CFOs Confront Hidden Exit Costs as Cloud Vendors Collapse

Companies have shifted financial records, customer information and core workflows to cloud and software-as-a-service platforms, gaining scalability and lower upfront costs while tying business continuity to vendors’ financial health. Legal ownership of data may offer little practical protection if exports are incomplete, stored in proprietary formats or subject to costly transfer fees. For CFOs, vendor failure is therefore not solely an IT concern but a measurable exposure involving downtime, reconstruction costs, compliance and operational resilience.

Bench Accounting abruptly became inaccessible on Dec. 27, 2024, after raising $113 million, before Employer.com acquired it three days later and restored a path for customers to retrieve or transfer records. Skybox Security, which had raised more than $330 million, ceased operations immediately on Feb. 24, 2025, with Tufin buying limited assets and offering customers a migration program. Risk advisers say finance teams should now track time to complete a usable data export, migration expense and reliance on subcontractors, while negotiating transition support and data formats before signing or renewing contracts.