Excerpt from: Software and Technology for the SME (Small and Medium Enterprise)
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| February 22, 2006 | | If Steve is asking it, a lot of people must be thinking it | My friend Steve Sawyer, whom I met at the Great Lakes Entrepreneurial Quest last year, asked a very good question on a recent post I made about why Software as a Service (SaaS) has better built-in security than on-premise systems. Said Steve: As far as security from intrusion and system failure is concerned, I agree that most (if not all) SaaS vendors can do a better job of protecting customer data than the customer can (or will) themselves.
However, I can see a valid concern that customers can have w/regard to the SaaS business model - the issue of data portability. If the customer decides to change vendors, or if the vendor declares Chapter 7, the customers data can potentially be at risk.
I read an article a couple of months ago about some customers bailing on SalesForce.com because of unacceptable service outages. I wondered what they did about all of the data they had stored on that system.
How can a vendor using the SaaS model reassure customers on this point?
Data portability is not a problem, actually. You have access to all of your data at all times. Even after you abandon the account you can always extract your data, for up to 6 months, in segments or all at once, and prepare it for conversion to a new system. Like most modern Systems, NetSuite allows you to extract data in CSV, or comma separated value, files. From there it is a quick step to a spreadsheet. Good question. | | |
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