Ensuring business continuity in the cloud

As an increasing number of enterprise companies are shifting to SaaS hosted applications, the demand for software escrow solutions with the ability to provide continuity is rapidly growing.

In the past, these enterprise companies would have avoided SaaS hosted applications due to concerns over the perceived risks of cloud hosted systems. However, the onset of the Covid pandemic forced these companies to accelerate their adoption of cloud hosted applications in order to facilitate remote and hybrid working environments.

In recent years there has been major adoption of SaaS hosted applications including productivity apps such as Monday.com, Salesforce, Slack, and Trello. As companies have become more comfortable with SaaS hosted apps, they are widening their adoption of anything from entire banking systems, police enforcement, airline management systems, insurance portals, ERP systems and more.

Software vendors globally are largely hosting their applications within AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. These platforms come with massive benefits in providing higher levels of information security, scalability and efficiencies compared to on-premise or data centre hosted applications.

The risk for enterprise companies is that the solution and all their data is controlled by the software vendor. For these companies to adopt SaaS hosted solutions in a responsible way, they need to ensure they have a third-party continuity process in place in the unlikely event something happens to the software vendor. Such events may include bankruptcy, major failure that remains unremedied or a ransomware attack.

Enterprise companies are now turning to software escrow vendors to develop robust SaaS continuity solutions that provide a continuation of service if something were to happen to the software vendor. The most popular SaaS Continuity Escrow solutions include:

• Replicated SaaS Continuity with 90 Days of Live Availability – providing 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 software 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 – incorporating 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 – including 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 software escrow vendor maintaining the production environment for a 90 day period to ensure continuity post-release event.

Evan Lever, CEO of Escrow London commented, “We are seeing a dramatic increase in SaaS escrow requirements from enterprise companies primarily from financial institutions, airlines and telecom companies who have shifted from data-centre hosted solutions to applications hosted within AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. These companies are coming up against major challenges due to regulatory requirements and huge amounts of data under management. Often these companies are opting for SaaS Access Continuity including a deposit of access credentials to the production account, source-code and deployment scripts as a preferred solution for robust continuity in the event of a SaaS vendor failure.

As a new member of techUK, we are thrilled to be featured during London Tech Week. By sharing thought leadership around using SaaS continuity software escrow, we aim to provide confidence to enterprise companies seeking to adopt and embrace cloud technology within their business.”

                                                                                        ##               

Author Name: Evan Lever
Author Title: CEO, Escrow London

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.

Join us at London Tech Week 2023
London Tech Week (12-16 June) is a global celebration of tech, uniting the most innovative thinkers and talent of tomorrow in a week-long festival. Showcasing how tech is transforming business and society, London Tech Week drives thought provoking conversations around innovation, diversity and transformation, providing a platform for the tech ecosystem to come together to drive change. 

techUK will be running a number of fringe events throughout the week, click on the links below for more information:

6 June: Tech Policy Leadership Conference 2023
7 June: Launch of the DSIT Portfolio of AI Assurance Techniques
12 June - International Telecoms Conference – In Partnership with DSIT
13 June - How can the energy sector leverage digitalisation for long-term energy resiliency?
14 June - Recruiting top talent as an SME
14 June - UK-Vietnam Tech Workshop
14 June - Report Launch: State of the Connected Home 2023
14 June - What makes the West Midlands a leading UK location For Emerging Tech?
15 June - Connected cars in London – the key to a smart city?
15 June - Tech Trade and Sustainability Conference
15 June - Supporting SMEs to partner with System Integrators