Introduction
Deployment models
Understand the three Datamotive deployment models: SaaS-managed, self-hosted, and sovereign cloud.
- Product
- Datamotive Platform
- Version
- v1.0
- Documentation status
- Published
- Last updated
- Updated
- Reading time
- 1 min read
Datamotive supports three deployment models. The control plane (the management layer that orchestrates jobs, stores metadata, and exposes the API) can run as a Datamotive-managed SaaS service, as a customer-deployed instance, or in an air-gapped sovereign environment.
In all models, the data plane (replication agents and transfer pipelines) runs inside the customer's infrastructure. Customer data never transits Datamotive's infrastructure.
SaaS-managed
The Datamotive control plane runs in Datamotive's cloud. You register your sites, connect your hypervisors or cloud accounts, and the platform manages job scheduling, metadata, and orchestration on your behalf.
Characteristics:
- Fastest time to value: onboarding completes in under an hour
- No infrastructure to provision for the control plane
- Automatic version updates and security patches
- Metadata (not workload data) stored in Datamotive's SaaS tenant
Recommended for: Most enterprise customers without data residency restrictions.
Self-hosted
The control plane is deployed in your own cloud account or data center. You operate the control plane, manage upgrades, and own all metadata storage.
Characteristics:
- Full ownership of the control plane and metadata
- Requires a dedicated VM or Kubernetes namespace
- Manual version upgrades (or automated via your internal CI/CD)
- Compatible with all Datamotive products
Recommended for: Organizations with strict data governance policies that prohibit metadata leaving their environment.
Sovereign cloud
A purpose-built variant of self-hosted, designed for regulated environments (government, defense, regulated financial services) that require full air-gap operation.
Characteristics:
- Control plane and data plane both run inside a defined sovereign boundary
- No external network dependencies after initial installation
- Supports disconnected (air-gapped) replication within the sovereign perimeter
- Requires Datamotive Sovereign Cloud license
Recommended for: Government agencies, defense contractors, and organizations under national data sovereignty laws.
Feature availability by model
| Feature | SaaS-managed | Self-hosted | Sovereign cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy Hybrid DR | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Easy Migrate | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Easy Protect | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Easy Backup | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic updates | Yes | No | No |
| Air-gapped operation | No | No | Yes |
| Customer-managed encryption keys | Yes | Yes | Yes |
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