WATCH · Data, Security & Compliance_
Your SaaS Contract May Own Your Own Data
Saleem Beg · Founder, Teque
● 1:45 · Posted 1 month ago
KEY TAKEAWAYS_
- SaaS vendors' commercial interests diverge from yours the moment you want to leave — and their platform architecture often reflects that
- They paid to have special endpoints built so they could retrieve data their own business had generated, data they had always assumed was theirs
- Before signing any SaaS contract, ask: how do we get our data out when we decide to leave? If the API documentation isn't publicly available, that silence is telling
TRANSCRIPT_
So, a CEO wanted to leave a SaaS platform. The software had done its job, the business had grown, evolved, pivoted, and the product was too rigid for where they had arrived, which is perfectly reasonable and it's time to move on.
Lo and behold, the data their entire operation ran on was locked inside a system that had no interest in helping them leave. It had limited export features and limited APIs, and building them out for one departing customer was not, understandably, the vendor's business priority.
So, they paid an arm and a leg for the vendor to build special endpoints so they could retrieve their own data, the very data their business had generated, which they had always assumed was theirs. So, before you go and sign up to any SaaS product, ask, "How do we get our data out when we decide to leave?" Most vendors will have APIs, i.e., the technical mechanism that lets you
extract your own data. If that documentation is published publicly, you can see the answer for yourself. And if it isn't published, that is a cause of concern. Remember, you're not just buying subscription. You are making a long-term commitment to a vendor whose interests diverge from yours the moment you want to leave. So, ask the question before you sign up, not after.
“How do we get our data out when we decide to leave?”
Prefer to read? This take is also a written article.
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