Cloud computing is widely seen as the top technological priority for the coming 12 months, with an ever-increasing number of public cloud providers, such as Google and Dropbox. According to a Gartner report of January, 2011 could be the ‘Year of Cloud’.
But Vaultium, provider of online file-sharing solutions, has warned that businesses risk falling foul of UK and European legislation if they store sensitive information in the public cloud. According to the company, public cloud providers do not offer any specific guarantees on the physical location of their servers, which could lead to sensitive data being stored at locations that contravene current legislation, such as the UK’s Data Protection Act. Vaultium is advising caution when choosing a cloud-based storage provider.
The company notes that many cloud providers’ storage facilities could be compromised by uncertainly over location: business data stored in the public cloud can be stored in any number of countries, often in the US, as well as other legal jurisdictions, which can contravene European legislation. In fact the EU has suggested that government agencies should only deploy public cloud services for applications that do not process sensitive data.
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