On this page · 11 sections
- What ends on 31 December 2027, and what does not
- The 2030 deadline SAP set out in October 2026
- The transition option: who qualifies, and the 2035 change
- Greenfield, brownfield or selective: how the paths differ
- Timelines: plan backwards from 31 December 2030
- Worked cost example: extended maintenance against the default
- Skills: the constraint to budget for early
- India: GST, e-invoicing and data residency
- A 90-day plan for the CIO
- How eCorpIT can help
- References
Summary. SAP's mainstream maintenance for SAP ERP 6.0 (ECC) on enhancement packages 6, 7 and 8 ends on 31 December 2027, 419 days from 7 November 2026; for lower enhancement packages it ended on 31 December 2025. Optional extended maintenance runs to 31 December 2030 at a premium of two percentage points on your maintenance basis; customers who do not choose it by the end of 2027 move automatically to customer-specific maintenance, which covers problem solving for known issues at unchanged fees. The harder date is 31 December 2030. SAP confirmed on 7 October 2026 that its third-party database agreements and its Java 8 support for NetWeaver AS Java 7.5 expire that day, and that conversion tooling for ECC on a non-SAP database stops, leaving only greenfield moves. For the largest estates, the SAP ERP, private edition, transition option covers 2031 to 2033, or to 31 December 2035 with further prerequisites under an update of 13 October 2026; 2026 signers face a 20 percent uplift. Our verdict: settle the extended maintenance question in 2027, but plan the project backwards from 2030, especially if ECC runs on Oracle, Db2 or SQL Server.
About this article. For CIOs, CFOs and IT heads still running SAP ECC, with extra detail for Indian companies. On 7 November 2026 we checked every date and pricing rule against SAP's maintenance-strategy pages, SAP News Center releases, SAP's maintenance commitments page, the GSTN advisory of 17 June 2026 and Invoice Registration Portal notices from 2023 and 2025. SAP Notes and parts of the Support Portal need an SAP login; we say where we could not read them. This is general information, not contract, tax or legal advice; SAP changes terms often, and no vendor paid for inclusion. Researched with AI assistance and reviewed by our editorial team.
For contract terms, see our RISE with SAP vs SAP GROW vs third-party support comparison.
What ends on 31 December 2027, and what does not
SAP announced the schedule on 4 February 2020 and confirmed in October 2026 that it has not changed. The SAP Support Portal lists what stays in mainstream maintenance until the end of 2027: the latest three enhancement packages of SAP ERP 6.0, plus SAP CRM 7.0, SAP SCM 7.0, SAP SRM 7.0 and SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA. For ECC that means EHP 6, 7 and 8. Mainstream maintenance for ERP 6.0 without an enhancement package, or on EHP 1 to 5, ended on 31 December 2025. SAP NetWeaver 7.5, the technical base underneath, follows the same 2027 and 2030 dates.
SAP described the two extra years of mainstream maintenance as an offboarding phase with no contractual change and no additional fees. From 2028 the routes split, as SAP's published dates show.
| Date | What happens | What you must do |
|---|---|---|
| Until 31 Dec 2027 | Mainstream maintenance for ECC EHP 6 to 8 and other Business Suite 7 core applications, no extra fee | Decide your 2028 support route before year-end |
| 1 Jan 2028 to 31 Dec 2030 | Optional extended maintenance at a premium of 2 percentage points on the maintenance basis, for all support offerings in Business Suite 7 scope | Choose it by the end of 2027, or you default to customer-specific maintenance |
| From 1 Jan 2028 (no opt-in) or 1 Jan 2031 | Customer-specific maintenance: problem solving for known issues at unchanged fees | Treat it as a holding pattern, not an operating model |
| 31 Dec 2030 | Third-party database reselling and support agreements, and Java 8 support for AS Java 7.5, expire; conversion tooling from non-SAP databases ends | Be converted, on SAP HANA, or committed to greenfield |
| 2031 to 2033, or to 2035 with further prerequisites | Transition option subscription for qualifying customers | Be on SAP ERP, private edition on SAP HANA before 31 Dec 2030 |
| End of 2040 | At least one SAP S/4HANA release stays in maintenance | Your target platform horizon |
Read customer-specific maintenance plainly. SAP's public wording promises problem solving for known issues and says nothing about new legal or tax changes. For a company running GST invoicing from ECC, that silence matters. Ask SAP in writing what it delivers for statutory changes; the detail sits in SAP Note 52505, which needs a login and which we could not read.
The 2030 deadline SAP set out in October 2026
On 7 October 2026 Philipp Herzig, SAP's CTO, set out what ends with extended maintenance. The main points:
- SAP's reselling and support agreements with major third-party database providers end for these legacy environments, and with them database-specific support, even where the database was licensed through SAP.
- Under customer-specific maintenance after 2030, SAP cannot give comprehensive support for third-party database or Java issues, including kernel patches and kernel security patches, and may stop offering downloads of database, administration, backup, upgrade and migration tooling.
- SAP's support arrangements for Java 8 (JEE5) with SAP NetWeaver AS Java 7.5 conclude at the end of 2030. AS Java 7.5 and its add-ons fall into customer-specific maintenance from 2031 with no follow-on release.
- Tooling for a system conversion from Business Suite 7 on a third-party database to SAP S/4HANA or SAP Cloud ERP is available only until the end of 2030. After that, SAP supports only greenfield transitions.
- Moving ECC onto SAP HANA before 2030 removes the database dependency but does not extend maintenance, and SAP does not recommend it as a long-term path.
SAP concludes that customer-specific maintenance on these environments is not a sustainable way to run business-critical systems, and recommends completing the move to SAP Cloud ERP by the end of 2030. DSAG board member Michael Bloch welcomed the early notice but said decisions should rest on a full assessment of the alternatives.
In practice, if your ECC production system runs on Oracle, IBM Db2 or Microsoft SQL Server, brownfield conversion has an expiry date of 31 December 2030. If that database is SQL Server 2017, Microsoft's extended support for it ends in October 2027, so read our SQL Server 2017 end-of-support guide alongside this one. Enterprise Portal, Process Orchestration and other AS Java components need their own exit plan; SAP points to SAP Notes 3464370 and 3832186, both behind a login.
The transition option: who qualifies, and the 2035 change
SAP pre-announced SAP ERP, private edition, transition option on 4 February 2025: a cloud subscription centred on ECC, sold from 2028 and used from 2031 to 2033, and explicitly not a maintenance extension for on-premise ECC. Terms followed on 4 August 2025: a time-bound subscription for specified products centred on ECC on SAP HANA, combined with transformation services and business continuity covering legal changes, security patches and bug fixing.
The prerequisites in that August 2025 update:
- Systems migrated to SAP ERP, private edition on SAP HANA before 31 December 2030.
- SAP HANA as the only supported database.
- A minimum of 2 TB for each subscribed system.
- Technical readiness, including mitigation for products the option does not cover; SAP Note 3591251 lists the eligible products.
- Max Success Plan for the option period, with its fee charged on top.
Pricing is an uplift on the private edition price valid at the end of 2030. Customers who committed to private edition by the end of 2025, with a start date no later than 2026, get commercially equivalent terms. Those who sign in 2026 get a standard 20 percent uplift when they switch in 2031. For 2027 and later signers, SAP has not disclosed the uplift and says final pricing comes closer to availability to purchase in 2028. If this route is realistic for you, 54 days remain, to 31 December 2026, to sign at the published 20 percent rate.
The end date has moved. A note SAP added on 13 October 2026 to its August 2025 article says subscriptions may run until 31 December 2035, with further prerequisites, and points to SAP Note 3591251 and a Support Portal page for detail. ERP Today reported the extension on 6 November 2026. Herzig's 7 October post still describes 2031 to 2033. The note and that page need a login and we could not read them, so the extra prerequisites are unknown to us. Plan on 2033 and treat 2035 as conditional until it appears in your contract.
The option does not support Java-dependent capabilities. And since 2 November 2026 SAP has offered Max Success Plan through Cloud Choice and resell partners as well as directly, with managed service providers still in a pilot.
Greenfield, brownfield or selective: how the paths differ
Three migration patterns cover almost every ECC exit. SAP publishes no standard durations and we will not invent one; your integrator's estimate, tested against your own custom code and data volumes, is the number that counts. The table is our summary; its dated constraint comes from SAP's October 2026 post.
| Factor | Greenfield (new implementation) | Brownfield (system conversion) | Selective data transition |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you keep | Master data and selected open items; processes redesigned to standard | Configuration, custom code and full history | Chosen company codes, processes and history |
| Custom code | Rebuilt as extensions or retired | Remediated and carried over | Remediated for the scope you move |
| Non-SAP database deadline | Unaffected; still possible after 2030 | Conversion tooling ends 31 Dec 2030 | Shell-based approaches may rely on conversion tooling; confirm before 2030 |
| Usual targets | SAP Cloud ERP (via SAP GROW or RISE with SAP) or SAP Cloud ERP Private | SAP Cloud ERP Private or S/4HANA on-premise | SAP Cloud ERP Private or S/4HANA on-premise |
| GST and e-invoicing | Rebuild tax set-up and IRP integration; chance to clean master data | Existing integration carried over, then retested | Mixed: some entities rebuilt, some carried |
| Fits best | Heavily customised ECC you want to retire, new operating models | Stable processes, tight timelines, one large instance | Multi-entity groups, carve-outs, consolidations |
Greenfield fits when ECC's customisation encodes processes you no longer want. SAP GROW, launched on 21 March 2023 as GROW with SAP, is SAP's fresh-start package built on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and SAP SuccessFactors HCM. SAP positions it mainly for companies new to SAP but says it is also open to existing customers leaving older on-premise SAP systems. The launch release spoke of go-live in as little as four weeks; that describes a fixed-scope fresh start, not retiring a fifteen-year-old ECC.
Brownfield keeps history and custom code, so it looks cheapest on paper. The catch is carrying technical debt into SAP Cloud ERP Private, which has a two-year release cycle with innovations every six months and seven years of maintenance per release. Every custom object you carry must survive that upgrade rhythm.
Selective data transition moves chosen entities, processes or years of history into a new system. It suits multi-instance groups, mergers and carve-outs, and leans hardest on partner tooling. Ask which steps rely on SAP's conversion tools, because those share the 2030 cut-off for non-SAP databases.
Timelines: plan backwards from 31 December 2030
Most CIOs anchor on 2027 because it comes first, but the binding dates are later. Day counts run from 7 November 2026.
| Milestone | Date | Days from 7 Nov 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Last day to sign SAP ERP, private edition at the published 20 percent transition-option uplift | 31 Dec 2026 | 54 |
| Mainstream maintenance ends; last day to choose extended maintenance | 31 Dec 2027 | 419 |
| Transition option expected to become available to purchase | 2028 | Not dated |
| Extended maintenance ends; third-party database and Java support end; conversion tooling ends; private edition deadline for the transition option | 31 Dec 2030 | 1,515 |
| Transition option, base end date | 31 Dec 2033 | 2,611 |
| Transition option, latest end date (further prerequisites) | 31 Dec 2035 | 3,341 |
A worked planning example, with hypothetical inputs: an Indian manufacturer with one ECC 6.0 EHP 7 production system on Oracle, about 1.5 TB, choosing a brownfield conversion to SAP Cloud ERP Private. Its integrator quotes 18 months from mobilisation to go-live, plus three months of hypercare, and the CIO wants six months of slack before 31 December 2030 for a failed mock conversion or a delayed cutover. Working backwards: go-live by 30 June 2030, mobilisation by 31 December 2028, and contract, custom-code analysis and data clean-up done during 2028.
Two consequences follow. At 1.5 TB the system is under the transition option's 2 TB minimum, so its only SAP route after 2030 is customer-specific maintenance without database-specific support. And a slip past 2030 turns the brownfield plan into a greenfield one. For that company, extended maintenance looks the safer choice, and 2028 is when the project starts, not when it is approved.
Worked cost example: extended maintenance against the default
We found no public SAP price list for ECC maintenance, and SAP's Cloud ERP pages ask you to request a quote rather than show prices. The extended maintenance premium is defined relative to your own contract, so the arithmetic works with any maintenance basis:
- Extended maintenance annual fee = (your current support rate + 2 percentage points) × maintenance basis.
- Extra cost each year = 0.02 × maintenance basis.
- Customer-specific maintenance = today's fee, with SAP's narrower scope.
On a hypothetical maintenance basis of ₹40 crore, the premium is 0.02 × ₹40 crore = ₹80 lakh a year, or 3 × ₹80 lakh = ₹2.4 crore across 2028, 2029 and 2030. That buys continued full support while the migration runs; the alternative is today's fee for known-issue fixes only.
For the transition option, the 2026 terms allow modelling. If a qualifying customer's SAP ERP, private edition subscription costs a hypothetical ₹15 crore a year at the end of 2030, a 2026 signer pays ₹15 crore × 1.2 = ₹18 crore a year from 2031, plus the Max Success Plan fee. A 2027 signer cannot model this yet.
An easily missed cost is dual running: ECC maintenance plus a new subscription during the project. SAP's RISE with SAP page, as we read it on 7 November 2026, publishes no credit for dual running. Ask SAP whether any migration incentive applies, and get it in writing before you sign.
Skills: the constraint to budget for early
The scarce input on every path is people who know your ECC and the target platform at once: S/4HANA functional leads who understand GST, ABAP developers retrained for clean-core extensions, SAP HANA administrators if you are leaving Oracle, Db2 or SQL Server, data migration specialists, test automation engineers, and change owners in finance and plant operations.
On 28 October 2026 SAP made four migration and modernisation assistants available to early adopter customers: Data Management, Test Management (which hands test cases to SAP Test Automation by Tricentis), a Custom Code Assistant for moves to SAP Cloud ERP Private, and a Business Configuration Assistant for SAP Cloud ERP. System Analysis, Project Management and Rollout assistants are planned. Pilot them as accelerators, not as a reason to staff the programme lighter.
India: GST, e-invoicing and data residency
For Indian ECC customers, cutovers fail in the statutory layer. Plan around these facts:
- E-invoicing scope. Under Notification 10/2023, e-invoicing has applied since 1 August 2023 to taxpayers whose aggregate annual turnover exceeds ₹5 crore. If you are in scope, every B2B invoice your new system posts needs an IRN from day one.
- The 30-day window. Since 1 April 2025, taxpayers with aggregate annual turnover of ₹10 crore or more must report invoices, credit notes and debit notes to an Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) within 30 days of the document date, and the IRP rejects anything older. A cutover freeze or post-go-live backlog longer than 30 days means invoices the IRP will refuse.
- IRP connectivity. The IRP returns the IRN, a signed e-invoice and a QR code. ECC estates usually reach it through a GST Suvidha Provider or an add-on connector, which every path to S/4HANA must re-point and retest, along with e-way bills and IRN and QR printing.
- New validations. GSTN's advisory of 17 June 2026 made ship-to GSTIN conditionally mandatory in the e-invoice and e-way bill by IRN APIs from 1 August 2026. Our ship-to GSTIN guide covers the error codes and the master-data work.
- Who ships legal changes. Extended maintenance continues SAP's support offerings through 2030, and the transition option explicitly includes legal changes. Customer-specific maintenance, as publicly described, does not promise them. Third-party providers sell their own update services; Rimini Street, for example, lists tax, legal and regulatory updates for SAP, and Spinnaker Support also sells third-party SAP support.
Greenfield lets you fix GSTIN, HSN, state code and ship-to master data before go-live; brownfield carries today's data quality across, so budget a clean-up workstream either way.
On data residency, SAP says Cloud ERP Private can run on a hyperscaler, in a private data centre or in a sovereign cloud. Ask which Indian region your instance, backups and disaster recovery copies will use, and map personal data in HR, vendor and customer masters against the DPDP Act; our DPDP engineering playbook covers the controls.
A 90-day plan for the CIO
- Inventory every ECC system: enhancement package, database vendor, AS Java usage, add-ons, and size per system against the 2 TB threshold.
- Read the contract: maintenance basis, support rate, renewal dates and notice periods. SAP's global commitments under a European Commission decision, effective 10 July 2026, allow three months' notice for some licence terminations and let you split a landscape into commercial installations with different support providers.
- Decide the private edition question by 31 December 2026 if you are a 2 TB-plus candidate for the transition option.
- Put the extended maintenance decision on the 2027 board calendar, well before 31 December 2027.
- Commission custom code and data quality analysis.
- Map every GST, e-invoicing and e-way bill integration with an owner, and design cutover around the 30-day IRP window.
- Run a competitive process: RISE with SAP, an SAP GROW fresh start, and a third-party support quote as a benchmark. Our comparison of the three lists the questions to ask.
- Write the board paper around 31 December 2030, not 2027.
How eCorpIT can help
eCorpIT is a Gurugram-based technology organisation, founded in 2021, assessed at CMMI Level 5 and MSME certified, with senior-led engineering teams working across AWS, Microsoft and Google platforms. For an ECC exit we work on the layer around the ERP, such as GST e-invoicing and e-way bill integration, data migration and reconciliation, and the cloud infrastructure underneath, through our digital transformation services. Talk to us at /contact-us/.
Last updated: 7 November 2026.
