What Is Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) and How Does It Work?

Bring your own cloud means running the vendor's software within your own cloud account rather than theirs. You get the vendor's managed platform, but your data and compute stay in your environment, under your control.

With SaaS, the vendor manages everything in their own cloud and your data lives there. With BYOC, the vendor manages the same software but it runs in your cloud account, so your data and compute never leave your environment.

Self-hosting means you run and maintain everything yourself. With BYOC, the software stays in your cloud while the vendor manages and updates it, so you keep control of data and environment without taking on the full operational burden.

Because AI usually deals with sensitive data and expensive GPUs. BYOC lets teams use a managed AI platform while keeping that data and those GPUs in their own cloud, which supports compliance, residency, and use of existing capacity.

The vendor needs scoped access to deploy and manage its platform within your cloud account. Following least privilege, that access is limited to just what running the software requires, while you retain control of your data and overall environment.