I need to submit a plan for an upgrade of our current SAP 4.7/adabas/w2k3 system. i suggested an upgrade to 6.0 (not to 5.0), or at least the newest SAP version after 6.0 when maintenance for 4.7 expires. This will save a big amount of money. Management's view is to go step-by-step (from 4.7 to 5, then to 6) because going from 4.7 to 6 is "a big step." What about my opinion?
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Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director
You should upgrade to ECC 6.0, not ECC 5.0. The upgrade tools are built to cover several source releases and to 'bypass' versions. Upgrading to ECC 5.0 before 6.0 will only increase the cost of the upgrade and the need for downtime. The upgrade project will take twice as long, which also doubles the cost of resources and effort.
I cannot think of any good reason to first upgrade to ECC 5.0 and only then to ECC 6.0.
This was first published in July 2008