Shortly before the support freeze for Russian cloud customers, SAP offered to move their data abroad for free. Credit: Zmeel / Getty Images SAP has offered its customers in Russia the option to move their cloud data out of the country before its data centers there are shut down, according to Ukrainian news portal The Kyiv Independent. In a March 23 letter from SAP’s executive board, the Walldorf-based company gave its Russian clients three options to choose from. SAP could delete their data or hand it over to them, both of which would end the contract immediately. The third option is to migrate the data to foreign data centers. This service is free of charge, according to the letter. An SAP spokesperson told CIO magazine that the data in the data centers does not belong to the company, but to its customers. For legal reasons, the company has therefore worked out options for transferring this data. He added that this also applied to international customers who had previously also been active in the Russian market. Should a Russian company decide to move its data abroad, it would not be able to use it. The letter is dated the day before the software company announced on March 24 that it would stop all sales in Russia and cease cloud operations. It also said it would not provide “any support or engagement.” SAP products purchased and installed there in on-premises operations and supported by the company’s own IT departments are not affected, he said. The extent to which the data migration offered should be considered “support” remains questionable. The letter to the Russian companies stated that the aim was to provide cloud customers with the highest possible level of ongoing service. Contingency plans would be developed to ensure business continuity for clients running solutions in Russian SAP data centers. Factors such as supply chain difficulties or “redundancy failures” would push SAP to develop a plan to manage Russian clients’ solutions abroad, the statement added. The letter is silent on the fact that Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions imposed by NATO countries is the trigger for the data center shutdown. SAP merely speaks of “extraordinary times”. The letter thus stands in stark contrast to the tone of the March 24 press release, which states, “Russia’s ongoing unjustified war is a heartbreaking display of brutality and a violation of the fundamental principle of freedom that we share with Ukraine.” Translated from an article published by CIO Germany: “SAP hält Daten russischer Kunden vor” Related content brandpost Sponsored by DataStax Disrupting the enterprise: How AI is redefining people, process, and productivity AI solves for both thought and time scarcity – and opens up a whole new world of possibilities. By Chet Kapoor, CEO, DataStax, and Prasad Setty, DataStax advisor and Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer May 09, 2024 8 mins Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence news SAP, IBM Consulting partner to offer genAI-based services The partnership will see both companies offer generative AI-based services to enterprises via RISE with SAP offering. By Anirban Ghoshal May 09, 2024 3 mins Generative AI IBM SAP feature Essential skills and traits of chief AI officers CAIOs require a multidimensional skill set to drive innovation, establish and lead an AI-ready culture, and create tangible organizational results leveraging a complex and rapidly evolving technology. By David Weldon May 09, 2024 9 mins Artificial Intelligence IT Leadership case study How being cloud smart fosters growth at Saab Fuelled by global turbulence and increasing defense budgets, Swedish defense group Saab is meeting high demand by integrating efforts to become more software-driven, and central to managing it all is CIO Annette Eriksson. By Karin Lindström May 09, 2024 5 mins CIO Aerospace and Defense Industry Cloud Architecture PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe