Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.
In 2020, Google Cloud signaled to the industry that it plans to make major investments in data sovereignty in Europe and Asia, where data privacy regulations are the most stringent. Data sovereignty means hosting cloud data within the user’s country of residence to protect user data.
At the core of Google Cloud’s strategy is an initiative called a “trusted partner cloud” (TPC), under which Google Cloud will partner with local data center providers in certain countries, according to an internal document obtained by Insider. promote partnerships.
In this way, data will be stored in a form that complies with local regulations, and customers will be able to win peace of mind. Local data center partners also offer Google Cloud platform services from their own facilities.
“Risk of losing half market share”
On its internal site dated August 30, 2022, Google positions TPC as the “most important program” for Google Cloud in 2022, making it clear that it is betting heavily on TPC. According to the FAQ dated August 9, 2022 on the company website, the size of the data sovereignty market is estimated at $100 billion (approximately 14 trillion yen, converted to 143 yen per dollar).
“If we don’t do this, we risk losing half of our market share,” the FAQ says.
IT companies have been working hard to ensure that their European customers comply with regulations such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Cross-border transfers were regulated.
In July 2020, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Privacy Shield, a personal information transfer rule signed by the United States and the EU in 2016, was invalidated. Under the rule, companies registered with the US Department of Commerce could take personal data out of the EU if they complied with the EU’s privacy principles.
Similarly, countries in Asia, including China, Indonesia and Vietnam, have laws that require sensitive data to be stored on domestic servers.
One of the employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the company-wide directive was to make Google Cloud services work as a top priority by the end of 2022, in line with the TPC. That’s because many of its previous services were designed to run on Google hardware rather than in other companies’ data centers, which makes it difficult to get things working.
According to Google Cloud’s FAQ, TPC could result in “invasive and disruptive changes to our production infrastructure and operating model.”
“If we fail to evolve our operating model to meet these new requirements, we face the risk of being left behind in half the world’s markets.”
Microsoft and Amazon are also on the lookout
Google Cloud has been investing in the area of data sovereignty in Europe for years, starting in 2019 when it announced its commitment to European companies. It is partnering with T-Systems in Germany and Thales in France to become a sovereign cloud. Additionally, in 2021, we will add data sovereignty control service capabilities for European customers.
Microsoft will launch a similar product in July 2022 and have similar partnerships in countries such as France, Germany and China, but TPC will give Google a competitive edge.
An internal Google Cloud document dated August 2021 points out the view of IT executives on data sovereignty in Europe as follows:
“The lack of hyperscalers in Europe means that the vast majority of European companies will have to negotiate with American companies. means.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) services are also improving, but Microsoft seems to be more aggressive in terms of customizing individual contracts.”
Google’s TPC project builds on its Sovereign Cloud plans in Europe and gives customers a choice of where to host their data. Documents dated June 2022, seen by Insider, show that Google Cloud plans to launch this European cloud service in each country between 2023 and 2024.
According to the document, TPC aims to be “regionally ready” by the end of 2023, including the launch of a data center in Paris. Google Cloud will also launch a “TPC Lite” program that allows users to host data in Google’s existing data centers in some countries.
The full version of TPC includes features such as the ability to allow only employees in specific countries to handle data stored in the region, stricter data security, and stricter controls where data physically resides. We plan to provide functionality.
The Google Cloud FAQ also states:
“Moving quickly and responding to the market not only allows us to serve our customers, but also provides us with an opportunity to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.”
[Original: Leaked documents show Google Cloud is betting big on Europe and Asia in what it sees as a $100 billion opportunity, saying if it doesn’t it will ‘face being left behind in half the world’]
(Edited by Sayuri Daimon)
Source: BusinessInsider
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