How Tech Envo migrated 32 SAP SuccessFactors HCM integrations from Neo to Cloud Foundry in 5 weeks

[KavyaManohara]

1. Purpose of the document:

This document outlines how Tech Envo successfully migrated 32 SAP SuccessFactors HCM integrations from Neo to Cloud Foundry within a five-week timeframe. The doc covers the planning, migration approach, deployment, Lessons learned, and Tech Envo Recommendations. 

The customer has built 32 integrations in 2016-17 using the SAP Cloud Integration (SAP CPI) Neo environment for SAP SuccessFactors HCM. My customer plans to start the S/4HANA journey in September 2025, and SAP Integration Suite is the chosen integration platform. We will utilize all SAP IS capabilities. Hence, moving to Cloud Foundry makes sense.

2. Why SAP SuccessFactors HCM customer needs to migrate from Neo to Cloud Foundry SAP Integration Suite: 

The multi-cloud foundation has become the strategic focus for SAP BTP due to its significant benefits compared to the Neo environment, including its principles of openness and freedom of choice in terms of support for multiple infrastructure providers, data centers, and a wide range of runtimes and programming languages. Unlike for Neo where you can use selected service

1. Many SAP customers have built integrations in the Neo SAP Cloud Integration (Cloud Integration) environment; now, SAP encourages customers to move to the Multi-Cloud Foundation.
2. SAP Business Technology Platform, Neo environment will sunset on December 31, 2028.
3. SAP Cloud Foundry Multi Cloud Foundation offers all the services provided by SAP Integration Suite 
4. It is a strategic decision to migrate to Multi Cloud Foundation.

 3. Neo to CF SAP IS Migration Steps by Tech Envo:

4. Migration Decision-Making Process: 

We have utilized this migration opportunity to enhance the readability of the SAP IS Packages. This is an optional step, but we highly recommend it. 

  Migration Step 1: Cloud Foundry SAP Integration Suite Provisioning: 

1.     Get access to the Cloud Foundry Environment
2.     Set up Sub Account
3.     Set up Admin, Roles, and Authorizations
4.     Identify the volume of messages and check the right license model selected
5.     Detailed steps for pre-requisites are mentioned in the help documentation below

https://help.sap.com/docs/cloud-integration/sap-cloud-integration/initial-setup-of-sap-cloud-integra... 

Migration Step 2: Neo Environment Assessment and Evaluation: 

1. Create a detailed assessment report capturing all the details about the Neo Tenant Integrations
2. Validated naming conventions used in the Neo environment, and decided to make some changes after migration to add a unique ID to the package and a meaningful name for value mappings
3. Performed cleanup of unused integrations and excluded them from the Migration
4. Shared CF IP ranges with external systems to whitelist the traffic

Below is the inventory sheet we generated out of the new environment

Migration Step 3: Migration Planning  and Tasks: 

1.     Create a detailed task that needs to be executed as part of the migration. 
2.     Execute all pre-requisites ahead of migration. 
3.     Identify which tasks will be automated using the SAP Migration tool, and which tasks need to be performed manually

Migration Step 4: Migrate Integration to CF Dev environment:

• We have used the SAP Migration Assistance Tool and the Manual  Approach to complete the Migration. Many blogs have been written that have step-by-step instructions on configuring the Migration Assistance tool.

https://help.sap.com/docs/cloud-integration/sap-cloud-integration-migration-guide/migrating-cloud-in... 

• Identified what objects can be migrated using the SAP Automation Tool and what requires a manual approach.
• Executed migration and Validation Tasks with Duration and status tracking and performed smoke testing to ensure the end-to-end connection worked for each integration.
• Check and configure Run Time parameters and ensure everything is moved and configured. 
• Executed all integrations in the Dev environment, ensuring they executed successfully.

 Migration Step 5: Production Migration and Deployment

1. Start Production Migration once the Dev environment tasks and validation have been successfully migrated. 
2. Migrate all Integration Content from Neo Production to SAP IS Production Tenant.
3. Perform Validation for each interface and do smoke testing (if necessary)
4. Stop Neo Schedules
5. Schedule all production interfaces in the SAP IS environment. 

Migration Step 6: Decommission of Neo Tenant:

1.  Plan the decommissioning of the SAP Neo Tenant after 4 weeks of SAP IS Live.
2. Notify SAP Operations to decommission the tenant

5. Lessons Learned Migrating SAP SuccessFactors HCM Interfaces from Neo to CF :

1.  Neo Dev Tenant has so many unused packages – We identified the Final Integration packages based on the Production Deployed Interfaces
2. The Integration code misalignment—The dev and Product codebases are not the same, and the customer team made changes directly in the code. We migrated code from Neo Prod to Neo Dev and ensured that everything was identical to production.
3. Naming conventions: The SI (don’t want to reveal the name), who built the integrations in Neo, did not follow any naming conventions. Hence, we decided to add a unique ID and make the interface package name meaningful for custom integrations. 
4. The SAP Cloud Connector Changes: Setting up the cloud connector to connect the CF SAP IS sub-account took longer due to the customer governance process.   
5. IP Allowlisting and External Systems Connection: Plan sufficient time to ensure all connections to external systems and IP whitelisting are made. 
6. Authentication Mechanism: Most integrations have used basic authentication, which is high-risk. We utilized this migration opportunity to address the issue.

6. Tech Envo Recommendations for Neo to CF Migration:

•  The Neo to SF SAP IS Migration effort is less, so plan it better and document the tasks.
• Get the right SI/consultants who have experience with Neo to CF Migration. Your project shouldn’t become a playground for learning and performing migration tasks.
• Look for an opportunity to make Integration packages more readable, like having meaningful names.
• Implement automation to receive email notifications when an interface fails and certificates expire. Tech Envo has built two integrations to handle the same. 
• The migration follows a sequence of steps mentioned above; make sure to follow the sequence in the correct order to ensure a successful migration.
• Maintain a good documentation for each integration, including a technical specification document with detailed technical information, an interface design diagram, and an overall landscape.
• Implement the proper security authentication mechanism and encryption techniques