It’s safe to say that the events of 2020 lead to a new era of business software.
The need for effectiveness and efficiency has now made SaaS and cloud-based software the gold standard for majority of organisations.
But as adoption of cloud technology and its associated services continues to accelerate, so does the reliance the specialist third-party suppliers delivering these business-critical solutions.
Did you know that 71% of organisations now report that their third-party network contains more vendors than it did three years ago (1).
Ultimately, each time you bring in externally developed SaaS applications, you’re introducing an added element of risk to your organisation.
So, take a step back and ask yourself.
Where does your data live? Would you have access to your data if the third-party provider ceased to operate or had an extended outage? What would the consequences be if this were to happen?
Unlike on-premises applications, where the impact may be felt in weeks, months, or even years after your third-party provider discontinues support, the impact of lack of support with SaaS applications is immediate.
So how can businesses continue to leverage the power of cloud-based software and SaaS solutions, without fear of adding new operational vulnerabilities?
Lets say your third-party SaaS provider suffers a service disruption and access to your SaaS applications and data is unavailable. What would you need for you to maintain the application?
If all you need is access credentials for the live production environment, then we recommend our Escrow as a Service (EaaS) Access solution.
This enables the access and transfer of credentials for the latest iteration of your third-parties SaaS application within its current production environment. You’ll gain access to administrative usernames and/or passwords which will be required in the event third-party failure.
If you need access to the source code and build instructions of your business-critical software, then our EaaS Control solution will be most suitable for you.
Having guaranteed access to the source code and build documentation enables you to take full control of the SaaS application following third-party failure. You’ll also be provided with a architectural overview of how the application is hosted and its operational dependencies enabling you to continue to operate the live environment.
If you are highly dependent on the application and it supports critical functions across the business, then you’ll most likely need access to a separately hosted replicated instance of the application. In this scenario you need our EaaS Replicate solution.
With EaaS Replicate we take a replicated snapshot of the live environment into a controlled/custodial environment which will ensure you have access to a separately hosted and mirrored instance of your software and unique data.
No matter what solution you choose to go with, you'll be able to protect operations, minimize the cost of downtime and have complete confidence when adopting emerging technologies that will put you ahead of competitors.
So, are you ready to start your journey to Software Resilience?
Head over to our solutions page and we'll advise on the most suitable solution for you.
1. https://www.gartner.com/en/legal-compliance/insights/third-party-risk-management
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