Includes the Cloud vs Self-Hosted Comparison Guide
Your reporting platform sits on the critical path of every engagement. If the vendor changes terms, pricing, security posture, or availability - your delivery timeline takes the hit.
If your data is stored in a vendor-controlled environment, you inherit their retention policies, hosting choices, and access model. Do you have clear ownership - and a clean exit path?
“We can export” isn’t the same as “we can migrate.” Can you export projects, findings, evidence, users, templates, and history - in formats another system can actually use?
If you support regulated clients, you may need behind-the-firewall, private cloud, or air-gapped operation. If your vendor can’t support it, you end up bending your process to their product.
Who accessed what, when, and why? Weak audit trails, coarse permissions, or unclear admin controls turn vendor dependency into compliance and incident-response risk.
If the platform is down during delivery week, you don’t “wait it out” - you scramble. What’s the vendor’s SLA, backup posture, and recovery story, and can you operate without them?
Pricing changes, feature gating, user limits, or contract restrictions can quietly force workflow changes. If you had to switch in 30 days, could you?
A clear view of where you’re exposed: lock-in, deployment limitations, portability gaps, and operational dependency.
Questions to ask any vendor - including proof points to request - so procurement and security review doesn’t miss the important bits.
Concrete steps to reduce dependency: export validation, data-model mapping, backup plans, and “break-glass” operating procedures.
Takes about 2 minutes