From Chaos to Cloud: Why Moving from Non-SAP to SAP S/4 Public Cloud Feels Like Herding Cats

If you’re a mid-sized enterprise in the US or Canada still running Oracle, JD Edwards, Microsoft Dynamics, or any other “perfectly fine” ERP (read: duct-taped legacy system), chances are someone at HQ has dropped the S-word: SAP S/4 Public Cloud.

Cue the collective sigh from every data migration expert and program manager.

Because here’s the truth: moving to S/4 isn’t just a lift-and-shift. It’s more like taking your messy garage, dumping everything into the front yard, and then being told you can only bring back what’s clean, labeled, and fits neatly into clear storage bins. Oh, and the neighbors are watching.

Three reasons it’s trickier than it looks:

Data Reality Check – That “customer master” table you’ve been nursing since 2003? Turns out half your customers are duplicates, three are still named “Test,” and nobody agrees what “active” means.

New Rules of the Road – S/4 Public Cloud doesn’t tolerate your old shortcuts. You’ll need data that matches SAP’s mandatory fields, structures, and validation logic… or you’re not even getting past security.

Speed vs. Sanity – Execs want a fast migration. You want to keep your career intact. Without the right automation for profiling, cleansing, and transformation, the “go-live” date will slip faster than a Toronto Maple Leafs playoff run.

At Xadata, we think migrations should be less “therapy session for broken data” and more “clear path to clean, compliant, SAP-ready files.” We’ve built tools that let business owners define their rules in plain English, while AI does the grunt work of profiling, cleansing, and mapping to SAP S/4 Public Cloud standards.

So if you’re tired of herding cats, maybe it’s time to get a proper corral.

Clean data. Faster migration. Happier program managers.