Your corporate data is safest when kept within self-hosted software over SaaS. But are there any other advantages, and how can you leverage them? Time to see how self-hosting compares against SaaS!

Self-Hosted Software or SaaS?

Companies that opt to secure their sensitive data within self-hosted software benefit in many ways compared to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) options, even if these appear simpler at first.

SaaS is when you give another entity full control over your data environment in exchange for convenience. Self-hosted software is the opposite. You maintain control of your fully air-tight data environment, with zero reliance on third-party infrastructure.

Here’s how the two compare.

Self-Hosted Software

You install, run, and manage the software on your own servers or infrastructure.

Pros:

• Full control
  • You own the environment, data storage, access policies, and update schedule.
• Customization
  • Deep ability to tailor the system, modify code (if open-source), and integrate with niche workflows.
• Data sovereignty
  • Useful when regulations require you to keep data on-prem or in a tightly controlled environment.
• Potential long-term cost savings
  • After initial setup, recurring costs may be lower, especially at scale.

Cons: 

• Full Responsibility
  • Without a third-party company to rely on, it’s your business to keep everything up and running.
• In-House Technical Expertise
  • Depending on the difficulty level, some self-hosted software is demanding, requiring a dedicated IT team.
• Scalability Challenges
  • Adding users or load may require additional servers, networking, monitoring, etc.

SaaS

Software is hosted and maintained by the provider, accessed via the internet.

Pros:

• Fast Deployment
  • With fewer upfront investments (servers, maintenance, etc.), SaaS can often be deployed immediately.
• Always Up-to-Date
  • New features and security patches rolled out automatically.
• Lower IT Burden
  • Hosting, updates, backups, security—all handled by the vendor.

Cons:

• No Control
  • Zero control over your sensitive data, as you rely fully on the providers’ uptime, update schedule, data handling, and roadmap.
• Vulnerable to Outages
  • If your vendor goes down, so does your entire system.
• Cybersecurity Concerns
  • With a third party involved, you can never know for certain whether your data is safe—potential hacks, data leaks, and breaches can happen at any time.
• Vendor Lock-In
  • You’re stuck with whichever provider you choose, making it harder to migrate data or switch systems.

Air-Tight Data Environment

Despite its potential cons, self-hosted software is always the more secure choice. And depending on which software you select, you can potentially avoid or minimize its other inherent shortcomings.

Take PII Tools, for example. This sensitive data discovery software runs fully within your own system, giving you absolute control of your data security across all access points. It also effectively eliminates many of the cons listed above.

Built for banks, hospitals, governments, and IR teams, PII Tools is easy to use and run, with no high-level IT skills required, and it’s endlessly scalable.

Security Autonomy

But one of PII Tools’ greatest assets is the security autonomy it offers users.

Take the recent Cloudflare outage, for instance, which affected thousands of websites on a global scale. Each of these SaaS users found their webpages completely inaccessible for hours, with zero ability to rectify the situation on their own.

Meanwhile, PII Tools remained fully operational for all users, since they’re the secure hosts of their own data environments, instead of the other way around. While Cloudflare users waited in agony for their hostage data, PII Tools users kept discovering and remediating sensitive data without any issues.

Benefits of Self-Hosted Software

Although it may take a bit more involvement, self-hosted software is always a safer and more secure choice than SaaS. The ability to air-gab your sensitive data environment is priceless (although affordable pricing is appreciated).

Don’t let your data be taken hostage by someone else’s mistakes or downed websites. It’s time to go “self-hosted by default”, and PII Tools will give you absolute control of your sensitive data. Or as we like to say: “Your data, your servers, your rules.”

 

CTV: No Data Leaves Your System—Ever. Try It Today with a FREE PII Tools Demo!