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E-Book

How to develop an SAP

data archiving strategy
As more businesses deal with aging SAP systems, data archiving strate-
gies are becoming more important. Most administrators either have
thrown more storage at the problem or have migrated historical data
from live systems to offline storage, reducing active storage needs. But
simply moving old data elsewhere isn’t ideal, especially when one con-
siders the requirements placed upon businesses for compliance or the
need to perform e-discovery. Storing data also uses up infrastructure
resources, hindering performance for mission-critical SAP applications.
Therefore, developing an SAP data archiving strategy is paramount. In
this E-Book, readers will learn:

• How to build a business case for data archiving projects

• The keys to successful SAP data archiving projects
• How to build an SAP data archiving solution
• An introduction to SAP data archiving tools

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 How to develop an SAP data archiving strategy
Table of Contents

E-Book

How to develop an SAP

data archiving strategy

Table of Contents:

Building a business case for SAP data archiving

Building an SAP data archiving solution: Prerequisites and action items

Best practices in implementing an SAP data archiving infrastructure

Introduction to SAP data archiving tools

Resources from Dolphin

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 How to develop an SAP data archiving strategy
Building a business case for SAP data archiving

Building a business case for SAP data archiving

By Frank Ohlhorst, SearchSAP.com contributor

Over the years, products from SAP systems have permeated enterprises large and small. Businesses have come to
rely on SAP’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM), and many other products to power their data across business units and to enable business
services.

The successful implementation of SAP products has brought with it another concern, however: managing the
massive amounts of data collected. To date, most administrators either have thrown more storage at the problem
or have migrated historical data from live systems to offline storage, reducing active storage needs. But simply
moving old data elsewhere is far from ideal, especially when one considers the requirements placed upon business-
es for compliance or the need to perform e-discovery.

Legislative requirements (compliance) and legal requirements (e-discovery) have drastically changed how data is
managed, stored and backed up -- driving enterprises to rethink their data management strategies. Administrators
of SAP solutions are finding that those same requirements are forcing them to come up with archival strategies,
which both protect the data and make it available for later retrieval -- not an easy task for a technology that
constantly evolves and changes. Nevertheless, archiving solutions are becoming critical to SAP administrators and
their managers.

Many enterprises use SAP products for areas such as the integration of business processes, customer management
and resource planning. The continuous usage of SAP enterprise systems results in the creation of huge amounts of
enterprise data, which is stored online on an active SAP ecosystem. Over time, new and updated information is
entered into the system, adding to the old data, which still resides in the SAP enterprise system. Storage needs
grow exponentially as more data is created, increasing disk utilization, until events dictate that new storage be
added or old data removed. However, some of the old data is critical and cannot be deleted.

The big challenge for administrators is determining what data to keep and what to get rid of, before encountering
problems such as data overflow, longer transaction processing times, and performance degradation. The answer to
that dilemma comes in the form of data archiving.

Data archiving is becoming an important business process that is used to keep enterprise systems functioning at
their peak while reducing the cost of storage by moving outdated data files from expensive high-speed SANs to
offline or near online data stores. But the primary goal of data archiving is to preserve valuable data for later
retrieval, and that goal dictates how effective a data archiving solution is.

Tackling an archiving project is not a task to be taken lightly. Several prerequisites need to be in place to success-
fully archive data in a format that moves it off active systems yet preserves it for later access. For the SAP powered
business, that task proves more involved simply because of the sheer complexity of an SAP enterprise system. The
drivers behind archiving remain much the same, though. A properly executed archival solution will:

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 How to develop an SAP data archiving strategy
Building a business case for SAP data archiving

• Reduce storage costs by moving old data offline to lower-cost data stores.

• Increase efficiency by reducing the active data footprint.

• Improve backup scenarios -- smaller data sets are faster to back up.

• Speed recovery times -- smaller data sets are more portable and faster to restore.

• Improve performance -- smaller data sets index faster and reduce retrieval overhead.

• Meet compliance needs -- data is still preserved for later access and backed up.

• Provide e-discovery capabilities -- archived data is retrievable for legal needs.

Simply put, archiving the transactional information stored on an SAP enterprise system offers significant benefits
that can be measured in both cost and efficiency.

Nevertheless, many organizations choose to let their online data stores grow instead of taking a house-keeping
approach. Why would businesses choose to do that? It all comes down to a simple matter of economics and data
delivery requirements, or simply the fear that needed data will not be available instantly.

Those fears are driven by an irrational assessment of how transactional data is used. The simplified view is that
with an SAP system, each minute that passes without access to transactional data equals lost revenue and produc-
tivity. That analogy will prove false in most cases, however -- for two reasons: Properly archived data is not needed
for normal business operations, and large datasets slow every transaction, which can add up to a significant drop in
productivity when multiplied by thousands of users.

The argument here is simple. Archiving data saves time, money and resources while protecting data for specialized
retrieval.

Frank J. Ohlhorst, CNE, MCP, L+, N+, A+, is an award winning technology journalist, professional speaker and IT
business consultant with more than 25 years of experience in the technology arena.

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Smart Adaptable ProvenTM   
 
Dolphin: Smart, Adaptable, Proven for SAP Data Archiving
 

Every sale creates data. Every purchase creates data. So does every person you hire, every person
you let go, every bit of information you analyze , copy, scan report and save.

The more data you have, the faster you want it. The funny thing is, the more data you have and the
faster you want it, the more it costs to maintain, track, manage and deliver data to the business.

At Dolphin, we don’t just “get” data archiving. We understand why you need data archiving, and how
to ensure it’s done right for your business. Your data archiving strategy should support an information
lifecycle management plan that incorporates data and document retention, and removing the data
when it is no longer needed. Why is this important?

• So you can respond quickly to customer and vendor inquiries

• So you can deliver quickly on audit requests.
• So your NetWeaver business warehouse application delivers on demand - fast.
• So you can control costs and storage growth.
• So your SAP solution runs better, faster and smarter.

Dolphin is uniquely qualified to deliver data archiving that corresponds with the way you do business.
Dolphin’s sole focus is to improve and optimize business performance for customers using SAP
solutions, through Information Lifecycle Management and Business Process Management solutions.
We produce the right solution for each customer, faster, through unmatched experience in SAP
technologies, proven best practices, tools and SAP add-on applications. Dolphin solutions improve
business and IT performance, lower total cost of ownership and deliver high return on investment.

To learn more about how to get the most for your business with data archiving for ERP/ BW, nearline
storage, and ILM, visit us at www.dolphin-corp.com or call us at 1-610.725.9125; ext. 255.

Dolphin Whitepapers:

1. DATA ARCHIVING - The first Step toward Managing the Information Lifecycle

2. BW ARCHVING - Maximize Performance and Lower Costs to Optimize SAP NetWeaver BW

Systems with Archiving and Nearline Storage (NLS)

3. SYSTEM CONSOLIDATION - Legacy System and SAP Consolidation – Best Practices

Smart Adaptable ProvenTM

Dolphin, 1487 Dunwoody Drive, Suite 350, West Chester, PA 19380, Phone: 1-610-725-9125, Ext 255
www.dolphin-corp.com • Email: contact@dolphin-corp.com

© Dolphin 2010. SAP, ERP are trademarks and registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and several other countries. Other product names are
used only to identify the products and are registered trademarks of the relevant manufacturers.
 How to develop an SAP data archiving strategy
Building an SAP data archiving solution: Prerequisites and action items

Building an SAP data archiving solution: Prerequisites and

action items
By Frank J. Ohlhorst, SearchSAP.com contributor

Just a few short years ago, the thought of building a reliable archiving infrastructure for an SAP enterprise system
would send chills down the spine of any data administrator. Today, storage technology, software enhancements and
third-party products have taken much of the worry away.

But implementing an archiving infrastructure is far from a plug-and-play process. Administrators will have to do
some significant groundwork before moving one bit of data. Specific considerations include:

• Archival policies: How long must the data be retained before deletion?

• Active data access: What determines whether the data is current and must be kept live?

• Compliance: What legislative requirements are driving an archiving methodology?

• Storage architecture: How is storage architected in the enterprise, what growth plans are in place and
how are data silos defined?

• Business continuity: What business continuity and disaster recovery solutions are in place and how will
those processes be affected by an archival system?

• Data ownership: Are data silos owned departmentally, by business units, across the enterprise or by the
IT department?

• Security: How is data protected against unauthorized access? Will archives fall under the same guidelines
and technologies?

• Evolution: How will archived data be managed if a major system upgrade occurs? Will old data files,
tables and indexes be converted to work with the latest software? Will applications be retired in an active
mode to work with archived datasets?

• Frequency: Will the archive process be active or will it be scheduled to happen at predetermined times,
such as daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly?

• Archival storage medium: Will storage be tape, optical, magnetic disk, removable media or library based?

• Management: Who will be responsible for maintaining archives, validating viability and protecting the
data?

• Location: Will the archive be stored on-site at the data center, off-site at a backup location or moved to
cold storage elsewhere?

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 How to develop an SAP data archiving strategy
Building an SAP data archiving solution: Prerequisites and action items

• Access: What level of access to the archive is needed? How quickly must archived data be made live?
What support resources are dedicated to returning archive data to an active state?

Those questions will most likely create additional questions, and all must be answered before selecting an archive
methodology, as well as the technology to build an archival solution.

What’s more, the definition and exploration process will require input from more than just the IT department. Other
departments, such as legal, facilities and operations, may need to be involved in the process; and, of course, those
providing budget to build the system will have to be informed of the needs, as well as the ROI and TCO of an
archival system.

For most, the first step is a plan. That plan should cover costs, benefits and requirements and should be used as a
template to vet solutions that meet both business goals and IT department needs. One common mistake made dur-
ing the process is forgetting to include manpower and associated costs, such as training, recruiting and reassign-
ment of personnel.

Frank J. Ohlhorst, CNE, MCP, L+, N+, A+, is an award winning technology journalist, professional speaker and IT
business consultant with more than 25 years of experience in the technology arena.

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 How to develop an SAP data archiving strategy
Best practices in implementing an SAP data archiving infrastructure

Best practices in implementing an SAP data archiving

infrastructure
By Frank J. Ohlhorst, SearchSAP.com contributor

With a basic plan in hand, requirements defined and goals set, the next steps in the process are product selection,
deployment and validation.

Product selection will begin with an assessment of what is already owned and what is needed to enable an archiving
system. In many cases, a consultant or vendor partner will become part of the process, simply because much of
the technology under consideration will be unfamiliar to the IT staff and management. In those situations, it pays
to bring in a professional services organization with a proven background and documented successes to assess the
plan and current environment and to validate goals.

If feasible, pilot projects should be planned and then executed on secondary systems, so that live data is not
affected during the validation phase. A solid experimental phase will help to avoid problems that could lead to
downtime or, worse, data loss.

Most enterprises may not have the resources to approach a deployment in a methodological fashion, however, and
they may be forced to work with live data sets. In those cases, replication of the data is a must before proceeding.
In turn, it is better to have third-party support involved to proactively identify problems, before those problems
affect any operational elements.

SAP enterprise products have created an ecosystem of support products, some of which are ideally designed for
archiving and protecting data. What makes those products unique is how they deal with transactional data, which is
the lifeblood of an SAP solution. Transactional data has multiple links across data files, tables and indexes and is
usually arranged in a symbiotic relationship with other data elements. For example, an invoice will be linked to cus-
tomer files, inventory files, sales history files and a multitude of other data elements. For archiving to be successful,
all of the linked data must be preserved for each and every transaction.

Therein lies the primary requirement for an archival solution. Simply put, can the archival solution recreate the data
environment encountered at the time of data entry?

Several products and services have come onto the market that automate archiving and also provide the recovery
environment to retrieve data with ease. Most of the vendors playing in that space require the purchase of both soft-
ware and hardware to enable their solutions, and some work with more exotic technologies such as data virtualiza-
tion or hosted storage. Administrators must be careful when selecting a product to make sure that there are no
requirements (hidden or otherwise) that are not serviceable.

Ideally, a successful implementation will meet several criteria:

• Improve performance of the active transactional database system.

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 How to develop an SAP data archiving strategy
Best practices in implementing an SAP data archiving infrastructure

• Protect data from corruption, loss or unauthorized access.

• Reduce overall storage costs.

• Meet compliance, corporate and legislative requirements.

• Automate most of the process, reducing the administrative burden.

• Provide reporting capabilities for validation needs.

• Ease the retrieval of archived data.

• Handle application upgrades or changes that affect the archived dataset.

• Automatically retire data that is no longer needed.

Meeting those criteria and the defined goals indicates a successful implementation of an archiving solution. Of
course, regular testing and data validation should be performed to ensure that the solution is delivering the appro-
priate business value. In the end, administrators will find that two primary goals are met by the solution: improve-
ment of transactional data system performance and reliable storage of archived data.

Frank J. Ohlhorst, CNE, MCP, L+, N+, A+, is an award winning technology journalist, professional speaker and IT
business consultant with more than 25 years of experience in the technology arena.

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 How to develop an SAP data archiving strategy
Introduction to SAP data archiving tools

Introduction to SAP data archiving tools

By Frank J. Ohlhorst, SearchSAP.com contributor

Several vendors offer archiving solutions that can be incorporated into existing SAP implementations. The term
to learn here is ILM (Information Lifecycle Management), which SAP defines as a combination of processes and
technologies whose goal it is to provide the right information at the right time and at the right place, with the
lowest possible costs, over the entire lifetime of the data.

This entails knowing and categorizing a company's data, defining policies that govern what the company does with
the information, setting up the system in such a way that these policies can be applied to the data, and then
implementing a customer-specific information management strategy with the help of technology.

Many vendors offer solutions that encompass what ILM is all about, with the primary focus being on the archiving
portion of an ILM strategy.

SAP offers tools and solutions for data archiving, with capabilities built directly into the SAP NetWeaver Application
Server. Two variations of data archiving can be defined under the NetWeaver Application Server: ADK-based archiv-
ing, which is used only by ABAP applications, and XML-based archiving. It offers the ability to archive ABAP applica-
tions that are XML aware, as well as JAVA applications. Working with the NetWeaver Application server is more of a
hands-on approach for archiving chores and will require extensive knowledge of the SAP applications as well as
intimate knowledge of XML and ABAP. Of course, some other native tools are available with an SAP deployment.
Most notable is the SARA (SAP Archive Administration) tool, which is used to manage and schedule archives. It is
also a hands-on tool, however, and it requires administrative input and is step intensive.

Some vendors can complement SAP’s own tools by simplifying processes and reducing steps. Others specialize in
services and software that are designed to offer long-term access to archived SAP data. And others offer suites that
bring automated data archiving to SAP systems, with products designed to provide quick access to archived SAP
information, improve system performance by offloading inactive data, protect offloaded data securely and meet
retention requirements by compliance rules.

Many other vendors are also offering archival products or portions thereof that allow administrators to combine a
myriad of features to develop their own archival strategy.

The key is to evaluate the features needed against the features offered, consider the support options and determine
the overall pricing. Although several solutions exist, none may be a perfect fit, leaving some of the integration
chores up to the in-house administrators.

Frank J. Ohlhorst, CNE, MCP, L+, N+, A+, is an award winning technology journalist, professional speaker and IT
business consultant with more than 25 years of experience in the technology arena.

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 How to develop an SAP data archiving strategy
Resources from Dolphin

Resources from Dolphin

DATA ARCHIVING - The first Step toward Managing the Information Lifecycle

BW ARCHVING - Maximize Performance and Lower Costs to Optimize SAP NetWeaver BW

Systems with Archiving and Nearline Storage (NLS)

SYSTEM CONSOLIDATION - Legacy System and SAP Consolidation – Best Practices

About Dolphin
An SAP software partner with certified integration, Dolphin makes crucial business operations such
as procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, and data archiving and management, run better and smarter for
organizations using SAP solutions. Focused on improving business performance through Business
Process Management and Information Lifecycle Management, Dolphin produces the right solution
for each customer, faster, through its unmatched experience in SAP technologies, and its proven
best practices, tools and SAP add-on applications. Dolphin solutions improve business and IT per-
formance, lower total cost of ownership and deliver high return on investment. The company was
founded in 1995 and has offices in Philadelphia, PA and San Jose, CA. Dolphin solutions are imple-
mented across North America and around the world.

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