SaaS Escrow - The answers to your FAQs - Part 1

There has been a huge shift in cloud and Software-as-a-service (SaaS) adoption globally, notably with government, large enterprise and financial institutions. An article issued by BMC Software looking at the state of SaaS in 2022 found that:

  • The SaaS market is currently growing by 18% each year. North America is the most mature market in terms of cloud computing services adoption, due to several factors, such as the presence of many enterprises with advanced IT infrastructure, and availability of technical expertise.
  • By the end of 2021, 99% of businesses will be using one or more SaaS solutions
  • Nearly 78% of small businesses have already invested in SaaS options
  • SaaS adoption in the healthcare industry grows at a rate of 20% per year
  • 70% of CIOs claim that agility and scalability are two of the top motivators for using SaaS applications

Although SaaS offers its advantages such as cost reductions, ease of accessibility and effortless scalability, many companies are not carefully planning the adoption of these SaaS applications. By doing so, they may not have considered the disadvantages that may occur. Insufficient data security is one top concern, with many businesses just assuming their SaaS provider will take care of their security and software resilience needs.

As a two-part series, this first article addresses the 3 top frequently asked questions we come across when talking to customers wanting to find suitable, cost effective and easy to deploy SaaS continuity escrow solutions, helping them to mitigate against the risks associated with modern service delivery methods and the growing responsibility of cloud service providers.

What is SaaS Escrow?

A SaaS Escrow Agreement is a mutually agreed third-party arrangement between the SaaS vendor, customer and SaaS Escrow vendor. It is the process of keeping a copy of critical SaaS application data and the SaaS cloud environment with an independent third party. Similar to source code escrow, where critical software source code is stored with an independent third party, with a SaaS Escrow solution, the developer would typically deposit deployment scripts, containers and databases in addition to source code. SaaS escrow ultimately allows companies to protect their data that resides within SaaS applications hosted by a third party, protecting them against data loss.

When should I use SaaS Escrow?

Companies of all sizes are now turning to SaaS Escrow vendors to develop robust SaaS continuity solutions that provide for a continuation of service if something were to happen to the SaaS vendor. There are many and varied reasons for considering a SaaS escrow agreement including concerns about vendor bankruptcy, unplanned service outages, and potential data loss or corruption.

What are the benefits of SaaS Escrow?

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 SaaS escrow for their business continuity needs.

  1. Business Continuity Assurance – If your critical SaaS vendor enters into bankruptcy, and you don’t have access to your data, this could be catastrophic for a company. 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.
  2. 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 a business. Being in the know that they have safe and regular back-ups of their data which can be released to them if needed, will result in having their business operations running continuously.
  3. 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 on a regular basis can ensure that the system is deployable and operational, offering added advantages to your business.

In the second part of this article series, we will look at the costs of SaaS escrow services and how to choose the right SaaS escrow vendor for your company.

##

About Escrow London

Escrow London is a global SaaS 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.