze layer, ensuring minimal impact on source system performance. Employed full and incremental loads with custom pipelines to handle both master and transactional data types effectively.


• Data Transformationn: Managed across three layers (bronze, silver, gold) to ensure data was cleaned, normalized, and made ready for business use. Bronze layer stored raw data, silver layer stored curated data for analysis, and gold layer stored production-ready data for reporting.


• Testing and Validation: Conducted extensive validation using both manual and programmatic methods to maintain data integrity and accuracy throughout the migration. Applied rigorous testing procedures at every stage to ensure compliance with regulatory standards and organizational policies.

Outcome

The migration is progressing smoothly, with the client seeing improved data management capabilities, greater integration with analytical tools, and enhanced data accessibility. The phased approach has minimized risk, ensured operational continuity, and laid a strong foundation for future data-driven initiatives.

Key Benefits

• Scalable Data Platform: Ensures the client can handle current and future data volumes with enhanced performance.


• Improved Data Accessibility and Integration: Facilitates better use of data for decision-making and reporting.


• Operational Continuity: Maintains business operations without interruption throughout the migration process.


• Enhanced Security and Compliance: Meets stringent data protection and regulatory requirements.

Conclusion

Aventra Group’s structured and strategic approach to data migration enables clients to achieve their data transformation goals while minimizing risks and maximizing operational efficiency.