FAQ
Common questions from buyers evaluating AKIOS Pro: how it compares, what it does and does not do, and how the evaluation works.
Product#
Does AKIOS Pro execute or orchestrate workflows?
No. AKIOS Pro is an independent monitoring and evidence layer. It observes existing agent stacks, records governance signals, and produces compliance evidence. It does not run agents, orchestrate workflows, or replace your existing infrastructure. This separation is intentional: evidence from an independent layer carries more weight with auditors.
Can we self-host everything?
Yes. AKIOS Pro is designed for self-hosted deployment in your VPC, on-prem environment, or air-gapped network. No cloud services are required. All data — traces, findings, exports, retention records — stays inside your infrastructure. Zero egress, zero telemetry, zero third-party APIs.
What data leaves our infrastructure?
Nothing. AKIOS Pro has zero cloud dependencies. It does not phone home, send telemetry, or require external API access for core functionality. The only outbound network connections are to customer-specified LLM gateways (for evidence collection) and SIEM endpoints (for event forwarding). In air-gapped mode, zero outbound connections are required.
What is the difference between AKIOS Pro Free and AKIOS OSS?
AKIOS Pro Free is a self-hosted evaluation of the commercial AKIOS Pro product — same binary, same evidence model, with usage limits for evaluation (7-day retention, 10K traces/day). AKIOS OSS is a separate open-source execution cage for AI agents (GPL-3.0, at akios.ai). They are different products for different use cases: Pro provides compliance evidence for regulated enterprises; OSS provides execution safety for developers.
Does AKIOS Pro require AKIOS OSS or EnforceCore?
No. AKIOS Pro is technically independent with zero dependencies on any open-source component. AKIOS OSS and EnforceCore are separate projects in the AKIOUD AI family that demonstrate technical depth in enforcement. They are siblings, not prerequisites.
How is AKIOS Pro licensed?
AKIOS Pro is licensed per deployment (annual subscription). The free evaluation tier requires no license key. Paid Pro tier adds extended retention, higher trace capacity, and standard support. Enterprise tier adds SSO/SAML, dedicated support, custom retention, and procurement documentation.
Comparisons#
How is this different from LangSmith / LangFuse?
Those are LLM observability and debugging tools for engineers. They answer "what is my LLM doing right now?" AKIOS Pro is a compliance evidence platform. It answers "can I prove what my AI agents did to a regulator?" The output is not a trace visualization — it is a structured evidence pack with control mappings, retention attestation, and regulator-ready exports. AKIOS Pro also enforces data sovereignty (self-hosted, no cloud) and maps to regulatory frameworks by default.
How is this different from guardrails tools (Guardrails AI, NVIDIA NeMo)?
Guardrails tools prevent specific model behaviors at the prompt/response level. They block bad outputs before they reach the user. AKIOS Pro focuses on producing reviewable compliance evidence from existing workflows. It observes what happened, records findings, maps them to controls, and exports regulator-ready packages. Guardrails prevent; AKIOS Pro proves. The two are complementary, not competitive.
How is this different from a SIEM?
SIEMs ingest and correlate security events across your entire infrastructure — network, endpoints, identity, applications. AKIOS Pro specializes in AI agent workflow evidence: LLM calls, tool activity, PII exposure, policy violations, review decisions, and control mappings. It forwards structured evidence to your SIEM for correlation with other security signals. AKIOS Pro is not a SIEM replacement; it is the AI evidence layer that feeds your SIEM.
How is this different from cloud AI governance tools (Azure AI Studio, AWS Bedrock)?
Cloud governance tools are tied to their cloud provider and require AI workloads to run in that cloud. AKIOS Pro is self-hosted and infrastructure-agnostic. It works with any LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, local), any agent framework (LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, custom), and any deployment model (VPC, on-prem, air-gapped, hybrid). For regulated enterprises that cannot move workloads to a specific cloud, AKIOS Pro is the only option that meets data sovereignty requirements.
How is this different from building our own evidence pipeline?
Building a compliance-grade evidence pipeline requires: structured trace ingestion, PII detection across 50+ patterns with configurable thresholds, policy evaluation engine, control mapping configuration, SIEM forwarding with retry logic, retention enforcement with purge attestation, and export packaging in multiple formats. AKIOS Pro provides all of these as a self-hosted product deployed in a single Docker container. Most teams spend 3-6 months building an in-house equivalent; AKIOS Pro reduces this to a one-day deployment.
How is this different from a vector database or RAG monitoring tool?
Vector databases and RAG monitoring tools track document retrieval and embedding quality. AKIOS Pro tracks the full agent workflow including LLM calls, tool invocations, PII exposure, policy compliance, human review decisions, and evidence export. The scope is broader: not just "did the retriever find the right document" but "did the agent expose PII, violate policy, or bypass human oversight in the process?"
Evaluation & Buying#
How does the free AKIOS Pro evaluation work?
Deploy the same AKIOS Pro binary in your infrastructure. No license key required. Free evaluation includes: full evidence collection, 7-day retention, 10K traces/day, all export formats (JSON, HTML, PDF), and dashboard access. Upgrade to a paid Pro license for extended retention, higher trace capacity, and standard support.
Can we evaluate without connecting production traffic?
Yes. Push sample traces via the REST API or upload a log file from your staging environment. AKIOS Pro processes them through the full evidence pipeline: PII detection, policy evaluation, control mapping, and export generation. Validate evidence quality, export formatting, and SIEM integration before connecting live traffic.
How does procurement work for regulated enterprises?
AKIOS Pro is purchased as an annual license per deployment. Enterprise licenses include: dedicated support engineer, SSO/SAML, custom retention policies, procurement documentation package (SOC 2 report under NDA, DPA, BAA, completed security questionnaire). Contact our sales team for pricing specific to your deployment scale and compliance requirements.
How long does evaluation to production typically take?
Most teams complete evaluation in 1-2 weeks. Typical timeline: day 1 deploy AKIOS Pro in evaluation environment, day 2 connect evidence sources, days 3-5 validate evidence quality and control mappings, days 5-7 configure SIEM forwarding and retention policies, days 7-14 complete security review and procurement. For teams with existing LLM infrastructure, evaluation can be completed in under a week.
Do you offer a trial period for the paid Pro tier?
Yes. We offer a 30-day trial of the paid Pro tier with full retention, higher capacity, and support. No credit card required. Contact our sales team to activate your trial.
Can we deploy AKIOS Pro in an air-gapped environment?
Yes. AKIOS Pro is designed for zero-trust and air-gapped environments. No external API calls, no telemetry, no cloud dependencies. License validation supports offline activation. Container images can be distributed via your private registry. All evidence processing, retention, and export is fully local.
Ready to evaluate AKIOS Pro?
Deploy the free self-hosted evaluation in under 5 minutes. No license key required.