When organisations move to RISE with SAP®, they’re promised a more agile, cloud-based ERP experience. But one thing that often gets overlooked in the transition is the impact of refresh downtime – especially during critical phases like testing, training, or project deployment. While infrastructure and service management are handled under RISE, the reality is that data refreshes still require planning, precision, and effort from internal teams. And when those refreshes take too long – or go wrong – it can delay projects, frustrate stakeholders, and erode the value of the cloud transition. In this post, we explain how this affects more than just IT; and what leading SAP teams are doing to reduce it.
When organisations move to RISE with SAP®, they’re promised a more agile, cloud-based ERP experience. But one thing that often gets overlooked in the transition is the impact of refresh downtime – especially during critical phases like testing, training, or project deployment.
While infrastructure and service management are handled under RISE, the reality is that data refreshes still require planning, precision, and effort from internal teams. And when those refreshes take too long – or go wrong – it can delay projects, frustrate stakeholders, and erode the value of the cloud transition.
In this post, we explain how this affects more than just IT; and what leading SAP teams are doing to reduce it.
Why downtime happens during RISE with SAP refreshes
Many of the refresh challenges RISE customers face today aren’t new; they’re on-premises habits carried into a cloud-first world.
Some of the most common contributors to downtime include:
- Legacy refresh methods: Full system copies are time-consuming and often unnecessary, but still widely used and provided by SAP in a typical RISE contract.
- Manual pre- and post-copy steps: Without automation, refreshes depend heavily on technical staff availability and capability, and lack thereof can introduce delays or errors.
- Compliance workflows: With increased data privacy obligations (e.g. GDPR, DPA restrictions in SAP contracts), masking sensitive data is essential – but often treated as an afterthought.
- Resource contention: Public cloud environments may not be optimised for the scale or timing of a full refresh, leading to performance bottlenecks.
When refreshes are handled inefficiently, what should be a routine operation becomes a scramble – and that's where downtime creeps in.
The real cost of downtime
Downtime doesn’t just affect system availability. In most cases, it affects:
- Project timelines: UAT, regression testing or go-lives are delayed because data environments aren’t ready on time.
- Team productivity: Developers, analysts and testers are left waiting or forced to work with outdated data.
- Business risk: Operating without refreshed, accurate and masked data can create compliance exposures or testing failures later.
Strategies to reduce downtime in RISE landscapes
Reducing downtime doesn’t require radical change – but it does require updating your approach for the cloud era. Here are some key strategies to consider:
1. Schedule smart, not just fast
Don’t treat refreshes as a background task. Co-ordinate timing with project milestones, business-critical windows, and data availability to avoid unintentional clashes. Build buffer time for validation and testing after refresh completion – not during.
2. Eliminate full copies where possible
Most refreshes don’t need to be full copies. Identify the specific business objects, time periods, or modules needed for each environment and limit the copy scope. This dramatically reduces data volume, infrastructure demand, and processing time.
3. Don’t mask after – mask during
A common mistake is copying data into non-production environments and then running masking processes afterward. This approach not only creates compliance risks but also adds days to the overall timeline. Privacy-compliant environments should be the output of the refresh, not a second step.
4. Automate repeatable tasks
Pre- and post-refresh steps are often repeatable – such as locking users, resetting batch jobs, re-establishing RFCs, or validating data integrity. Automation can remove delays, reduce the risk of error, and free up Basis teams to focus on critical exceptions.
5. Track and learn from every refresh
Document timing, issues, and outcomes from each refresh cycle. Use this data to continuously refine your approach, optimise your system copy tools, and build internal playbooks that reduce reliance on tribal knowledge.
What leading SAP teams are doing differently
Organisations that have moved beyond default methods are seeing real impact:
- Refresh cycles reduced from weeks to days
- Testing environments pre-masked and ready to go
- Less dependency on senior Basis resources for routine tasks
- Improved relationships between IT and business teams due to increased delivery speed
- Better testing outcomes, with fewer errors reaching Production thanks to faster access to accurate, relevant, and compliant data in non-production environments
These results don’t come from throwing more people at the problem. They come from rethinking the process to better suit cloud-era demands.
Final thoughts: update your processes alongside RISE with SAP
RISE with SAP changes the game – but only if your operational processes evolve with it. Refresh downtime is often a legacy of old habits, not a requirement of the new environment.
By adopting leaner, smarter refresh strategies, your team can avoid unnecessary delays, deliver projects faster, and get full value from your RISE investment.
Daniel Parker
With more than 15 years of SAP experience, Daniel Parker specialises in data copy automation and data security. He leads an experienced consulting team, and delivers a variety of landscape solutions to organisations in the APJ region.
