Introduction | Wamiq Syed
Wamiq Syed is a PMP, AWS SA Associtate has been leading the delivery of national critical cloud platforms. The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s own and do not represent the views of any employer or organization.
‘Cloud’ was one the code-word for borderless, global utility computing. Today, a counter-revolution is reinessancing through the digital landscape. Countries today are pushing for digital sovereignty as a must; with stronger than ever policies wanting data and infrastructure to be under local jurisdiction. This movement is re architecting the internet into a patchwork of national domains.
The New Norm: Data Residency
The driver of this change is a worldwide wave of data protection laws and related governance. According to the author (Wamiq), the rules applicable to the transfer of data across borders are now harder and the regulations mandate specific conditions that need to be met before doing so. For governments and businesses, the easiest way to comply is simply to localize. That means keeping data within the very borders of the country. It has driven interest in physically isolated cloud regions which can be strictly regulated by the laws of each individual country.
The Geopolitics of Digital Infrastructure
Beyond privacy concerns, the concept of ‘sovereign cloud’ has now emerged as an aspect of national strategy for most countries and blocs. On the other side, centralization of cloud infrastructure has also become a tactical weakness, but a sovereign cloud protects key public services from foreign influence it is digital self-reliance of a sort. This is now a cornerstone of modern national technology policy.
Conclusion | POV Wamiq Rafi Syed
It’s an incredibly complex world for worldwide technology vendors to navigate. Now, the business needs to have a multi cloud plan. They have to follow a mosaic of local data laws. The dream of single global cloud is fading. What is replacing it is a more politically practical model. That’s a dramatic change in the way we regard the digital world.
About the Author – Wamiq Rafi Syed PMP, AWS SA Associtate has been leading the delivery of national critical cloud platforms. The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s own and do not represent the views of any employer or organization.