To cloud or not to cloud? Get to know Axway’s full hybrid deployment options

In the last several years, I have found that more and more customers are interested in talking about the Axway Cloud (SaaS) delivery option that Axway started offering more than ten years ago. In late 2024, I noticed a significant shift in these discussions: suddenly, many enterprise decision-makers were in the middle of very challenging discussions about how to proceed with their cloud initiatives. 

While we can’t make those decisions for you, as enterprise integration software experts, we can certainly advise. What’s more, Axway is fully ready to help execute any decision you make, because our deployment options are fully hybrid. 

Axway’s hybrid deployment strategy 

For more than 10 years Axway has had a crystal-clear hybrid deployment strategy, and we will continue that path. It means all our data transfer integration solutions can be deployed in three different ways: 

1. On premises: deploy the Axway solution in your own data center and manage it yourself 

1. Cloud of your choice: deploy the Axway solution in the cloud of your choice and manage it yourself 

1. Axway Cloud: Axway delivers the solution up and running (including life cycle management) for you in either AWS or Microsoft Azure (SaaS) 

Perhaps a fourth deployment option should be “mixed”. Many customers have shared all kinds of thoughts on mixed deployment models that are perfectly possible as well, such as: 

• Running production on the Axway Cloud and a disaster recovery instance on prem 

• Running an instance of Axway software on prem to connect with the on-prem applications for sensitive/competitive data, and another instance in the Axway Cloud to connect with cloud applications running less sensitive data in the cloud. 

The following diagram of what this looks like for MFT Cloud Services gives you an idea of the possibilities: 

See also: Optimize Your MFT Solution with Cloud Containerization

An important distinction is that Axway software is deployment-agnostic, meaning that – unlike some vendors – we do not have different versions of our software that can only be used in specific deployment models.  

As a result, it is quite easy to change deployment models over time if that is required. Export the configuration, import it to the new Axway instance, and do some thorough testing. Only these three steps are required when moving from any of the models to another. 

Let’s take a brief look at the three main deployment options in some more detail. 

Deployment option 1: on premises 

All Axway data transfer solutions can still be deployed on premises. Most of the solutions can be deployed directly on a supported Operating System or in a containerized deployment. 

The installation manuals describe exactly for every single product what the supported Operating Systems and supported container platforms are. The installation manuals can be found on our Axway Documentation Portal (note: for specific manuals, login is required). 

Axway Documentation Portal 

Deployment option 2: customer cloud 

A second deployment option is to deploy the Axway solution in the customer’s cloud of choice, managed by the customer. 

As said in option 1 for on premises, most of the solutions can be deployed directly on a supported Operating System or in a containerized deployment. 

The installation manuals describe more precisely the supported OS and container platforms for each single product. 

Again, head to the Axway Documentation Portal for installation manuals. Make sure to select a supported Operating System or container platform with the cloud provider of your choice. 

See also: Unlock Zero Downtime for B2B Integrations with Enterprise Containers 

Deployment option 3: Axway Cloud (private SaaS) 

The third option is quite different compared to the first two options. The Axway Cloud is an SLA-based service to get access to a specific integration platform of Axway. 

Key characteristics of the Axway Cloud are: 

• Three SLA levels (Silver, Gold, Platinum) 

• Most solutions are available in private SaaS only, which means that the Axway Cloud team will create a completely separate instance for you only. A limited number of specific solutions are available in a multi-tenant setup as well, in which an instance is shared with other customers 

• The subscription always includes delivery of the Axway solution, up and running and ready to be configured. It also always includes all life cycle management activities, not only on the Axway software but also on the hardware and other software components needed to run the solution (container platform, database, shared file system, etc) 

• On top of the basic subscription optional managed services are available for configurating of the solution (based on a fixed price service catalogue) and management of the data exchanges (data flows) 

• Axway uses AWS & Microsoft Azure as cloud providers. All locations of those two cloud providers can be selected for deployment of the Axway Cloud instance for you 

• Axway, supported by the two cloud providers, delivers all security & data protection compliance any large organization must comply to, even if you are in very demanding industries like government or financial services. 

See also: Mitigate MFT Compliance Risks with Secure File Transfer Solutions 

Deploy to the cloud – or not – your way 

To cloud or not to cloud is your choice. However, for over 10 years Axway has been committed to a full hybrid deployment strategy, so we are ready to support you in any choice you make. 

All data transfer Axway integration solutions can be deployed in three different models 

• On premises 

• In the cloud of choice of the customer, managed by the customer 

• Axway Cloud (private SaaS) 

Finally, Axway offers greater flexibility as our software solution requirements are compatible with all deployment models, cloud or not, making it easy to change from one to another.