The start of January is synonymous with making a fresh start by stripping away the unnecessary to focus on what truly matters. Yet as SAP organizations enter 2026, many are carrying unneeded or legacy data spanning decades. While the push toward SAP S/4HANA and the Clean Core strategy has moved from a future roadmap item to a current operational mandate, a significant roadblock remains: legacy data.
For years, the perceived risk of losing historical information forced enterprises to keep old systems running in the background even as they upgraded to newer ones. However, entering 2026 with legacy systems still humming in the background means paying for hardware, maintenance, and specialized skills to manage data that is rarely accessed, but legally required.
Breaking the Cycle of Technical Debt
Additionally, the definition of Clean Core has evolved in 2026. It is no longer about avoiding custom code but ensuring the data residing in an organization’s new environment is lean, high-quality, and high value. Therefore, every terabyte of obsolete data migrated to SAP S/4HANA or kept in an expensive legacy silo is technical debt compounded by interest.
Industry analysts have warned that technical debt is rapidly shifting from a coding issue to an architectural one, increasingly driven by legacy systems and data that no longer deliver sufficient business value but continue to consume cost and risk.
However, the hesitation to decommission usually stems from “What if we need that data for an audit three years from now?”
This is where Data Migration International’s (DMI) JiVS Information Management Platform shifts the narrative. JiVS acts as the ultimate enabler of a fresh start by providing a controlled retirement rather than the usual binary choice between keeping a costly legacy system or deleting history.
Compliance Without the Clutter
JiVS also allows SAP customers to decouple historical data from their legacy applications. By migrating that data into a centralized, system-independent platform, organizations can shut down old servers entirely while maintaining 100% data integrity and legal compliance. Some other benefits include:
- Cost realignment: By decommissioning legacy systems, enterprises typically reduce operational costs by up to 80%.
- Audit readiness: JiVS retains the business context of the data, ensuring that if a tax authority or auditor comes knocking in 2028, the 2018 records are accessible, searchable, and legally defensible.
- Clean Core acceleration: With the legacy ball-and-chain removed, the path to SAP S/4HANA becomes faster and more cost-effective, as organizations migrate only what is essential for the business to function today.
2026: The Year of Living Lean
Thus, the resolution for SAP leaders this year should be to stop paying for the past to haunt their present. Technical debt is not an inevitability; it is a choice.
This year doesn’t need to be another high-stakes maintenance year for systems that reached their expiration date years ago. With a platform like JiVS, organizations can fulfill their fresh start resolution, achieving a truly Clean Core while ensuring historical data remains an asset, not a liability.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
Decouple the past and prioritize separation of concerns. In 2026, the most successful migrations will follow a separation-of-concerns model, where historical data is decoupled from operational data before the first byte hits ERP systems like SAP S/4HANA. ERP professionals must use platforms like JiVS to identify and move 80–90% of their historical data into a compliant, accessible repository. By migrating only operational data and open items, organizations reduce their SAP S/4HANA database footprint, slash memory costs, and significantly shorten technical downtime during cutover.
Audit-proof your exit strategy. The biggest hurdle to decommissioning an ERP system is the fear of what if. Legal, tax, and compliance teams often veto decommissioning because they need one-click access to records from a decade ago. Therefore, ERP insiders must stop archiving and decommission immediately, as archiving usually leaves the legacy application running. Decommissioning with DMI allows organizations to shut down the old application entirely while retaining the business context of the data. This approach satisfies the most rigorous audit requirements by providing a searchable, system-independent interface that presents historical data just as it appeared in the original SAP ECC environment without the overhead of the legacy stack.
Build a foundation for AI-ready data. In 2026, AI is embedded in the SAP S/4HANA user experience. However, an AI-driven ERP is only as effective as the data feeding it. Organizations must view migration as a data detox and use the transition to perform automated data quality improvements and deduplication. This practice ensures that 2026 AI initiatives deliver insights grounded in reality rather than legacy noise, transforming data migration into a strategic AI enabler.
