The new data sovereignty… and why you can’t afford to neglect it
In today's interconnected society, our data is a fundamental part of our personal and professional lives, informing everything from the way we communicate and collaborate with our colleagues to the way we do our weekly shop. Seamless, secure flows of data have transformed the way we access many critical services and helped bring a rich vein of new innovations to market, but as with any period of intensive technological evolution, these benefits have come at a price…
In a highly unpredictable geopolitical landscape, the growing volumes of data created, stored, and transferred by public sector and enterprise organisations present an extremely attractive target for bad actors, as does corporations' intellectual property and citizens' personal data. It's unsurprising that organisations across the public and private sectors are treating the continued integrity of their data as a critical priority – not only to avoid the financial and reputational consequences of a breach, but also to provide customers and prospects with assurance that their critical data will always be protected, both at rest and in transit.
Data sovereignty is a key part of this journey, by which we mean – in the broadest sense – guarantees over the geographical locations in which data may be stored. Most technology providers will already have such guarantees in place, typically involving the location of their hosting environments. However, with the now near-ubiquity of Cloud platforms and the growing complexity of security and compliance, the nature of true data sovereignty is no longer so clear.
With this in mind, consider the following questions when evaluating Cloud providers…
Is your Cloud provider fully incorporated in your desired location? While they may maintain hosting environments there, can they say the same for the Cloud platforms you will be utilising, particularly if they are operating as part of a larger umbrella company? If not, you cannot guarantee that your data will remain within the country when in transit, which may lead to compliance and security issues
Will they maintain full jurisdictional control of all data? Related to the above point, with several governments having now implemented regulations that grant them access to data stored in Cloud platforms (e.g. the US Cloud Act), providers must be able to guarantee that customer data will never be subject to such overreach. This is especially critical for any sort of public sector data, particularly Government and defence.
Can they specify which personnel have access to their Cloud platforms? Again, all engineers who will be maintaining the Cloud platform and acting on behalf of customers must be based in their sovereign nation, with the appropriate clearances and certifications in place.
Does their data sovereignty extend to their disaster recovery and business continuity practices? The sovereignty of data centres must extend to back-up environments, which must also be located in the designated geographical region, with air gapping, data encryption, and zero-trust security measures utilised as appropriate, and all of this subject to annual audit.
Will they maintain full jurisdictional control of all data? Related to the above point, with several governments having now implemented regulations that grant them access to data stored in Cloud platforms (e.g. the US Cloud Act), providers must be able to guarantee that customer data will never be subject to such overreach. This is especially critical for any sort of public sector data, particularly Government and defence.
Can they specify which personnel have access to their Cloud platforms? Again, all engineers who will be maintaining the Cloud platform and acting on behalf of customers must be based in their sovereign nation, with the appropriate clearances and certifications in place.
Does their data sovereignty extend to their disaster recovery and business continuity practices? The sovereignty of data centres must extend to back-up environments, which must also be located in the designated geographical region, with air gapping, data encryption, and zero-trust security measures utilised as appropriate, and all of this subject to annual audit.
This is why Exponential-e has continued to develop our ability to guarantee true data sovereignty, in direct response to the evolving digital and geopolitical landscapes. To this end, we were recently certified as a VMware Sovereign Partner, reflecting our ability to provide complete assurance around the sovereignty and control of digital assets. The are multiple dimensions to this, including our hosting facilities, support, management, regional jurisdictions, security clearances, and ability to deliver complementary services, such as Bring Your own Key (BYoK) and both shared and dedicated Cloud environments. As a proudly UK-based company for more than twenty years, our full range of solutions is designed with true sovereignty inherent in the design – something we continue to develop in response to the latest regulations, geopolitical shifts, and security challenges.
If you are in any way concerned about the sovereignty of your data and your key platforms, do not hesitate to reach out to our team, who will guide you through these challenges, ensuring you can continue your Cloud journey with complete peace of mind.
Rhodri Stone
Rhodri is focused on working with customer stakeholders to design and delivering IT services that map directly to organisation business objectives and growth. Rhodri's team follow these core values of engagement into our varied customer base and drive the purpose of offering a best-in-class design and consultancy experience.
His experience spans 20+ years in IT across Cloud and Managed Services, including support and management services, and the design and
implementation of traditional and Cloud-based architecture across private and public sectors.
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