Level III Verification
The most advance check of the escrow deposit
Level III is the most advanced verification method carried out at Escrow Europe. The objective is to determine with the greatest possible certainty that an Escrow beneficiary will have access to resources to maintain, change, correct and/or modify the software (or have this done by others) should the software supplier prove unable to do this any longer.
During Level III verification, the source code is compiled according to the documentation on an entirely "empty" computer. This means that the operating system, third party and development software are not present on the system when the verification starts. After compilation the entire system is prepared for use and a test is carried out – with the help of the user – to determine whether the software is a precise copy of the actual production environment.
A successful Level III verification implementation not only offers the highest level of certainty that the Escrow deposit is complete, but also that this deposit contains the material needed to quickly start using the material, should release take place.
Approximately 15% of the Escrow deposits do not meet the requirements for our standard verification (Level I). The higher the level of verification, the greater this percentage becomes: 90% of the Escrow deposits do not initially meet the requirements for Level III verification. In order to be sure that a deposit is complete, parties are advised to have the material verified by Escrow Europe at Verification Level III at least once a year.
Escrow Europe has made the advanced Level III verification a requirement for a framework agreement in order to ensure that the beneficiaries have a high level guarantee that the deposit is usable and up-to-date. Thanks to this type of verification, we have seen in practice that beneficiaries can very quickly start maintaining the application in the case of release.