Run AMB Accounting on Your Own Private Microsoft Azure

2 business days or less from green-light to live. The scope call defines the cutover window your IT team picks. Your existing AMB environment stays up the whole time. We provision the Azure subscription under your Microsoft Customer Agreement, install AMB on the new VM, and stage the database. Cutover happens during your maintenance window. Your accounting team logs in to AMB on the new tenant the next morning.

No. AMB hosting is a standalone decision. Many of our customers host AMB with us for years before they consolidate Microsoft 365. The door is open for that conversation when you are ready. Once AMB is already with us, the move to a single Microsoft tenant covering AMB, Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, Guardian, and Microsoft 365 Copilot becomes a much easier yes.

ABT runs AMB Accounting on Microsoft Azure for shared customers. We coordinate with Advantage Systems on your install, your version upgrades, and your support cases the same way we would on-premises. Advantage Systems publishes their official partner list at mortgageaccounting.com/partners. We frame this page around what we deliver: a dedicated Azure server, examiner-ready controls, and one Microsoft Customer Agreement covering AMB, Microsoft 365, and your other Azure workloads.

AES-256 at rest under SQL Transparent Data Encryption. TLS 1.3 client-to-server. Customer-controlled keys in Azure Key Vault Premium. FIPS 140-3 Level 3 validated hardware-backed keys available on request via Azure Managed HSM. The AMB SQL database, the file shares, and the backups all use the same envelope. Your compliance officer holds the rotation and revocation rights, not us.

Yes. The hosting environment is mapped to NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, the post-FFIEC-CAT successor reference framework. Controls cover the six NIST CSF 2.0 functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover. The FFIEC retired the Cybersecurity Assessment Tool on August 31, 2025. NIST CSF 2.0 is the framework examiners now map community banks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders against. Environment-specific SOC 2 Type 2 attestation is provided to FI customers under NDA as part of standard due diligence.

On-premises AMB requires you to procure, patch, and lifecycle Windows Server hardware, the SQL Server license, the backup target, the network gear, and the physical security wrapping all of it. Your IT team owns every Patch Tuesday. ABT's Azure hosting hands all of that to a Tier 1 Microsoft CSP. Your AMB runs on dedicated Azure infrastructure with built-in storage redundancy, geo-redundant backup, Microsoft Defender, and Sentinel monitoring. You keep the ownership of the data and the Azure subscription. We carry the operational lift.

Nightly backup to Cloud Geo-Redundant Storage with copies in two Microsoft regions and 16 nines durability. Retention is configurable per institution. Bank Secrecy Act records retain for 5 years (31 CFR 1010.430). NCUA 12 CFR Part 749 Appendix A vital records retain permanently. Suspicious Activity Report records retain for 5 years from filing. Backup retention up to 10 years is supported, with immutable backup vaults available for institutions whose retention policy requires write-once-read-many guarantees.

Yes. The AMB modules you license from Advantage Systems install on the same VM the way they would on-premises: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, the Excel Reporting Tool add-in, the imaging module, and the web reports interface. Payment integrations with AMEX, AVID PAY, Chase, Wells Fargo, and other financial institutions continue to work. Connections to your loan origination system, payroll, and warehouse-line tools are configured during the scope call and re-validated post-cutover.

Your institution. Always. ABT is the partner of record on your Microsoft Customer Agreement. Your Azure subscription, your Microsoft Entra ID tenant, your data, and your encryption keys belong to you. ABT operates the environment with delegated admin access you can revoke. The AMB database, the file shares, and the backups all live in your subscription. We never resell your storage, and we never read your encryption keys.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday updates land on your AMB host inside the Guardian advisory cadence. Critical vulnerabilities on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list are patched inside the CISA-published deadline, not after it. As a recent example, April 2026 Patch Tuesday covered 167 CVEs including two actively exploited zero-days; managed tenants were patched inside the CISA KEV deadline. The Guardian advisory feed publishes our patch posture and exception list on the same cadence Microsoft publishes the bulletins.

Yes. Advantage Systems shipped AMB 7 to give your accounting team browser-based access from the office, home, or branch locations without installing the full client. On Azure, AMB 7 runs against the same dedicated SQL backend, secured behind Microsoft Entra ID conditional access. Combined with Tokenator session-revocation guardrails on privileged accounts, the browser-based experience is examiner-ready out of the box. Multi-factor authentication is enforced on every AMB login.

Yes. ABT is the largest Tier 1 Microsoft CSP serving financial institutions. We host Calyx PointCentral, run Microsoft 365 Copilot deployments, deliver Guardian Managed Extended Detection and Response, and operate MortgageExchange and DocumentGuardian for borrower documents - all in a single Azure tenancy when customers are ready to consolidate. 750+ financial institutions run their Microsoft services with us, across community banks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders. AMB hosting is the starting point. The rest of your Microsoft footprint can follow on your timeline.

Ask every provider four questions before you sign a contract. Where does my AMB SQL database physically live (private Microsoft Azure, AWS, or a colocation rack)? Is my SQL Server engine dedicated to my institution or shared with other lenders? What is the support staffing model (United States, Microsoft-certified, 24/7/365, or business hours through a help desk)? How is the relationship structured (Tier 1 Microsoft CSP direct-bill, or a reseller chain with two audit trails)? The comparison table above this FAQ walks through each of those questions. Bring those answers to your IT team and your auditor before you commit.