SAP will end mainstream maintenance for SAP PI/PO 7.5 on December 31, 2027. Your PI/PO system won't switch off the next morning — but SAP will stop issuing security patches, regulatory updates, and bug fixes for it, unless you pay for extended maintenance through 2030. If your integration team hasn't started planning a move to SAP Integration Suite, here's what the deadline really means, and why 2026 is the year to start.

Architecture: On-Premise Middleware vs. Cloud-Native iPaaS

PI/PO runs in your own data center as centralized middleware — every message passes through infrastructure you patch, scale, and maintain yourself. SAP Integration Suite runs on SAP BTP, so scaling, availability, and platform updates are handled by SAP. That shift matters most when your landscape includes SAP S/4HANA Cloud or other SaaS applications that PI/PO was never really designed to reach cleanly.

Integration Style: Batch and Point-to-Point vs. Real-Time and Event-Driven

PI/PO's integration model leans heavily on synchronous, point-to-point, and batch-based patterns. SAP Integration Suite supports those same patterns through Cloud Integration, but adds a genuinely event-driven option through Event Mesh — systems can publish events like "purchase order created" or "stock level changed," and any number of subscribers can react in real time, decoupled from the system that raised the event.

API Management: A Capability PI/PO Never Had

PI/PO has no native API management layer — exposing a governed, secured, rate-limited API meant bolting on a separate API gateway product. SAP Integration Suite includes API Management out of the box: OAuth-based security, rate limiting, usage analytics, and a developer portal for internal or external API consumers, all in the same platform as your integration flows.

Connecting Beyond SAP: Open Connectors

Reaching non-SAP SaaS applications from PI/PO usually meant custom adapter development. SAP Integration Suite's Open Connectors provide prebuilt connectors to a wide range of third-party applications and data sources, cutting down the custom-build work needed to connect tools like CRM, e-commerce, or HR platforms into your SAP landscape.

B2B and EDI: Integration Advisor & Trading Partner Management

For B2B and EDI scenarios, PI/PO relied on manually built and maintained mappings per trading partner. SAP Integration Suite pairs Integration Advisor (content-based routing and mapping) with Trading Partner Management (partner onboarding and profile management), reducing a lot of the manual upkeep that made B2B interfaces a maintenance burden in PI/PO.

What Actually Carries Over From PI/PO

Not everything needs to be rebuilt from zero. Business logic, mapping rules, and process flows can usually be re-implemented in Cloud Integration, even where they can't be copy-pasted directly. Some simpler interfaces migrate close to as-is; others are a good opportunity to re-architect around APIs or events instead of replicating an old point-to-point pattern. A proper migration assessment — the first step in our SAP Integration Suite Migration Services — sorts out which interfaces fall into which category before any rebuilding starts.

Which One Should You Be Running in 2027?

SAP has already answered this one: mainstream maintenance for PI/PO ends December 31, 2027, and SAP Integration Suite is the direct, SAP-recommended replacement. The architecture and capability gaps above are exactly why SAP built it that way — not as a rebrand of PI/PO, but as a genuinely different platform for how integration works today. If you haven't read it yet, our post on SAP PI/PO End of Maintenance in 2027 walks through exactly what the deadline means and how much runway you realistically have.