Does your business rely on third-party cloud applications to function? From billing to EHRs, payroll to CRM, comes a dangerous assumption: that your SaaS vendor has continuity covered.
Spoiler: they don’t.
In fact, every time you onboard a new SaaS solution, you could be add risk, not resilience. You’re still on the hook if your vendor goes bust, suffers a major outage, or simply stops supporting your application. So, what’s your strategy if that happens?
Let’s talk about what’s really going on behind the cloud and what you can do about it.
One of the most common misconceptions about SaaS is that business continuity is somehow “baked in.” But while your software might live in the cloud, it’s not floating on a consequence-free cloud.
You’re accountable for what happens if a vendor vanishes or data disappears. Not your provider. Not your IT supplier. You.
Worth knowing:
According to Veeam’s 2023 Data Protection Trends Report, 85% of organisations experienced at least one ransomware attack in the past year, with cloud-hosted workloads increasingly targeted.
That’s a staggeringly high number, and it’s a clear sign that organisations are overestimating the resilience of their third-party apps. It’s not about paranoia. It’s about pragmatism.
1. Multi-tenant architecture
Most SaaS platforms are built on shared cloud infrastructure. That means your app — and its data, live side by side with other businesses. If one tenant is compromised, it could expose the rest. Think of it as a digital block of flats: if the security door fails, every unit is vulnerable.
2. The Shared Responsibility Model
There’s a fine line between what your cloud provider manages and what you’re responsible for. Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) handle the environment. Not your application. Not your data. You’re the one responsible for backups and recovery, which is often overlooked.
3. Over-reliance on vendor compliance
Just because your SaaS vendor ticks all the compliance boxes doesn’t mean you can take it easy. When it comes to continuity, over-reliance is risky. What happens if that vendor suffers an outage? Or pulls the plug on a legacy system you still rely on?
4. Shadow IT
When departments spin up new tools without going through IT, the usual risk checks get skipped. That means no resilience planning, no business continuity strategy — and no visibility until something breaks.
So how do you stay operational if your SaaS vendor fails?
You need a continuity strategy that goes beyond hope and into action. That means having a way to actually access and run your critical software and data.
That’s where Cloud Software Escrow comes in.
A Cloud Software Escrow Agreement is a legal agreement between you, your SaaS vendor, and a trusted third party (like Escode). It covers everything needed to get your application back up and running, from source code and deployment scripts to config files and critical data.
Think of it as a technical continuity plan in waiting. It gives you a way to access, recover, and continue using your software without relying on the vendor being around to help.
Strengthen it with Cloud Escrow Verification
An agreement is only as good as what’s in it.
That’s why Cloud Escrow Verification matters. It goes beyond just holding the materials, it checks that what’s stored is complete, functional, and fit for purpose.
The outcome? You get technical documentation that tells you exactly how to deploy and maintain the application. So, if the worst does happen, you’re not left in the dark. You’ve got what you need to act.
Outsourcing software shouldn’t mean outsourcing responsibility. If a system matters enough to be in your continuity plan, it matters enough to have an escrow agreement in place and source code verified.
That’s how you bring resilience back under your control.
