SAP Public Cloud: Swissbit moves forward into the future with AEB solutions

“Our SAP base release dated back to 2013,” summarizes Benjamin Bennicke, responsible SAP Cloud Architect at Swissbit. “In terms of security, we were up-to-date, but new functionalities? Not a chance. ABAP 7.4 was simply the end of innovation.”

Therefore, the decision was clear: Instead of a costly and time-consuming ECC upgrade – with all the challenges of old custom developments and limited future viability – Swissbit's SAP landscape should transition directly to the public cloud. On board: AEB as a solution provider and integrator for key functions in international trade and logistics.

Go-live is scheduled for May 2026. The path is challenging, because it is not just about a technical migration, but about a complete realignment of the system landscape. Including master data cleanup, reorganization of individual processes, implementation of new cloud-specific enhancements, and thorough testing phases.

To understand the decision in favor of the public cloud, it is worth taking a look behind the scenes of the leading European technology company for industrial flash storage and security solutions:

The Swiss manufacturer Swissbit operates globally with customers, partners, and suppliers, which is why functional customs processing, reliable compliance checks, and efficient logistics processes are critical to business operations.

For a medium-sized company with lean structures and limited staff capacities of around 400 employees, this means: Growing international business should not lead to increased effort. Automation holds the key – from sanctions list screening to package label generation.

The SAP Public Cloud offers the right framework for this: With automated updates, clearly predictable operating costs, high scalability, and the ability to flexibly integrate new requirements. This allows the IT team to focus on the further development of processes instead of having to spend a lot of time and money on maintenance and infrastructure.

Even in the old ECC system, Swissbit utilized several solutions from AEB. These include Compliance Screening with sanctions list checks, classification of goods with Product Classification, and Customs Management for customs processing.

“It was evident to us from the outset of our planning: Our service providers should be part of the new system environment,” explains Cloud Architect Benjamin Bennicke. But the reality was different: Many providers were not yet ready for the public cloud. AEB did not yet have a finished cloud product either, but was willing to develop it together with Swissbit.

“We were not left hanging. In the beginning, AEB provided us with all the APIs we needed to migrate the solutions to the public cloud. Together with the promise that we could later switch to the standard product for the cloud as soon as one was available,” recalls Bennicke. In the course of the project, Swissbit became a pilot customer for AEB's public cloud solutions, and AEB went from being a service provider to a development partner.

Formally, the project follows the greenfield approach. In reality, however, a deliberately pragmatic approach is taken.

"Strictly speaking, we are not fully following the Greenfield approach because we are taking master data with us. However, customizing or ABAP transports cannot be carried over," explains Bennicke. In the transfer of master data, he relies on targeted selection: Thousands of data sets are indeed transferred - but only those that are truly needed.

Important processes for customs, export controls, and logistics are implemented using the business services in the AEB Cloud. These were already integrated in the old ECC system, but included custom extensions, some of which were programmed in ABAP. As such adjustments cannot be made in the public cloud, these processes are now being implemented consistently in accordance with the SAP specifications for Clean Core. For this purpose, AEB is providing new APIs and, in collaboration with Swissbit, is clarifying how data and processes can be integrated in line with these standards.

On a technical level, Bennicke is pleasantly surprised by the flexibility of the SAP Public Cloud: “I would never have thought at the beginning that the public cloud could be adapted so extensively. I have my own events, individual APIs, and specific extension logics. Many requirements can be mapped flexibly and I am still operating within the clean core.”

Swissbit demonstrates the challenges and opportunities associated with a public cloud project. The complete abandonment of existing in-house developments, the strict adherence to the clean-core principle, and the consistent redevelopment of complex processes – such as those in export controls - make the path challenging. However, it was precisely this radical new beginning that opened up the possibility of leaving legacy issues behind and redesigning processes that also require less maintenance.

“The foundation for a smooth migration of all processes to the public cloud has now been laid, we just have to work through it,” summarizes Bennicke with relief. There is still a lot to do, especially with the data transfer. However, the initial uncertainties – such as whether all processes can be mapped using standard SAP technologies – have now been successfully resolved. Today, the entire project team is confident about the remaining steps.