Big Data as a Service Agreement. IT contracts

Big Data as a Service (“BDaaS”) is a relatively new term in technology world though IT contracting for such services gains momentum. Given the need for regulation, staffing and any other operations associated with Big Data, it is becoming a must-have in a modern rapidly growing world.

Data analysis is used for a variety of purposes: improvement of system performance, assistance in decision making for company product management, risk assessment of decisions etc. Usually, companies use divergent systems for each of the Big Data processing purposes. Considering the fact that cost for such operations requires progressively amount of funds, it is preferable to create a single infrastructure that will handle an extraction, processing, visualization of data, as well as provide overall Big Data management functionality.

Big Data as a Service refers to the relationship between a customer (a company that wants to grow) and a contractor (data scientists + a platform built on machine learning). So, what kind of relationship will govern this IT contract? Well, we may talk about a supply of data, certain analytical tools that can be used to collect data, the analysis and report of certain data provided. Some IT BDaaS agreements also include consulting services in their packages.

Therefore, modern market talks about such services as Big Data as a Service, which are becoming more and more well-liked because of increasing of information volume.

Big Data as a Service may offer a plethora of various environments where you can and will need to work in nowadays market. Let’s go through the most significant ones.

1. Core BDaaS usually is the Big Data platform itself, with a limited components set.
2. Performance BDaaS offers optimized infrastructure to reduce costs and ensure that hardware servers and networks are adequately built to function for core BDaaS.
3. Feature BDaaS – focuses on performance so users can start to process big data quickly.
   
   

What are the points needed to look out when signing Big Data as a Service agreement?

1. • • Subject matter of the contract.

     Like with any other IT contract, correctly written subject is an essential point. Defining specific services with the maximum details of how they will be provided is a benefit for both contracting parties. Moreover, particular attention should be paid to the data in respect of which the services will be provided. Therefore, we recommend you to “capture” the maximum amount of such business information when drafting and signing the IT contract itself.

     • What about non-disclosure provisions?

     At a time like this, when information is becoming our biggest and most valuable weapon for destroying business competitors, it is impossible to stay away and not to use any accessible information to raise your capital. Practically, contractual parties either decide to include NDA clause in IT contract or to sign a separate non-disclosure agreement in order to protect everything you can in order to prevent data breach value of which cannot even be measured.

     The BDaaS contract should specify in details what information will be considered confidential (for example, information about databases, storage media, data transfer methods and forecasting systems integrated with the data delivery process, the process of obtaining and analyzing information to find ways to optimize service delivery, the process of creating tools based on the principle of machine learning, etc.). Do not forget about a dragon fine and disclaimer due to which disclosure of confidential information to your employees and contractors will not be considered as violation of this provision.

     • Services acceptance. In what way?

     We encourage you to take a note at this key point when signing / drafting Big Data as a Service agreement. Will the services transmission be on tangible or intangible media? If it’s a cloud, how long will the information be stored? When will the services be considered to be provided and accepted? If quality of Big Data services does not meet your requirements, can you improve results of the services? Taking into account the aforementioned provisions will allow a customer to receive the qualitative services, as well as provide a contractor with a timely payment. If such criteria are satisfied, I am sure, the customer will repeatedly contact this provider, and the latter will, accordingly, make a profit.

     There may also be some risks involved in executing IT BDaaS agreement. In particular, we might think about the following:

     1. If you decide to store and analyze your data in the cloud through a BDaaS contractor, make sure the clouds have the highest level of security and data protection. We doubt you want your data to be accessed by a third party.
     2. Realize what is in and out of your BDaaS contractor’s responsibilities. They can, of course, greatly reduce the difficulty of running Big Data, but they do not have the magic wand to transform anything into understanding of everything. Also, it is necessary to comprehend what work is already done and what still needs to be finished, before using such services.

     IT contract is an important form of proper performance of services, as well as an “air bag” of payment for all services. Although Big Data as a Service agreement has not yet gained such popularity as, for example, a software development agreement (more information about risks of this agreement can be found in this article), we still recommend you to refer to such a relationship management tool. You capture the data which captures the world. Reliable protection is the most powerful weapon. And it can be guaranteed by our lawyers! Do not hesitate to contact them:)

Software development contract

Vitaliia Stelmashchuk

Junior IT lawyer