In 2025, the conversation around cloud migration shifted from why to how. According to SAPinsider’s 2025 research report on SAP S/4HANA deployment, for instance, 31% of the organizations who responded to the survey have transitioned to SAP S/4HANA, while another 27% are in implementation. Additionally, 54% of respondents said they plan to incorporate AI or generative AI capabilities into their SAP S/4HANA deployment.
If 2024 was the year cloud ERP became non-negotiable, 2025 was the year organizations learned how hard—and how rewarding—successful cloud migration can be. Across ERP Today’s coverage, cloud migration was explored through real-world transformations at companies like Gap and 24 Hour Fitness as well as global ERP vendors SAP, Oracle, and Unit4.
The year’s reporting surfaced three clear themes:
- The need for strong testing and quality assurance at every stage of migration
- The growing importance of cloud ecosystems and vendor partnerships for a competitive edge
- The recognition that cloud readiness and AI readiness are now inseparable.
This review outlines what organizations learned in 2025 and what ERP end users should prepare for in 2026.
Testing Took Center Stage
One of the most consistent lessons of 2025 was that testing and validation are now central to a successful cloud migration strategy.
In the second quarter of the year, ERP Today reported that traditional manual testing methods are being replaced with continuous, automated validation cycles. That level of automation throughout the migration process reportedly reduces errors and provides the quality assurance needed for critical ERP workloads. Opkey’s partnership with Gap highlights this well, as it showed how automation accelerated both testing and confidence: Gap reduced migration downtime and validated critical finance workflows in record time.
Similarly, under-tested integrations remain one of the top causes of post-migration system outages. Investing early in test automation and data validation has achieved faster, more stable go-lives this year. Organizations also learned that test readiness is a core part of business risk management.
Ecosystem Partnerships Shaped the Market
Cloud migration in 2025 was also defined by strategic alliances, particularly among hyperscalers and ERP providers.
The Oracle and Amazon Web Services (AWS) enhanced partnership showed the power of co-engineering in multi-cloud adoption. By enabling Oracle database services to run on AWS infrastructure, the two giants opened new hybrid deployment pathways for customers wary of being locked in with a single vendor. In essence, the partnership gave customers more flexibility and reduced dependency on a given provider.
Meanwhile, Unit4’s expansion of cloud migration services showed how mid-market ERP providers are evolving from software suppliers to managed service partners. Unit4’s investment in managed transition and vertical-specific migration programs reflected a maturing SaaS economy. Vendors are expanding their roles and helping smaller organizations modernize with less disruption.
Cross-vendor momentum was also highlighted during SAP Sapphire 2025 and SNP’s Transformation World event. SNP and SAP’s growing partnership shows how data migration is the foundation of modernization, not the final step. Enterprises are moving toward real-time analytics and AI-powered decision support. Cloud migration is increasingly about collaboration, interoperability, and shared accountability across providers.
AI Readiness Redefined ‘Cloud First’
Perhaps the most transformative takeaway from 2025 was that cloud migration is increasingly about preparing for AI.
At SAP Sapphire 2025, nearly every keynote tied cloud migration to AI enablement. SAP Private Cloud Edition through the RISE methodology, for example, was positioned both as a route to SAP S/4HANA and as the foundation for integrating agentic AI and real-time data processing. Speaking on AI-powered cloud migration, Mercedes-Benz CIO Cathey Lehman said: “We’re leveraging AI across our entire value chain. We’ve deployed our internal ChatGPT-like solution, and we’re excited to expand with SAP’s Joule and Business AI stack.”
Oracle’s collaboration with AWS also reflected this trend, connecting database modernization directly to generative-AI readiness. By enabling new deployment models, Oracle positioned its customers to scale AI workloads and analytics more efficiently. And for Unit4, SaaS adoption was explicitly linked to delivering “people-centric AI,” where automation and predictive analytics improved user experience as much as employee productivity and operational efficiency.
Across major players, 2025 marked the point where cloud migration became the foundation for AI integration.
Compliance, Continuity Still Matter
While innovation dominated headlines, 2025 also reminded ERP leaders of the governance side of modernization.
As early as January, Oracle warned enterprises that legacy governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) tools are expiring faster than their migration timelines. Cloud migration now requires parallel investments in security, auditing, and policy automation, as organizations are being forced to adopt new, cloud-native GRC tools to maintain auditability and control.
Similarly, Opkey’s State of Cloud & ERP Operations Report 2025 emphasized operational resilience is the true benchmark for success. That means ensuring migration while systems remain stable through continuous updates, multi-region redundancy, and zero-downtime maintenance.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As 2025 closes, the cloud migration wave is far from over. The next stage will focus on intelligence, automation, and resilience. Looking ahead to 2026, ERP Today expects three trends to dominate:
- Predictive migration tools that use AI to analyze system dependencies, automate recommendations, and reduce downtime.
- Continuous upgrades that merge migration and maintenance into a single process.
- Integrated governance platforms that bring together compliance, security, and data quality.
For ERP insiders, the lesson from 2025 is cloud migration is not a one-time project, but a continuous process of improvement. ERP innovation will be defined not by how fast organizations move to the cloud, but by how intelligently they evolve once they get there.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
Testing is strategic, not just technical. Automated, continuous testing now defines successful migration programs. Vendors and clients alike need to treat validation as a business safeguard, not an IT checkbox.
Ecosystem alignment is a differentiator. The Oracle-AWS partnership and SAP-SNP collaboration showed that interoperability is winning over exclusivity. ERP leaders are choosing partners, not just platforms.
Cloud migration leads to better AI integration. Organizations are not moving to the cloud just for scalability. They are doing it to unlock AI, analytics, and agentic workflows. Enterprises that modernize now will be better positioned to adopt AI-driven automation in 2026 and beyond.
