Google Puts Privacy at Top of Data Centre Location Choice
Firm gives a rare glimpse into data centre selection processes
Firm gives a rare glimpse into data centre selection processes
NICE: Google places customer data security as its number one criteria when selecting data centre sites to try and avoid the prying eyes of governments.
Many large technology firms, such as Google, Facebook and Apple, are rapidly growing their data centre locations to take advantage of benefits such as cool climates, access to power, and connectivity to major web hubs as user demand for their services rockets.
However, speaking at the DataCentres Europe conference on Thursday, Google programme manager for global infrastructure, Peter Jones, explained that privacy is still the overriding factor as the firm is wary of any regions where it cannot guarantee data control.
“The primary consideration is information privacy and security. Since we’re dealing with customers’ data this is a make or break criteria,” he said. “Beyond that you have issues such as corruption and importing equipment as you go further down the list [of site criteria] but how we keep data secure is the headline issue.”
Issues of data privacy are not simple, though, as Jones acknowledged, with policies differing across regions and nations, such as in the European Union.
This could change in the future, though, as the Data Protection Regulation makes its way into law. Ed Cooke, head of international data centre advisory at law firm Bird and Bird, said this could make it easier for firms like Google to operate across Europe.
“At the moment there are many variations across Europe but hopefully the new regulation will give a more consistent law implemented across the region,” he said.
The issue of data centre site selection was raised on Wednesday at the event with one UK data centre owner arguing the creation of a hub within London for data centres is bad for businesses as it puts their data at risk.
This article was originally published on V3.
More about:
Lucy helps organizations leverage knowledge for in... View Tech Talk
TVSquared is the global leader in cross-platform T... View Tech Talk
Grata is a B2B search engine for discovering small... View Tech Talk
Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing ... Download Now
Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. ... Download Now
This report documents the findings of a Fireside c... Download Now
Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touc... Download Now
Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...
View resourceData is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...
View resourceThis report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...
View resourceCustomers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...
View resourceWhile there have been many stories on how brands can use influencers as part of their marketing strategy there are not many on what influencers need t...
View articleFacebook recently announced the introduction of new metrics for its Insights page with the aim of offering improved measurement. We break down how to ...
View articleWhat does the future of paid search and paid social advertising look like? Last Wednesday, ClickZ sought to answer that question, holding its first Di...
View articleThe Like and Share counts retrieved through Facebook's Graph API were inconsistent with the counts displayed through search queries in Facebook's mobi...
View articleFacebook is addressing one of the biggest missing pieces of its chatbot offering: analytics. Read More...
View articleAmerican Apparel's chief digital officer discussed the future of retail, the importance of delivering value to the consumer, and strategies for an IoT...
View articleCompetition is rife for mobile app developers, and many spend significant sums of money driving installs of their apps. The world’s largest soci...
View articleCan 360 video advertisements drive more engagements than regular video ads? Google partnered with Columbia Sportswear to find out and discovered it's ...
View article