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SaaS Escrow / Cloud Software Escrow Agreements

Ensure your hosted applications can be swiftly and accurately redeployed in the event of a release, minimising the impact to your business.

What is SaaS Escrow?

SaaS Escrow is Software Escrow for hosted applications. Unlike standard Software Escrow, which seeks only to protect the applications source code and supporting material, effective SaaS Escrow agreements must also include provisions to take regular backups of application data as an end user would not be able to effectively redeploy their application without them in the event of a release.

Protect Your Business Critical Applications Today

Speak to our specialists about protecting your business critical applications with Software Escrow. SES provides a full suite of Software Escrow agreements certified to UKAS ISO: 27001 and ISO: 9001 standards. 

Protect your critical applications now. Contact us today

 

Business continuity for your critical SaaS / Cloud Applications

Using third party applications that are delivered through a Software as a Service (SaaS) model or Application Service Provider (ASP) is becoming an increasingly popular way for End Users to access business-critical applications, as they no longer require their own infrastructure. This can not only save on time and cost, but it can also have the potential to be more flexible, accessible and compatible.

Unlike traditional on-premise software, where in the event of a release the user retains access to all infrastructure, making the impact of supplier failure much less immediate, services delivered through a SaaS model can have a much more immediate impact with the sudden withdrawal of service or loss of business functionality being a direct result of supplier failure.

So how would you ensure that your service continues in the event your Software Developer or Application Service Provider suffers business failure? Or, how would you recover both the software and the data to ensure you can continue to use the application through an alternative ASP or manage the application in-house? 
 
In our experience, most software Escrow services do not address the real needs of a SaaS environment or the need for continued access to business-critical applications. Secure SaaS from SES provides services that address these and other more complex SaaS and web-based, business-critical systems.

Contact us today for further information or a free quotation.

Benefits of an SaaS Escrow Agreement from SES

Access to current data

Ensures access to the current version of your application data in addition to the source code and runtime software

Ensure business continuity

Ensures continuity for your business-critical, revenue-generating, highly customised or bespoke applications.

Platform independent

SES can connect with any platform anywhere, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform to ensure data capture and redeployment capabilities are maximised and maintained.

Escrow transition

SES provides the capabilities for customers to replicate their hosted environment to ensure that in a ‘lights off’ situation, their replicated environment is readily available to continue without disruption, downtime, financial loss and damage to their reputation.

Scalable storage

100GB included in all SFTP agreements as standard. (Scalable storage capacity available upon request).

Ensure deposits are accurate

Validates the source code for your application, ensuring it can be rebuilt into a working application.

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How does SaaS Escrow for hosted applications work

To mitigate the sudden withdrawal of service created by Developer failure for organisations using hosted applications, SES has created an industry-leading SaaS solution. 

A copy of the applications source code and runtime files are held in Escrow as standard. However, what differs from our standard Software Escrow solution is that we take regular copies of application data and updates from the application service provider, which are stored securely alongside the source code and runtime files.

In the event of supplier failure, all material required for the successful redeployment of the application can be accessed through the Escrow agreement, guarding against service disruption and providing continuity of service.

Contact us today for further information or a free quotation.

Software Escrow tailored to your business

At SES we have broken our core Software Escrow services into four distinct service levels to make it easier for our customers to choose the right protection for their business. All of our Escrow Agreements can be used to protect both on-premise and hosted software applications, are secured to ISO: 27001 standards and include the highest liability indemnity insurance available (£5 million).

Already have an Escrow Agreement in place with another supplier? Our Free Transfer Offer enables you to transfer your existing Escrow portfolio to SES at no additional cost. There are no setup fees and SES will manage the entire process on your behalf.

Level 1 - Basic

Includes contract fees and two deposits of code annually with Basic Deposit Reporting on each deposit.
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Software Escrow Agreement iA contractual agreement between an End User, a Software Developer and SES to ensure the continuity of a licensed software application.
Basic Basic Deposit Reporting iA standard validation test applied to all Software Escrow deposits to ensure the code held in Escrow is accessible and virus free.

Level 2 - Code Validation

An annual, consultant-led validation process to ensure the application can be rebuilt from the source material held in Escrow.
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Software Escrow Agreement iA contractual agreement between an End User, a Software Developer and SES to ensure the continuity of a licensed software application.
Basic Deposit Reporting iA standard validation test applied to all Software Escrow deposits to ensure the code held in Escrow is accessible and virus free.
Code Validation Testing iInvolves an SES testing consultant witnessing a full rebuild of the application in the developer’s environment and documenting the entire process. The independent report and audio-visual recording enables an ASP to accurately redeploy the application in the event of a release.
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Level 3 - Code & Deployment Validation

Bespoke validation processes are undertaken based on the requirements of the software user.
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Software Escrow Agreement iA contractual agreement between an End User, a Software Developer and SES to ensure the continuity of a licensed software application.
Basic Deposit Reporting iA standard validation test applied to all Software Escrow deposits to ensure the code held in Escrow is accessible and virus free.
Code Validation Testing iInvolves an SES testing consultant witnessing a full rebuild of the application in the developer’s environment and documenting the entire process. The independent report and audio-visual recording enables an ASP to accurately redeploy the application in the event of a release.
Simulated Release Event iThe simulated release event demonstrates the build documentation captured as part of the Code Validation Testing is sufficient for an ASP to accurately redeploy the application upon release.

Level 4 - Continuity 365

Complete and rapid accessibility to hosted applications in the event that the supplier is no longer available.
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Software Escrow Agreement iA contractual agreement between an End User, a Software Developer and SES to ensure the continuity of a licensed software application.
Remote Code Validation iInvolves an SES testing consultant witnessing a full rebuild of the application in the developer’s environment and documenting the entire process. The independent report and audio-visual recording enables an ASP to accurately redeploy the application in the event of a release.
Interim Release Provision iFor standard Escrow, the release process varies typically between 14 to 30 days (across the Escrow industry), and additionally the recovery time can be a matter of days or weeks. While waiting for this process to complete there is a real danger to the software user of increased operational downtime. SES's LCP provides a real-time Interim Release that bridges the gap between initiating the release process and its completion.
Backup and restore for apps, data and VMs iBy ensuring critical assets are backed up regularly using advanced scheduling and targeting, you can guarantee that you and your customer’s information is protected effectively.
Live Licensee Continuity Planning iWe will help you plan your disaster recovery response and work to implement a bespoke strategy which will be continually assessed and improved after each recovery exercise.

SES & ANS

One of the key benefits of partnering with ANS is allowing SES to remain independent from the shared risks associated with public cloud infrastructure providers including; Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. ANS provides us with infrastructure to deploy our dedicated hardware, enabling us to deliver the specialised and targeted services that our clients are requesting.

Also, our strategic partnership enhances our ability to apply the following principles to our Software Escrow offering:

Confidentiality

This principle revolves around limiting access to information. In the case of SES, we achieve this by encrypting source code and data files to prevent unauthorised access.

Integrity

This is the assurance that the information is trustworthy and accurate. SES ensures that all source code and data is not modified without explicit consent from the owner.

Availability

Is the guarantee of reliable access to the information. SES deploys its own hardware within ANS’s environment to provide clients with high availability of their source code and data.

Our expertise. Your questions answered

Why do I need a Software Escrow Agreement?

For End Users of business-critical applications, a Software Escrow Agreement protects you against the developer of your business-critical applications no longer being able to support their applications.

For Software Developers, an Escrow Agreement helps build credibility and trust that you have your clients interests at heart.

How does a Software Escrow Agreement work?

In its simplest form, an Escrow Agreement is a tri-party agreement between an End User, a Software Developer and a third party Software Escrow Agent. The Developer licenses the application to the End User as usual but also deposits a copy of the source code for the application and any other material required to accurately redeploy the application into Escrow which can then be released to the End User if a release event contained within the Escrow Agreement is triggered.

How much does a Software Escrow Agreement cost?

The answer to this is entirely dependent on the level of protection you need. SES offers a range of Software Escrow Agreements depending on how many clients will be added to the agreement (for Software Developers), how many business-critical applications the agreement will be used to cover (for End Users) and whether the application/s in question are installed on-premise or delivered through a SaaS model.

Contact us

If you would like further information, discuss your requirements, get a free no obligation quotation or just a friendly chat on how we could possibly help please fill in the details below and one of our team will get back to you as soon as possible.
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