Woolworths Group accelerates core retail operations with SAP Azure migration

Woolworths Group, a major Australian retailer, completed one of the largest SAP cloud migrations in the Asia Pacific & Japan region by moving its business-critical SAP systems to Microsoft Azure. The migration encompassed more than 20 SAP applications, 75TB of data, 135 database servers, and 435 application servers, all transitioned with minimal disruption to customers and operations. A coordinated global effort between Woolworths, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) ensured a downtime window of just 17 hours, with the team working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The migration enabled Woolworths Group to reduce technology risk, improve agility, and significantly enhance operational resilience and processing stability, while also modernizing disaster recovery capabilities. Redesign of disaster recovery, compression of datasets, and improved infrastructure have halved Woolworths’ data footprint and positioned the company for ongoing ERP modernization. Since migration, Woolworths has achieved notable speed, efficiency, and business process improvements during critical retail periods. The project demonstrates how strategic collaboration with technology partners can drive modernization and prepare retail businesses for future digital transformation.