There are clear legal requirements for the retention of historical business data. However, the practical implementation of these requirements is complex. You might be challenged identifying the exact data volume that is to be retained and store this compliantly, economically and future-proof, while providing proper access to authorized users and auditors. Finally, outdated data and documents need to get destroyed consistently once their retention period has expired.
Just continuing to run existing legacy systems as a read-only or virtual instances does not address requirements properly: such operation will become too expensive, cumbersome and often does not comply with applicable auditing requirements.
With Outboard DataFridge we offer a tool-based decommissioning procedure for the cost-effective and legally compliant storage of your SAP and non-SAP systems and data – without the need for additional hardware.
Outboard DataFridge
OutBoard DataFridge is a lean solution for decommissioning legacy systems. It supports mass archiving and moves your obsolete data to a cost-effective storage solution – including retention management, legal hold, data destruction and flexible access to data and documents.
We recommend using cost-effective cloud-based solutions to store the data. However, DataFridge also supports other on premise and cloud platforms including compliant storage – certified by SAP SE.
Your legacy data is accessible via standard SAP UI, making it easy for users to view their data and documents. This allows you to search, display, export and analyze legacy data effectively, conveniently and at any time, for example when requested for a tax audit.
DataFridge also allows you to define individual retention rules depending on the document type. This means that no longer required data is deleted from your system once retention periods expire with an automated process. This ensures compliance with current data privacy legislation and keeps your data hosting costs within your budget.
DataFridge has been certified by KPMG according to IDW PS 880 to comply with German GoBD standards. You can read he KPMG certification report (shortened) here: Download PDF.
Why you should decommission your legacy systems
The risk factor
Legacy systems are expensive to maintain and bring no business value. Because they are no longer supported, they increase your operational risks. There are no patches available to fix new issues, it is harder to recover from downtimes and there are less and less people who know how to deal with outdated technologies.
Lack of resources
Legacy systems that are no longer supported require extra work and attention from your team, draining on your resources. Your specialists lose time on keeping those old systems running instead of working on their key projects. This is especially important if you are planning a migration to S/4HANA where you will need all hands on deck to drive the transformation.
Legal Regulations such as GDPR, SOC, HIPAA or GLBA
Legacy systems store sensitive personal information that needs to be deleted or made inaccessible. Implementing such regulations is especially difficult with outdated systems, and the easiest way out is to retire these.
Features and functions
- Analysis of data in scope of extraction
- Data extraction from your legacy systems
- Legally compliant archiving
- Storage of your legacy data on cost-effective storage media (data lakes, cloud, on-prem, WORM), certified by SAP SE
- Data keywording and classification during import
- Data browser for accessing all data objects
- Dashboards and analyses via SAP BW or 3rd party front-end solutions
- Automated deletion of data and documents once retention periods expire
- “Legal hold” scenarios
- Certified by KPMG
Your Benefits
| Minimize risk Do not risk downtimes with technology that is no longer supported. | User friendly Browse and display your legacy data in a familiar frontend. No training needed. | Implement Retention Management Be prepared for audits by setting and maintaining proper retention rules and legal holds. |
| Save on resources Minimize the effort of your Basis and Application teams. | No extra systems required Use your existing SAP NetWeaver or S/4HANA platform for the legacy data. | Cut costs with cloud storage Archive your data and documents in a cloud-based platform and save up to 90 % of storage costs. |
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