When organisations evaluate new business software, conversations often centre on features, integrations and cost. Among all of this, where the organisation’s data is hosted is perhaps the most important, but is often given thought much later in the buying process.
With cyberattacks constantly making headlines and regulatory requirements becoming increasingly demanding, where the organisation’s data currently lives can have a serious impact on security, operational flexibility, compliance, and even the organisation's ability to change software providers in the future.
Two main approaches to data hosting
Typically, organisations have two main options for data hosting. The first approach is a customer-controlled model, where the application runs using the organisation’s infrastructure, be that on-premises or in their cloud tenancy.
The second is a traditional SaaS model where the software provider hosts the data within their own infrastructure.
There is no right or wrong approach. The choice depends on business priorities, internal resources and regulatory obligations.
Keeping data under your own control
For organisations with in-house IT or development capabilities, hosting data within their own environment offers advantages. The biggest is control. The data remains within the enterprise's infrastructure, giving teams access to it whenever they need it. If new legislation requires changes to workflows, document templates or business processes, those updates can be implemented without software vendor involvement.
Similarly, for reporting. When data sits within the organisation's SQL database, the team can create bespoke reports, build BI dashboards or respond to new client reporting requirements as they arise.
The flexibility this allows the organisation to respond to changing business needs, unconstrained by vendor involvement or roadmap, is genuinely a benefit.
Security and business continuity
Today, security isn’t just about preventing breaches; it’s also about maintaining control when something goes wrong. When data is hosted by a third-party, the organisation becomes reliant on that provider’s security measures, incident response processes and recovery priorities. If they experience an outage affecting multiple customers, organisations often have to wait in a queue for services to be restored.
However, when infrastructure is in the control of the organisation, they can define their own security policies, recovery procedures and business continuity plans. The organisation has full visibility of their hosting environment.
Self-hosting isn’t suitable for everyone
Customer-controlled hosting isn’t suitable for all organisations, though. Managing your own environment typically requires internal IT or development expertise, or access to trusted technical consultants who can support ongoing development and maintenance.
Many larger organisations already have these capabilities in place, making customer-controlled hosting a natural fit. Others may prefer the simplicity of a fully managed SaaS solution, accepting that greater convenience can come with less flexibility.
The important point is understanding the trade-off before making a decision.
The hidden challenge of third-party hosting
If a fully managed SaaS solution is the preferred route, what happens when the organisation decides to change business-critical software providers? When a supplier hosts data, retrieving it isn’t necessarily as straightforward as exporting a few files. Organisations may need to submit requests to their provider for access, data extracts and system changes. When migrating to another platform, negotiating the release of their own data can be an expensive project in itself.
There isn’t a “best” approach to data hosting. What’s important is asking questions across different types of future scenarios early in the evaluation process.
At LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions, our approach is built around flexibility. For our solutions, Lexis Visualfiles and Lexis Everyfile, we don’t host customer data ourselves. These solutions are designed to operate within customers’ own Azure tenancy or infrastructure, giving organisations control to manage, develop and secure their data in the way that suits them best. Additionally, these solutions come as toolkits allowing customers to easily develop and improve their installs based on business requirements.
If data ownership, compliance or long-term flexibility are important considerations for your business, speak to your LexisNexis Account Manager. They’ll discuss the pros and cons of the options available to you and help you to determine the hosting approach that's right for your organisation.
