Cloud-based data may have the power to leap international borders in a single bound, but that does not make it immune to international law. As governments around the world crack down on the free flow of data, the question of where data lives has become more than a matter of how quickly it can be accessed.
Data sovereignty, also known as data residency regulation, is a means of regulating information based on the country where it is used. Typically inspired by a combination of security and privacy as well as economic factors, new sovereignty laws are cropping up around the globe, according to JLL’s 2016 Data Center Outlook Report.