Making SaaS Escrow work for your business
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Demand for Software as a Service (SaaS) applications are growing at a rapid rate. With an increase in remote working since the Covid pandemic, SaaS applications enable businesses with improved accessibility and cost-effectiveness. However, with more companies shifting from traditional methods to SaaS-based offerings, SaaS vendors have more control over a business’s source code and data – which is fine as they will offer security, faster updates, etc – but what would happen to your IT services if your SaaS provider went bust? This is where a SaaS escrow agreement can help.
What is a SaaS Escrow Agreement?
A SaaS Escrow Agreement is the process of keeping a copy of critical SaaS application data with a SaaS escrow vendor. Similar to source code escrow, where critical software source code is stored with an independent third party, SaaS escrow applies the same logic to the entire cloud environment including the data hosted within a SaaS application. It allows companies to protect their data that resides within SaaS applications hosted by a third party, protecting them against data loss.
There are many and varied reasons for considering a SaaS escrow agreement including concerns about vendor bankruptcy, ransomware attacks, unplanned service outages, and potential data loss or corruption.
The most popular SaaS escrow solutions include:
- Replicated SaaS Continuity with 90 Days of Live Availability – This provides a replicated cloud environment with databases using deployment templates that may be activated in the event of a release situation. In the event of a release, the SaaS escrow vendor will be on hand to keep the lights on and provide a continuity of service for a period of up to 90 days.
- SaaS Environment Escrow – This incorporates a deposit of the cloud environment which may include containers, deployment scripts, templates, automated deposits of databases and source code deposits from Git repositories including relevant documentation.
- SaaS Access Continuity – This solution includes the deposit of the developer’s access credentials to the cloud hosting vendor’s production account. Solutions include the transfer of the access credentials to the Beneficiary and the possibility of the SaaS escrow vendor maintaining the production environment for a 90 day period to ensure continuity post-release event.
SaaS Continuity Escrow Benefits
Over the years, SaaS escrow vendors such as Escrow London have adapted themselves to improve upon their customers’ overall experience and turn SaaS escrow into a painless process. Below are just a few benefits of why companies are investing in a SaaS escrow agreement.
- Business Continuity Satisfaction – If your critical SaaS vendor enters into bankruptcy, and you don’t have access to your data, this could be catastrophic for your business. The cost of SaaS escrow is usually a small percentage of the overall cost of an investment in technology. Investing in a SaaS escrow solution will ensure business continuity and will mitigate against the risks associated with modern cloud service delivery methods and the growing responsibility of service providers.
- Provides accurate and up-to-date data – A SaaS escrow agreement will only have value if the data and deposit materials are up-to-date and accurate. Investing in a SaaS escrow vendor who can introduce automated deposits as standard within all their agreements will provide extra benefits to your business. Being in the know that they have safe and regular back-ups of your data, which can be released to you if needed, will result in having your business operations running continuously. Â
- Verification Testing – as mentioned above, investing in a SaaS escrow vendor who can introduce automated deposits as standard will provide extra benefits. In addition to this, verification testing provided by the SaaS escrow vendor can ensure that the system is deployable and operational, offering added advantages to your business.
If you want to find out more on how to find the right SaaS escrow vendor for your business, please read our blog here.
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About Escrow London
Escrow London is a global software escrow vendor headquartered in the United Kingdom. Our global coverage is provided across our London office, Escrow London North America Inc in Atlanta, and our Australian office in Sydney.
We have invested considerable resources into innovation to reinvent software escrow for a SaaS world. Escrow London provides a range of SaaS Continuity escrow solutions suitable for AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud hosted SaaS applications. We support a wide range of clients includes major law firms, banks, central banks, insurance companies, technology companies and government organisations.
