INDUSTRY
Renewable Energy
CHALLENGE
In this promising industry, customers want assurances that their solar energy systems will still be able to run decades from now.
SOLUTION
Iron Mountain Software Escrow Services
VALUE
> Renewable energy is still an emerging industry, and as such, its technology is inherently risky.
> Software escrow gives this provider a way to mitigate risk for its customers.
> By offering Iron Mountain’s escrow services up front, customers know they have a fallback position if something ever happens to their vendor.
RENEWABLE ENERGY LEADER
THIS RENEWABLE ENERGY-FOCUSED SERVICES PROVIDER USES CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY TO DELIVER SOLAR ENERGY AND BATTERY-STORAGE SOLUTIONS. IT OFFERS ITS CUSTOMERS SOFTWARE ESCROW AS A WAY TO MITIGATE THEIR RISKS.
Solar energy is a clean and cost-efficient way to generate electricity, and on a broader scale it is poised to change the way the world creates energy.
WHY SOFTWARE ESCROW?
Customers want to feel secure and know that they have that extra level of safety. To provide these assurances, the energy provider’s written materials and some methodologies for their battery technologies are placed into an escrow account for their customers. This information will be released to them if the vendor is not available to fix problems.
In addition to escrowing these battery technology materials, they are adding firmware, and will add software into escrow. “Escrowing software is now becoming a more consistent request by our customers,” explains the legal counsel at the energy provider. “We need a provider like Iron Mountain, where we can securely store that source code on an untouchable basis until the release conditions are met.”
A HUGE RISK MITIGATION POINT
As a complex and investment-intensive industry, companies in the renewable energy space take on a lot of risk. At the same time, there is a lot of upside. The U.S. is working toward a goal of having renewable energy account for about 31 percent of U.S. energy generation by 2050, creating a lot of opportunity.
“From a risk averted standpoint, the escrow agreement is customer protection-focused. We’re often requiring them to sign up for a long-term service commitment, plus our technology is expected to have a long-term operational life,” states the legal counsel. “So, from their perspective, escrow is a huge risk mitigation point.”
