Tight legislation and increasing pressure for security over sensitive data can create a barrier against cloud adoption
Location of data is a growing issue for businesses
Since the birth of offshore data centres many years ago, data sovereignty (the location of a organisation’s data) has been an issue facing businesses looking to migrate data to the cloud. While many IT professionals deem data privacy and security to be the most challenging issue for businesses, it is foolish to underestimate the importance of data sovereignty.
Why is data sovereignty so important, and who is championing data sovereignty for organisations that care about where their data resides? Many companies offer cloud services but only a handful can truly offer in-country data location.
Data sovereignty is becoming an increasing concern for many organisations, most importantly for those holding data about third parties, who under the Data Protection Act 1998 are legally responsible for that data. In terms of data sovereignty UK companies holding third party data need to be confident that this data remains within the UK, so that it falls under this jurisdiction and they remain within the law.
As well as third party data such as customer banking details, data sovereignty is also a pertinent issue for government bodies, with the UK government in agreement with the notion that personal information held by the public sector must be hosted within the UK.
Especially now with the government G-Cloud initiative – a cross government initiative providing cloud services to government departments – in the form of the CloudStore, the demand for UK-based cloud services is set to increase as more organisations from both the public and private sector migrate data to the cloud.
As data sovereignty is clearly a concern for organisations hosting sensitive data, what does this mean for the cloud industry and cloud service providers? Simply put, the demand for data sovereignty is only going to rise, as cloud becomes an increasingly viable option for businesses in the UK and abroad. With the public sector spending an increasing amount on cloud services, cloud providers need to be able to offer in-country hosting otherwise they will miss out on business.
Data centre provider Telehouse, part of the KDDI group, has already woken up to this issue and launched its new Telecloud service to provide peace of mind for businesses looking to migrate to the cloud. A recent survey of 300 senior UK IT professionals by the Cloud Industry Forum found that 47 per cent of respondents were required to store data within the UK. So this is not an issue that affects the minority.
Telecloud is a new infrastructure as-a-service cloud solution housed in and provided by Telehouse data centres.
Built on cutting-edge technology, it offers companies of all sizes the opportunity to integrate mission-critical applications into a globally connected and highly secure cloud.
The service that Telecloud provides puts the emphasis on the importance of data sovereignty to businesses responsible for holding sensitive data. Operating from data centres in France and the UK,
Telecloud can truly claim to host client’s data within either of these countries in a secure, resilient environment – so companies operating in the UK can be safe in the knowledge that their data is stored in the UK.
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