Migrating an SAP database and application environment, along with the associated system software and unbundled products, is one of the most demanding tasks an IT team can encounter. This Sun BluePrints™ article explains the process of moving an SAP environment from one system to another, and describes the resources and services available from Sun to assist users planning a migration.

In general, there are two types of migration: homogeneous and heterogeneous. A homogeneous migration is a migration from one platform and database architecture to the same platform and database. This article focuses on the more challenging type of migration - heterogeneous. This type of migration consists of moving from a non Sun platform to a Sun environment, or from one database architecture to a different database architecture, or both at the same time. In describing the details involved with performing a heterogeneous migration, this article addresses the following topics:

• Challenges and issues
• Assessing requirements and resources
• Creating a plan
• Preparing the infrastructure
• Performing the migration
• Validating the migration

This Sun BluePrints article describes procedures, techniques, and recommendations that can simplify and expedite the migration. It assumes that readers understand basic SAP technology and the services SAP provides. It also assumes they are familiar with the database software in use on both the source system (the system on which the SAP environment currently resides) and the target system (the system to which the SAP data is migrated).