As data privacy concerns escalate, regulators are imposing an increasing number of requirements on how data is being stored. These requirements extend beyond security measures to the physical location of the data storage facilities under certain jurisdictions. Shekhar Mishra, director of product marketing for software-defined datacenter at Lenovo Group Ltd., explained the challenges faced by its European customers from new regulations imposed around data storage.

“Service providers are looking for the agility and simplicity that the public cloud brings, but a lot of the regulatory and SLA [service level agreement] security concerns prohibit them from putting everything on a public cloud,” Mishra said. 

Mishra spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu) and Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Lenovo Transform event in New York City. Also joining in on the interview was Julian Box, chief executive officer and co-founder of cloud service provide Calligo Ltd., which is addressing data storage regulations by providing standard off-the-shelf cloud solutions on a geographic basis.

Why physical data matters

Different government entities have different rules around how data is managed and accessed based on a number of non-technical factors, such as political climate and public perception. In case of a legal event, regulators want to make sure the data is subject to the laws of their physical jurisdiction. 

“Because of the way people perceive data now and where it is and where it’s held, there are more demands that ‘I want my data executing in the jurisdiction that I live in,'” Box explained. 

These different data jurisdictions create an incentive to physically locate data warehouses within appropriate jurisdictions.

“As a service provider we’re now liable for what happens to that data. … It comes down to minimizing risk and making sure we’re meeting the obligations under these new laws. And it becomes easier if you’re actually doing it in a jurisdiction that has the appropriate laws or is physically in the EU,” Box said. 

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of the Lenovo Transform event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Lenovo Transform. Neither Lenovo Group Ltd. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE