Migrating SAP BW with Kronos - From Legacy to Flexibility
The end of SAP BW support is pushing many enterprises to look for reliable, scalable alternatives. At codbex, we’ve built Kronos to address exactly that challenge, by enabling the migration of SAP BW artifacts to modern platforms like Snowflake, PostgreSQL, HANA, and Oracle, without losing control or reengineering everything from scratch.
Why Kronos?
Kronos is an open-source data transformation and integration platform built with cloud-native Java and JavaScript/TypeScript technologies. It’s designed for hybrid modernization, supporting both lift-and-shift of ABAP-based logic and rebuild of data pipelines using modern tools.
With Kronos, your SAP BW investment is not lost. Instead, it becomes portable, extensible, and future-proof.
Four Flexible Migration Options with Kronos
ABAP Engine for Lift-and-Shift Mappings
For teams who prefer to preserve existing SAP BW logic, Kronos provides a built-in ABAP engine for reusing InfoProvider transformations and mapping logic. This is ideal for:
- Fast onboarding of legacy BW logic
- Migrate your InfoProviders and mappings as they are
- Incremental migration planning
Start your migration journey using the built-in ABAP engine in Kronos where:
- ABAP code is transpiled and executed within Kronos
- SAP BASIS APIs are re-implemented natively to support BW logic
- Minimal refactoring required for preserving existing behavior
The core ABAP APIs from SAP BW are re-implemented in Kronos by our partner Heliconia Labs, enabling seamless execution of transpiled mapping logic without an actual SAP runtime.
More information about the legal aspects of this option can be found here.
Visual Mapping with Mapping Modeller
Want a low-code, visual way to rebuild your transformations? Kronos includes a Mapping Modeller that allows you to:
- Visually define source → target field mappings
- Add constant values
- Apply functions and filters
- Define custom handlers in JavaScript or TypeScript
This no-code/low-code experience helps data engineers and business users alike design powerful transformations without writing ABAP code. It’s also ideal for functional consultants or business-focused teams who want transparency and control, without diving into code.
Direct JavaScript/TypeScript Handlers in Apache Camel
Kronos leverages Apache Camel as the backbone of its ETL/ELT pipeline engine. You can create Camel routes and enrich them with custom JavaScript/TypeScript handlers, allowing maximum flexibility and integration with external systems, APIs, or business logic.
You can directly define custom handlers to implement complex logic using:
- JavaScript / TypeScript
- Reusable and testable processing components
- Flexible integration with REST, JDBC, files, and more
This path gives you full programmatic control over your pipelines—ideal for custom transformations and real-time integrations.
Target-Side Stored Procedures
In environments where logic is best executed close to the data, Kronos supports invoking stored procedures directly within your target databases, including:
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL/MariaDB
- Snowflake
- SAP HANA
This method reduces data movement and takes advantage of database-native performance optimizations.
Choose Your Path - Or Combine Them!
The beauty of Kronos lies in its modularity. These four options aren’t mutually exclusive—you can mix and match them based on:
- Your current BW landscape
- Team skillsets (ABAP, JS, SQL)
- Performance and maintenance considerations
- Future-proofing and extensibility
Whether you want a quick migration, a flexible transformation, or a cloud-native redesign, Kronos is your reliable engine to move SAP BW to modern data platforms like Snowflake, PostgreSQL, or SAP BTP.
Ready to Get Started?
Explore Kronos in action, and let’s start your BW modernization journey today.