If you are looking to migrate from Aperio eSlide Manager (eSM), there has never been a better time—or more options available—for you to consider. For more than two decades, eSM has served as the default slide sharing platform for Aperio scanners. But as digital pathology adoption accelerates, new scientific demands are pushing the limits of what legacy systems can support.
Applications like spatial biology, toxicologic pathology, artificial intelligence, and distributed global collaborations require high-performance, secure platforms. At the same time, the burden of maintaining self-hosted systems and the security risks tied to legacy technologies are becoming increasingly difficult for labs and corporations to ignore.
For pathology teams handling sensitive patient data, preclinical research, and regulated workflows, image management isn’t just a matter of convenience—it’s a matter of trust, compliance, and access to a platform that enables image interrogation and faster discoveries.
The Rising Risks of Legacy and Self-Hosted Systems
As of this writing, eSlide Manager is only validated with outdated technologies like Microsoft Windows Server 2016/2019 and Microsoft SQL Server 2019, despite the suggested workarounds. This along with Leica’s partnership with Indica Labs suggesting HaloLink as a successor to eSlide Manager, delivers a clear message: eSM is not evolving fast enough to meet modern security and scientific requirements. For pathology teams handling sensitive information often in regulated environments, that stagnation isn’t just inconvenient—it amplifies security risks at the exact moment when global breaches are proving that no platform is immune. The result is brittle infrastructure that leaves teams exposed, just as science is moving faster than ever.
Cybersecurity: It’s Not “If” But “When”
Recent high-profile breaches across industry giants—including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Office 365—prove that no platform is immune. The reality is that security incidents are inevitable; it is not a matter of if, but when.
Legacy software compounds this risk since they often depend on unpatched or unsupported technologies, widening the exposure window for cyberattacks. In healthcare and life sciences, the consequences are even more severe: non-compliance, loss of intellectual property, and potential leaks of sensitive patient information.
Corporate IT and compliance teams know this well, which is why they increasingly view legacy software as an urgent risk that must be proactively addressed—not tolerated.
Hidden Costs of Self-Hosting
Traditional slide sharing platforms like eSM are self-hosted, requiring customers to provision and maintain their own servers, storage, and IT infrastructure. At first glance, this can look like control. In practice, self-hosted solutions introduce layers of hidden costs:
- Hardware provisioning and software licensing
- Storage, backups, and disaster recovery planning
- Ongoing maintenance and security monitoring
- Dedicated IT support for system uptime and performance
Each of these tasks drains resources and distracts teams from their core scientific mission. Over time, the “do-it-yourself” approach becomes more expensive than investing in a managed solution—especially when you factor in productivity gaps and the risk of downtime, security incidents, and compliance issues.
The SaaS Advantage: More Than Just “Cloud”
When evaluating the next generation of IMS, many teams encounter two terms—cloud-based and SaaS—that sound similar but carry very different implications.
Cloud-based systems often mean software hosted on rented servers that are customer owned. In these cases, the customer still manages much of the complexity — updates, configuration, maintenance and technical support — similar to an on-premise solution.
By contrast, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform goes much further. SaaS platforms provide a solution that is delivered as a fully managed service: the provider not only hosts the system but also takes responsibility for implementing security, software updates, managing scalability and performance, disaster recovery, technical support, and day-to-day maintenance of the system.
“With SaaS, your vendor handles the heavy lifting so your team can focus on science, not infrastructure.
Why SaaS Changes the Equation
SaaS has become the dominant model for enterprise software across industries—and for good reason. By shifting away from self-hosted solutions, labs gain:
Continuous updates and patching without downtime or consulting fees.
- Economies of scale, where the vendor absorbs infrastructure and security costs.
- Accessibility from anywhere, enabling true global collaboration.
- Predictable, transparent costs, with subscription-based pricing instead of unpredictable maintenance bills.
- Seamless scalability, where performance keeps pace as datasets expand.
For pathology teams, the difference is clear: instead of being stuck one step behind infrastructure changes, you get a platform that grows with your science—always secure, always up to date, and always ready when you are.
Vendor Lock-In: A Barrier to Innovation
Another growing risk with IMS platforms is vendor lock-in. Many slide sharing platforms are built as extensions of a company’s scanner or analysis tool. While these may appear “integrated,” they are often restrictive and less flexible.
A true IMS should be vendor-neutral and designed for interoperability. If you’re relying on a slide sharing platform that works with few scanning platforms or a single analysis ecosystem, you’re not working with an IMS—you’re limiting your lab’s ability to adopt new AI models, new scanners, or other emerging technologies.
In a fields evolving as quickly as digital pathology and life sciences, the distinction matters. Vendor lock-in isn’t just inconvenient—it becomes an instant barrier to innovation. A future-ready IMS must be vendor-neutral, ensuring your laboratory can choose the best tools today and adapt to the breakthroughs of tomorrow.
The Enterprise-Grade IMS Advantage
An image management system (IMS) is more than a file viewer. At its best, it is an enterprise-grade platform that supports every stakeholder:
- Researchers and pathologists gain high-speed, browser-based image viewing with flexible tools for annotations, metadata tracking, collaboration, and image analysis.
- IT and compliance teams get a platform and a single-pane of glass that consolidates multiple legacy solutions and that is aligned with the organizations security, scalability, compliance, and corporate data governance requirements.
- Laboratories benefit from scalable storage, flexible deployment options (cloud or on-premises), integrations with many 3rd party systems and workflows designed for spatial biology, toxicologic pathology, and biopharma R&D and much more.
This level of functionality allows laboratories to run high-volume, complex workflows without compromise.
PathcoreFlow: Focus on Science, Not Infrastructure
PathcoreFlow delivers all the advantages of SaaS while addressing the unique demands of digital pathology workflows. Delivered as a SaaS solution, it’s fully managed by Pathcore, removing the overhead of setup, patching, and infrastructure management. Yet, for organizations with specific IT requirements, it can also be deployed on-premises—offering the best of both worlds.
Key capabilities include:
- Vendor-neutral architecture with interoperability across scanners and analysis tools.
- Enterprise-grade security and compliance for GLP/GCP regulated workflows.
- Role-based access control, metadata integration, and workflow-driven repositories.
- High-speed, browser-based viewing of all major proprietary formats.
- Scalable, cost-effective storage optimized for digital pathology workloads.
By combining flexibility with security and scalability, PathcoreFlow allows laboratories to adopt a “future-ready IMS”—one that evolves alongside the science, not behind it.
The Way Forward
The digital pathology community is at an inflection point. Legacy systems that once served the field are increasingly strained under the weight of modern research demands. The risks—security, cost, performance, and vendor lock-in—are real and growing.
The alternative is clear: migrate to a vendor-neutral, SaaS-based IMS designed for today’s workflows and tomorrow’s discoveries.
At Pathcore, our mission is simple: let us focus on the technology, so you can focus on the science™.
The future of image management isn’t about patching the past. It’s about choosing systems that evolve with science. PathcoreFlow is designed to do just that.
