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Data Across Borders -- Why You MUST Know Where Your Data Lives

By Brad Nisbet, senior marketing manager for cloud solutions, NetApp

2014 has been a year of huge progress for organizations as they move their corporate data into hybrid clouds.

The business case for moving to cloud computing—particularly hybrid cloud environments—is just too compelling to ignore. Many new startups today are launching their businesses entirely in the cloud, without ever building a “traditional” data center with physical servers.

But the issue of data governance—and of which country the data resides in—can’t be ignored either.

Senior executives, such as CIOs, security chiefs, and risk managers, need to be mindful of international laws and regulations regarding data. They must include the required due diligence when selecting cloud service providers on a global level.

Have Data, Will Travel

What exactly does this mean for data itself, particularly when it crosses international borders? What will be the impact on data governance, and what should organizations do to ensure they won’t get into regulatory and legal trouble?

These are all important considerations as more and more data moves into public clouds. From an IT perspective, public clouds truly bring new meaning to the concept of geography.

One of the key benefits of using cloud services is that the service provider—wherever they are in the world—is responsible for providing and maintaining the infrastructure that houses data, including the data centers containing virtualized servers, storage systems, etc.

Location, Location, Location: Does It Matter?

Organizations can’t take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to cloud.

Where the data is physically located should be a key consideration when choosing and using a cloud service. Companies need to be aware of where their data resides, to ensure compliance with international regulations that restrict the movement of certain types of information across borders.

And with the growth of hybrid IT environments, corporate data assets are on the move. This movement will only increase over time as global commerce expands and service providers outsource some infrastructure to third parties.

Data Is The New Money

A long time ago, money mainly equated to gold or cash, and people often kept it stored nearby such as in a safe or under a mattress.

But now, money takes on many different forms, including virtually, and has gone truly global. Many people have no idea where their financial assets are located (or even if they can be located).

Data is headed in that same direction. Not long ago, most organizations stored their data behind firewalls in storage systems located in their own data centers. They knew exactly where the data was, whether it was on tape, on disk drives, or elsewhere within their facilities.

But now, with public cloud, data can be physically located virtually anywhere, depending on the service provider and its scope of operations.

Freedom, Liberty And… Control

Freedom to choose data location presents a new set of concerns to consider.

Geopolitical issues, tax laws, security regulations, national protectionism, and other factors can all place limits on where data can move and be stored. For example, some provinces in Canada prohibit healthcare data from being stored in the United States.

Business and IT leaders will need to decide whether they need to keep all their data "country specific" with local service providers, or if it’s acceptable for certain types of data to be located overseas.

As IDC mentions in their June 2014 report, The Importance of Data Control in Hybrid IT: “As CIOs move important business assets to third party owned collocation, hosting, and cloud facilities, Data Control becomes increasingly challenging.”

Clearly, where data lives and moves is a vital issue for many companies today. According to a survey of more than 400 professionals conducted by Enterprise Management Associates earlier this year, an overwhelming majority of respondents (97%) say it’s important to target workloads toward data centers in specific regions for compliance and data sovereignty.

The Bottom Line

Adoption of hybrid cloud environments is still in the early stage, and people are still trying to determine how to govern data in these changing times.

While cloud certainly removes some of the challenges and complexities of building and running an IT infrastructure in-house, it also adds a new layer of complexity, in terms of maintaining data governance and control.

With the continuing growth of various types of XaaS—software as a service, infrastructure as a service, platform as a service—the management challenges of data in the cloud will only increase over time.

What's your take? Weigh in with a comment below, and connect with @BradNisbet (Twitter).

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Data Across Borders -- Why You MUST Know Where Your Data Lives ~ @BradNisbet

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POST WRITTEN BY
Brad Nisbet, senior marketing manager for cloud solutions, NetApp