For the past 18 months, every conversation in the SAP BusinessObjects world has been about BI 4.3 and the 31 December 2026 deadline. Upgrade projects, infrastructure planning, Customer-Specific Maintenance — the BI 4.3 end of mainstream maintenance has dominated the agenda, and rightly so.

But there is a parallel deadline that has been quietly sitting in the background, getting almost no attention. And I'm seeing it in nearly every DS customer environment I engage with right now.

SAP Data Services 4.3 and SAP Information Platform Services 4.3 hit end of mainstream maintenance on exactly the same date — 31 December 2026.

Same cliff. Same terms. Same Customer-Specific Maintenance conditions. Just far less visibility — because the BI 4.3 conversation has consumed all the oxygen in the room.

This article is about making sure your DS 4.3 environment doesn't get left behind while everyone was looking the other way.

SAP Data Services 4.3 Is Going End of Life Too — And Most People Have Forgotten About It

"Everyone's been watching BI 4.3. Nobody's been watching DS 4.3. Same deadline. Same cliff."

About the Author

Hi, I'm Clint and I've been knee-deep in the SAP Business Objects world for over 25 years now. Yeah, I know, longer than I care to admit. My first installation was way back in SAP BI 6.5 - back when Desktop Intelligence was still a thing. Needless to say, I've seen it all.

After running two wildly successful global SAP Analytics consulting firms, being a SAP Mentor, and speaking on all things SAP Analytics and SAP Business Objects around the world, I'm here to help. I've moved to the "employee of one" model, and I'm available worldwide to assist you with your SAP BO upgrade.

I get it - I know how SAP is moving towards a "cloud first" approach, just like every other big vendor out there. But I also know that customers need to keep their on-premise BI 4.x implementation running alongside SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), as there's no seamless migration path to SAC. With all the lower versions of Business Objects, except for BI 4.3 and BI 2025, now being out of support, the need to upgrade for many customers is pressing. So, feel free to connect with me below to start the conversation or connect with me here or you can find out more about me here.

“With over 25 years in SAP Analytics, I’ve guided numerous businesses through seamless upgrades, ensuring minimal downtime and optimal performance.”

Simplify Your SAP Upgrade Today!

Why DS 4.3 and IPS 4.3 Are the Same Problem as BI 4.3

To understand why these deadlines align, you need to understand how the products relate to each other.

SAP Data Services is SAP's on-premise ETL platform — the engine that moves, transforms, and loads data across your landscape. It does not run standalone. It requires a platform layer to manage its jobs, scheduling, security, and administration. That platform layer is the SAP Information Platform Services (IPS) — a lightweight, dedicated version of the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform, built specifically for DS deployments.

IPS is not a separate product in any meaningful sense. It shares the same codebase, the same version numbering, the same Platform Availability Matrix, and critically — the same maintenance lifecycle as the full BI platform.

When SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.3 goes end of mainstream maintenance on 31 December 2026, IPS 4.3 goes with it. SAP Knowledge Base Article 3763590 — SAP BI Platform 4.3 — End of Mainstream Maintenance 31 December 2026, Version 6, released 12 June 2026 — makes this explicit. The scope of that note covers not just the BI platform, but specifically:

SAP BusinessObjects Information Platform Services 4.3 (IPS for DS)
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.3 Product Suite
SAP Crystal Reports 2020
SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.3
SAP BusinessObjects Live Office 4.3
SAP Crystal Server 2020

IPS 4.3 is named. Same deadline. No exceptions.

And since IPS 4.3 is the platform that DS 4.3 runs on — DS 4.3 is exposed by exactly the same deadline, whether customers realise it or not.

The DS 4.3 Timeline — Confirmed by SAP

SAP's own Statement of Direction for SAP Data Services, updated July 2024, confirmed the aligned timeline explicitly. In SAP's words:

"We have made a change in Q3 of 2024, wherein the SAP Data Services and SAP Information Steward 4.3 timeline has been extended — mainstream support till end of December 2026. Priority 1 support has been replaced with CSM (Customer Specific Maintenance)."

That statement is worth unpacking. The original DS 4.3 mainstream maintenance end date was end of 2025. SAP extended it to end of 2026 to align with BI 4.3 — and simultaneously replaced the old Priority 1 Support model with Customer-Specific Maintenance.

The practical result: DS 4.3 and IPS 4.3 now sit on exactly the same support trajectory as BI 4.3. Mainstream ends 31 December 2026. CSM starts 1 January 2027. The same conditions that apply to BI 4.3 after that date apply equally to your DS and IPS environment.

What Customer-Specific Maintenance Actually Means for DS/IPS

I covered the CSM conditions in detail in my previous article — Staying on BI 4.3 After December 2026 — Here's What You're Actually Signing Up For. The same conditions apply to DS 4.3 and IPS 4.3. But let me call out the points that matter most for a DS environment specifically.

SAP Knowledge Base Article 3486924 — Customer-Specific Maintenance Phase for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence, Version 8, released 13 May 2026 — states:

"Development will deliver security fixes during the first 12 months of CSM for VH and H security issues (CVSS >= 7.0) impacting BI."

For DS and IPS, the same 12-month security window applies. After December 2027 — no patches, no hotfixes, no private notes of any kind.

On new bugs:

"If the error is not yet known and no SAP Note / KBA documenting the problem has been released for customers in the relevant release, it is considered a new, unknown error. In this case, further processing is considered a consulting service subject to charge."

A new DS 4.3 bug discovered after 1 January 2027 is a billable consulting engagement with SAP. That's not a theoretical risk — DS environments are complex, data volumes grow, sources change, and new issues emerge regularly in any active ETL landscape.

On SAP's ability to resolve problems:

"SAP cannot guarantee that every problem can or will be solved within Customer-Specific Maintenance."

And on the infrastructure layer — which is particularly relevant for DS customers running on older OS and database combinations:

"SAP cannot support software from third-party providers (for example, operating systems, databases or components), which is no longer maintained by the manufacturer."

DS environments often run on database and OS stacks that have not been touched in years. If your DS 4.3 server is sitting on Windows Server 2016 — which reaches full end of life in January 2027, the same month CSM starts — you have a stack where the ETL platform, the IPS layer, and the operating system are all simultaneously in their end-of-life positions. SAP's own Note tells you they cannot support a third-party OS that is no longer maintained. That is a compounding exposure, not a single risk.

The Compatibility Lock: Why You Cannot Upgrade DS Without Upgrading IPS

Here's the constraint that creates the real planning challenge — and the one most customers hit without anticipating it.

DS 4.3 and IPS 4.3 must run on compatible versions. They always have. The dependency is architectural — DS registers its jobs and manages its repository through IPS's Central Management System (CMS). Change one, and you need to validate and potentially upgrade the other.

SAP Note 3623529 — SAP Data Services 2025 and SAP Information Steward 2025 compatibility with SAP Business Intelligence Platform and Information Platform Services 2025, Version 16, released 08 May 2026 — is the official compatibility matrix for DS 2025. It confirms that DS 2025 is certified against BIP/IPS 2025. Not BIP/IPS 4.3. The upgrade path for DS is tied directly to the upgrade path for IPS.

This means:

You cannot upgrade DS 4.3 to DS 2025 while keeping IPS on 4.3
You cannot upgrade IPS 4.3 to IPS 2025 without also addressing your DS version
The two upgrades must be planned and executed together as a coordinated workstream

For organisations that have been treating their DS environment as a separate concern from the BI 4.3 EOL conversation — this is the moment to understand that it is not separate. It is the same project, with additional complexity.

The Version You're Upgrading To: DS 2025

SAP's Statement of Direction for Data Services, updated July 2024, confirmed the upgrade target:

"With the mainstream maintenance of version 4.3 of SAP Data Services suite ending in 2026, we do not want to leave our large customer base behind, and therefore we have decided to release an updated version, code named SAP Data Services 2025 to provide more time to our on-premises customers."

DS 2025 is the current release. It aligns with BIP/IPS 2025. The compatibility matrix in SAP Note 3623529 confirms DS 2025 SP0 Patch 3 as the current certified release against BIP/IPS 2025.

SAP's own advice from that Note is unambiguous:

"SAP always recommends to use latest and greatest SAP DS, IPS/BIP certified versions that has security and bug fixes for better support."

The upgrade path is DS 2025 on IPS 2025. That is the only certified, fully-supported combination going forward.

What This Means for Your Upgrade Planning

If you have a DS environment and the EOL conversation has been focused exclusively on BI 4.3, here is what needs to happen now:

First — establish whether your DS environment is on 4.3. If it is, it has the same deadline as BI 4.3. 31 December 2026. No exceptions.

Second — understand that upgrading DS is not a standalone project. It requires IPS to move at the same time. If your organisation is already planning a BI 2025 upgrade, the DS/IPS workstream needs to be scoped into that project — or run in close coordination with it.

Third — look at your OS and database layer. DS environments that have been stable for years are frequently running on infrastructure that is itself approaching end of life. Windows Server 2016, older SQL Server versions, older Oracle versions. The same infrastructure-first thinking that applies to BI 4.3 applies here. Get the OS and database current first, then land DS 2025 and IPS 2025 on a clean, certified, fully-supported foundation.

Fourth — do not wait for something to break before starting this conversation. DS environments carry critical data pipelines. The last place you want to discover what Customer-Specific Maintenance means in practice is during a production data load failure at month-end close.

The Bottom Line

The BI 4.3 deadline has been visible and well-discussed. The DS 4.3 deadline is the same date, carrying the same CSM conditions, but with a fraction of the awareness.

SAP KBA 3763590 names IPS 4.3 explicitly in the BI 4.3 EOL scope. SAP's Statement of Direction for DS confirmed the December 2026 mainstream maintenance end date. SAP Note 3486924 sets out the CSM conditions that follow. The documentation is there. The deadline is the same. The risk of doing nothing is identical.

If your DS 4.3 environment has not been part of your EOL planning conversation — it needs to be. Today.

As of 1 July 2026, there are six months left. That is not enough time to start planning. It is enough time to execute — if you start now.

If you want to work through what a DS 2025 and IPS 2025 upgrade looks like for your specific landscape, reach out. That conversation is free. Running a critical ETL platform on an unsupported stack is not.