How Escrow Verification Solutions Can Enhance Your Company s Workflow by Jeff Meeter

In a world where companies are increasingly relying on intangible products such as software code to get work done, it is vital for such companies to embrace software escrow and escrow verification solutions. Escrow verification ensures that when a product is delivered from an escrow account, it will work to the specifications the client requested. This is critical to those who use the software product because it ensures an unbiased third-party expert evaluation of the source code in escrow. Imagine what would happen to your company workflow if you received software code from escrow and it was incomplete. It could be very difficult to recover and continue mission critical business operations.

When placing software source code into escrow, there are a handful of tests an escrow provider can perform to ensure the quality of deliverables. Examples of verification tests include:

File list tests to ensure that deposited assets are readable, virus free and, if the files are encrypted, that the escrow provider has the encryption keys to ensure full access to the files.

Inventory and analysis upon receipt of the information the escrow provider verifies the build instructions and analyzes the deposited media to ensure it properly works.

Compile test to ensure that the deposited code compiles properly based on the instructions provided by the developer.

Binary comparison test an in-depth procedure to compare the compiled deposit files against licensed code already in use within your company.

Full usability test to ensure the code is fully functional upon delivery.

Many of these procedures take large amounts of time and require specialized expertise. In most cases when dealing with intangible deliverables like software code, it is ideal to employ the services of a third-party escrow verification solutions provider to certify proper testing and establish a secure chain of custody to keep sensitive data private throughout the entire course of the verification test. Once verification testing is complete companies can feel secure knowing that if they need to receive software source code from escrow the code they receive will operate just like the current software they rely on.

LINK:	http://blog.ironmountain.com/2013/service-lines/technology-escrow/how-...
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