McKesson was eyeing an eventual cloud migration for its SAP ecosystem when the company learned its on-premises hardware would no longer be supported, accelerating the timeline.
McKesson worked with Microsoft to execute a fast migration that minimized downtime and impact on the business.
McKesson now has one of the largest SAP instances in any hyperscaler, with performance improvements between 30% and 40%. The tech team also has credibility and respect to continue its cloud transformation.
Founded in 1833, McKesson, a diversified healthcare solutions leader, has evolved into one of the largest healthcare companies in the United States. By integrating technology with healthcare, McKesson aims to improve patient outcomes at scale. McKesson supports independent pharmacies, oncology clinics, health systems and frontline providers with solutions that improve access, enable clinical research and drive affordability. And they play a key role in powering healthcare as the distributor of a third of all of the medicines in the United States.
A recent and powerful example: McKesson operated as a centralized distributor for COVID-19 vaccines and ancillary supply kits. This impact fuels Meena Kishanchandani, Vice President of ERP Platform & Transformation Services, who has been with the company for 18 years.
Kishanchandani and her team at McKesson recognize the critical role technology plays in enabling life-changing possibilities. Central to this is McKesson’s SAP ecosystem, which supports operations across multiple business units. The long-term vision for the SAP ecosystem was clear: Move it to the cloud.
Anthony St. Louis, Vice President of Cloud Engineering and Design, joined McKesson two years ago to support the company’s journey toward cloud adoption, aligning with the strategic goals of modernization. Initially, the plan was to maintain the SAP systems on-premises in the short term while gradually migrating workloads to the cloud.
“This initiative is not merely about replacing outdated hardware. By taking this important step forward, we are supporting our customers and the patients they serve, ensuring that patient care remains uncompromised.”
Franee Hofmann, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Infrastructure and Technology Platforms, McKesson
When McKesson learned that some of the hardware supporting their SAP databases would soon be unsupported, the company faced a critical decision: refresh on-premises infrastructure or take the opportunity to migrate.
Running SAP on unsupported hardware was not just a technical liability; it threatened compliance, stability and business continuity. As Kishanchandani puts it, "Do you want to do something short-term or something that moves you closer to your future goals?"
The choice was clear. Migrate swiftly to avoid operating in an unsupported environment. McKesson selected Microsoft Azure for its SAP transformation due to its hyperscale capabilities, compliance features and seamless integration with enterprise workloads.
McKesson underwent three to four months of detailed discovery and design to build a comprehensive integration catalog, understand exactly how all their applications talk to one another and decide how to group systems together and migrate them in waves. This preparation phase was critical for the migration of McKesson’s largest SAP system, comprising 220 terabytes of raw data. By customizing migration tools and rethinking traditional SAP migration paths, McKesson reduced downtime to just 48 hours without disrupting critical operations.
Another critical aspect was ensuring all McKesson business units were invested in the project. As Franee Hofmann, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Infrastructure and Technology Platforms, puts it, “This initiative is not merely about replacing outdated hardware. By taking this important step forward, we are supporting our customers and the patients they serve, ensuring that patient care remains uncompromised."
Hofmann credits Kishanchandani with the strong leadership and persuasion skills needed to secure buy-in from all the business units. The team also prioritized audit and compliance from the outset, ensuring a seamless transition.
“This gave us motivation for a lot of the other applications. If we can move our largest system, our ERP system, the lifeblood of the overall enterprise, we now have the confidence and support to move our other large systems.”
Anthony St. Louis, Vice President of Cloud Engineering and Design, McKesson
Today, on Azure, McKesson boasts one of the largest SAP instances in any hyperscaler, with performance improvements of 30% to 40%. More importantly, the technology team at McKesson has earned credibility and respect from the organization, propelling further cloud transformation initiatives.
“This gave us motivation for a lot of the other applications,” St. Louis says. “If we can move our largest system, our ERP system, the lifeblood of the overall enterprise, we now have the confidence and support to move our other large systems.”
Faster performance. Lower risk. Increased credibility. McKesson’s SAP migration didn’t just modernize the infrastructure; it unlocked momentum, setting the stage for future innovations that enhance healthcare delivery.
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