We (staffers) wanted to consider google g suite for integrated mail/calendar. We couldn't because as an Asia-Pacific entity, we felt we wanted a guarantee our data was in Asia-Pacific (preferably Australian) DC and under local law.
What we found, is that only the US State and federal governments can demand US located data from Google. All other economies and agencies can ask for local, but cannot have it a checkbox requirement: Google retain the right to host you wherever they decide, subject to laws they decide.
Somebody else has noted that Microsoft, for all their faults, actually looked at customers in Europe and said "you know what: we can declare hosting in ireland is subject to EU laws and we will (at the right price) guarantee your data is in the EU, subject to EU law" and for that, I salute them.
I think Google got this wrong. I think microsoft got this right.
We didn't go with G Suite. We went another direction with mail and calendar.
> as an Asia-Pacific entity, we felt we wanted a guarantee our data was in Asia-Pacific (preferably Australian) DC and under local law.
I don't understand why you would want a generic Asia/Pacific location. It makes sense that you might want it to be in a particular jurisdiction for legal purposes, so I understand specifying Australia, in the same way other businesses specify EU or US or China. But why would you ever want to say "put our data somewhere in this hemisphere, Australia or Malaysia or Korea are all OK but don't let it be in Ireland or the USA"?
Ideally we wanted OZ. Google hadn't even come onshore at that point. We wanted in our hemisphere, we'd have settled for JP or SG probably. It wasn't on offer: Google didn't sell "put my data in my chosen jurisdiction" it sold "we put it where we want to, unless you are the US government in which case yes sir whatever you want sir"
Being told they do "now" is great. 5+ years too late. And, the evidence about this is that Google cave to intercept requests far faster than microsoft do. Microsoft ask for strong evidence you have jurisdiction. Google don't make any public noise about this, and about how they act.
I am not a hater btw. I use a lot of google product.
(to latency: a lot of fiber in Asia goes odd paths. being in Japan or SG wasn't actually a good guarantee it would be faster than from the USA)
Oz is probably the worst possible location for any kind of data other than China or North Korea due to their new encryption law. I realize that wasn’t the case 5 years ago.
You can select US or Europe or no preference. So, you cannot select LatAM or Asia.
Google are getting better, sure. EU feels like they did a reaction to GDPR extra-territoriality issues. The thing is there is either zero selectivity, or there is n+ because nobody codes a two value toggle for this: They clearly have intent to add more. How many more?
What we found, is that only the US State and federal governments can demand US located data from Google. All other economies and agencies can ask for local, but cannot have it a checkbox requirement: Google retain the right to host you wherever they decide, subject to laws they decide.
Somebody else has noted that Microsoft, for all their faults, actually looked at customers in Europe and said "you know what: we can declare hosting in ireland is subject to EU laws and we will (at the right price) guarantee your data is in the EU, subject to EU law" and for that, I salute them.
I think Google got this wrong. I think microsoft got this right.
We didn't go with G Suite. We went another direction with mail and calendar.