Frequently asked questions about the IOWIS Platform
Here you will find answers to common questions about the IOWIS Platform, running AI on-premises, hardware, data protection, AI models and working with company knowledge.
For more detailed technical and practical information, each section links to the relevant topic pages.
Still have questions or want to discuss your requirements? Talk to us.
Platform, implementation and costs
The IOWIS Platform brings AI assistants, company knowledge, agents and other AI features together in an on-premises environment. Find out more about features, plans and ways to use it on the IOWIS Platform page.
The IOWIS Platform combines a chat interface with AI assistants, agents, document processing, company knowledge, workspaces and integrations in one environment.
Administrators manage users, permissions, knowledge resources and available features centrally. In a fully on-premises deployment, the language models and core AI processing run on hardware within your infrastructure.
Yes. The initial rollout can be limited to a pilot group, a department or selected use cases.
Hardware should still be planned around the usage you expect in the future. If user numbers or computing requirements are likely to grow significantly, an additional graphics card or more powerful hardware may be needed, depending on the existing configuration.
Technical integration usually requires a contact who is familiar with your network and systems. Integration with the internal network and existing firewall, VPN and access arrangements is coordinated with your IT team. IOWIS supplies the hardware and platform and supports the technical implementation.
If no suitable internal contact is available, IOWIS can take on additional technical tasks after reviewing the existing environment. This work is agreed separately.
For ongoing use, you appoint at least one administrator to manage users, permissions, assistants and knowledge resources, for example. IOWIS and, if requested, JADE IT can also help select initial use cases, work with test groups and introduce employees to the platform.
After the platform goes live, IOWIS provides updates and support. Network access, backups and availability monitoring are handled through your existing IT responsibilities.
The per-user prices include use of the platform, software and model updates, and support. IOWIS does not charge separate ongoing maintenance fees on top of these prices.
Hardware and deployment are quoted separately. Hardware can be purchased, rented or leased. A combination of an on-premises appliance and an external GPU server is agreed individually. Additional costs may arise from technical setup, requested integrations, training, support with rollout and adoption, or individually agreed extensions.
The total therefore depends on the number of users, required features, hardware and scope of the implementation project.
We are still accepting companies into our pilot programme. As a pilot customer, you receive reduced licence fees for 12 months and help shape the platform’s development. To take part, your agreement must be signed by 31 December 2026. Find out more about joining the pilot programme.
IOWIS selects the default models to suit the intended tasks, required performance and hardware configuration. Multiple models can also be deployed within the same installation at the same time.
If you request a particular open-weight model, IOWIS can provide it without an additional charge for the model. If that model needs more computing capacity, this may affect the hardware configuration required.
Hardware and on-premises operation
In a fully on-premises deployment, language models and core AI processing run on hardware within your infrastructure. Suitable models depend on the intended tasks, speed and quality requirements, and available hardware. Read more about operation and external connections under On-premises AI. The IOWIS Platform page describes the combination of a local appliance and an external GPU server.
No. For particularly demanding tasks, the most capable proprietary cloud models still achieve a level of quality that locally deployable models cannot fully match on cost-effective business hardware.
Many specific business tasks do not need that maximum capability, however. What matters is whether a model can perform the intended tasks reliably, quickly and to the required standard. A larger model or one with better benchmark scores is not automatically the better choice if its additional capabilities provide no clear benefit in actual use.
Open-weight models are developing rapidly and closing the gap in various areas. Benchmarks provide a useful guide, but only partly reflect practical use with your own documents, instructions and workflows.
IOWIS therefore selects models to suit the intended tasks, requirements for quality and speed, and available hardware.
Current model comparisons:
Would you like to use existing hardware? Get in touch.
Yes. In a fully on-premises deployment, the IOWIS Platform’s core features and locally deployed language models can run without an internet connection. A fully isolated, air-gapped environment disconnected from the internet is also possible.
The platform does not need to connect regularly to IOWIS for licence checks, account management or telemetry. In a fully isolated environment, however, only features that do not need an external connection can be used. Web search, external data sources and connected online services each require a connection to be set up explicitly.
IOWIS provides encrypted update packages tailored to each installation. You can download these from the IOWIS update server, transfer them to your isolated environment on a USB drive and install them there. A changelog describes the included changes before the download.
For environments where downloading update packages is not desired, regular delivery of a prepared USB drive can be arranged instead. This additional service is charged separately.
For hardware supplied by IOWIS, IOWIS remains the first point of contact. Together with you, IOWIS determines whether the problem lies with the platform or the hardware. If the hardware is faulty, IOWIS coordinates repairs, replacement of affected components or any necessary on-site service with the relevant hardware partner.
This applies whether the hardware is purchased, rented or leased. For hardware you already have, your existing warranty and support agreements apply.
Data protection and control over data
On-premises operation creates different technical conditions from processing through external AI services. We explain the implications for data flows, access and GDPR on the AI and data protection page.
No. The server location alone does not tell you who controls AI processing, what access is possible, or who decides which models, updates and interfaces are used.
Sovereign AI also depends on whether a company can switch models and reuse its own data and configurations. What matters is the solution’s actual technical and contractual capabilities.
No, not automatically. The IOWIS Platform does, however, provide core technical foundations for GDPR-compliant use.
In a fully on-premises deployment, language models and core AI processing run within your environment. Company content is not sent to external AI providers for processing. Access permissions, retention periods, deletion schedules, logging and external connections can be controlled and configured to suit the use case.
Whether a particular use case complies with the GDPR also depends on which data is processed, for what purpose and on what legal basis.
Yes. Personal and confidential information can be processed within your on-premises environment and used for AI applications you have approved.
The platform provides fine-grained access permissions, separate knowledge resources, configurable deletion schedules and logging, among other features. The legal requirements for the processing depend on the use case.
Chat histories, documents and other platform data are stored within your environment.
Users can delete their own chats. Administrators can also set retention periods and deletion schedules for different types of content and usage data.
When documents are removed from a knowledge base, the chunks, embeddings and vector database entries generated from them are also deleted. Backups are governed by the company’s backup and deletion processes.
No. Administrators do not have blanket access to other users’ full chat histories.
Role-based and relationship-based permissions allow administrative rights to be defined in detail. The designated system data, usage data and logs are available for administration, usage analysis and traceability.
No. IOWIS does not have remote administrative access to the platform by default. The platform also does not send telemetry, usage statistics, error reports or company content to IOWIS.
If IOWIS needs access to the system for a support request, you decide whether and how to provide it. One option is to enable remote access temporarily. An on-site visit can be arranged separately on request.
Company knowledge and data portability
An AI knowledge base makes existing documents and data sources accessible for AI-assisted questions. Read about RAG, sources, knowledge resources and permissions under An AI knowledge base for your business. This section also covers exporting and reusing your own data and configurations.
No. Documents in knowledge bases, user inputs and generated answers are not used to train or fine-tune the language models in use.
Instead, documents are processed and indexed for retrieval. When a request is made, the platform finds relevant content in the knowledge resources the user is authorised to access and supplies it to the language model for that answer.
New or changed documents are processed and indexed automatically. Changes in connected data sources are synchronised regularly. How synchronisation works and how often it takes place depend on the integration.
Administrators can also trigger synchronisation manually when needed.
When a document is deleted, the chunks, embeddings and vector database entries generated from it are also removed.
If a connected system provides the relevant permission information, existing user, group and access permissions can be imported alongside the content and applied during retrieval.
How permissions are read and synchronised with changes in the source system depends on the integration. Access permissions can also be managed within the IOWIS Platform through its own roles and permissions system.
Yes. Your own documents, chat histories, assistant instructions and configurations can be exported from the IOWIS Platform. These contents are then available for reuse outside the platform.
How they can be transferred to another solution depends on its import capabilities and technical structure. Depending on the target system, the exported data may need to be converted or configurations adjusted.