Your organization retains 100% ownership of all study data at all times. Castor acts solely as a data processor.
To safeguard research operations against business disruption, insolvency, or product discontinuation, Castor maintains a multi-tiered Business Continuity framework:
1. Short-Term Operational Continuity
Castor maintains dedicated continuity reserves held in a separate legal entity. In the unlikely event of business failure, these funds guarantee that application hosting and cloud infrastructure remain operational for at least 3 months. This window ensures all clients have uninterrupted access to complete, review, and export their study data.
2. Long-Term Source Code Escrow
For enterprise and institutional clients requiring long-term guarantees, Castor offers a Source Code Escrow agreement. As a beneficiary, your organization receives access to the application source code if bankruptcy or product discontinuation occurs, allowing you to self-host the application or transition services to your own cloud infrastructure.
(To arrange a Source Code Escrow agreement, please contact your Castor account representative or sales@castoredc.com).
3. Continuous Self-Service Data Portability
You do not need to wait for a service disruption to protect your data. Study teams can independently back up and export their data, audit trails, and structure at any time:
-
Export Full Datasets & Audit Trails: Download complete participant records and time-stamped audit trails in CSV, Excel, SPSS, or SAS.
➔ See Helpdesk: Export the form structure in CDMS -
Full Study Structure & Data Backups: Generate a complete local backup of the study structure and participant data.
➔ See Helpdesk: Exporting full study structure and data before applying changes in CDMS
Related Security & Infrastructure Articles
- Helpdesk: Security Statement — Overview of ISO 27001 certifications, encryption, and data protection policies.
- Helpdesk: Where and how is data stored and backed-up (e.g. clouds or servers locations)? — Details on Microsoft Azure hosting regions, daily backups, and disaster recovery.