Cloud Migration Strategy for Enterprise SAP Landscapes: OS/DB Migration and Cloud-Target Deployment Patterns

Enterprise SAP landscapes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia face a multi-year migration to SAP S/4HANA, driven by the convergence of vendor support timelines, the cloud direction of national policy under Saudi Vision 2030, and the practical limits of legacy database platforms. The migration is rarely a single event; it is a sequenced programme that combines operating-system and database migration, brownfield conversion or greenfield implementation, and a target deployment pattern on cloud or hybrid infrastructure. The literature treats each of these elements in isolation, and the vendor documentation describes them from a single perspective. This paper proposes a consolidated migration strategy that integrates OS/DB migration to SAP HANA, the conversion-versus-implementation decision for S/4HANA, near-zero-downtime techniques, and cloud-target deployment patterns into a coherent decision framework. The strategy is structured around six decision points (classification and inventory; OS/DB migration target; implementation approach; near-zero-downtime technique; cloud deployment topology; sequencing and cutover), each with explicit inputs, outputs, and risk considerations. The strategy is grounded in the SAP Activate methodology, the AWS Well-Architected SAP Lens, NIST cloud guidance, and the Saudi regulatory perimeter set by the Communications, Space and Technology Commission and the National Cybersecurity Authority. The paper presents a comparison of the principal migration approaches, discusses programme-level execution considerations including governance, quality gates, cutover rehearsal, skills and team topology, vendor engagement, and integration cutover, and maps the strategy to the Saudi regulatory perimeter. This is the second paper in a four-paper portfolio on cloud-era enterprise platforms for public-sector digital transformation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The contribution complements an earlier paper on hybrid cloud reference architecture for SAP (Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.20142321) and is itself complemented by companion papers on cloud-native AI and big data integration and on workforce readiness for the cloud-era enterprise.