5 Signs Your S/4HANA System Desperately Needs Data Management
Your S/4HANA system is a powerful engine for your business, but if left unchecked, data growth can slowly grind it to a halt. Are you ignoring the warning signs? Here are five critical indicators that you need a Data Volume Management (DVM) strategy, fast.
# 1 : YOUR HANA HOSTING BILLS ARE CLIMBING
This is the most obvious sign. The cost of an S/4HANA system is directly tied to the size of its in-memory HANA database. If your monthly cloud or hardware maintenance bills are steadily increasing, it's a clear indication that data growth is uncontrolled and costing you real money.
# 2 : REPORTS AND ANALYTICS ARE SLOWING DOWN
Users are complaining that their reports take forever to run. Even with the power of HANA, large, bloated tables force the system to read through massive amounts of data, slowing down analytics and impacting user productivity. Performance degradation is a classic symptom of poor DVM.
# 3 : SYSTEM COPIES & BACKUPS TAKE ALL WEEKEND
Your Basis team tells you that creating a copy of the production system for testing now takes days instead of hours. The sheer volume of data makes essential administrative tasks like backups, restores, and system refreshes painfully slow, increasing risk and delaying projects.
# 4 : YOUR AUDITORS ARE ASKING TOUGH QUESTIONS
During an audit, you're asked, "What is your data retention policy?" or "How do you handle data destruction for GDPR?" If you don't have a clear, automated answer, you are facing a significant compliance risk. Hoarding data indefinitely is no longer a viable option.
# 5 : YOU'RE AFRAID OF YOUR NEXT S/4HANA UPGRADE
The thought of a major system upgrade or feature pack installation fills you with dread because you know the downtime will be extensive. A larger database directly translates to longer upgrade times, making it harder to stay current with SAP innovations.
