Data Residency and Legal Questions About the Cloud

With the official Microsoft Office 365 launch last week, and all its related build-up and hoopla, I've been speaking with a lot of cloud vendors lately. Naturally, everyone wants to share what they can do to help customers who plan to adopt Microsoft's cloud-based collaborations suite that features Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office Web Apps, among other features. However, one topic that continues to surface around cloud solutions such as Office 365 is growing legislation that mandates where data can be stored.

Perhaps the best-known example of this type of requirement comes from Canada where, in reaction to the US Patriot Act, Canadian companies are forbidden to use cloud services that store data on US soil. Basically, Canada and other governments that enact such legislation are trying to protect their citizens by ensuring that data about their citizens is stored where that particular government body has legal control over what happens to the data. So, the Canadian government doesn't want its citizens' data to be seized as a result of provisions of the Patriot Act if it happens to reside in a data center in the United States.

I spoke specifically about this issue of data residency with Martin Tuip, an Exchange and messaging expert with information management services company, Iron Mountain. "Countries will adopt these laws and regulations to protect their citizens," Tuip said. "Certain types of data must be stored where governments have legal jurisdiction over it, which technically means within its borders." Tuip pointed out European legislation as well as recent laws passed in US states such as Massachusetts and Nevada as the possible start of a trend down this more restrictive road.

The question that arises, if this trend continues, is what effect will it have on adoption of cloud computing overall, and specifically on adoption of hosted messaging and collaboration services which rely on storing personal data? Rami Habal, director of product marketing for email security vendor Proofpoint, said, "Data residency, the issue around where I store my data, is extremely important, especially for multinationals with geographically disbursed offices in different jurisdictions." Habal was quick to point out that Proofpoint customers are able to choose the specific data center where their data is stored; many other cloud vendors have told me the same thing (although I haven't heard this said about Office 365).

To Continue Reading: Click Here
----------------------------------------------
Source: windowsitpro.com
By: Brian Winstead