Scaleup Technologies, the germany based cloud provider, is offering an Amazon S3 like storage solution with data residing inside Germany (See previous Cloud Ave coverage of Scaleup here). I have been long advocating that consolidation of IaaS players will not happen due to the diversity in the world and their diverse requirements. Especially in Europe, there are strict privacy laws which will ensure the presence of local cloud players or global players with infrastructure within the boundaries of Europe. Even within Europe, different countries have different requirements in terms of compliance and other regulations.Scaleup Technologies is one of my favorite examples in my advocacy for open federated cloud ecosystems. Scaleup’s announcement yesterday means that German users will get a Germany based secured storage with the data stored in data centers at Berlin. This new offering will allow ScaleUp’s customers to take advantage of the low cost & flexibility of cloud storage. It offers compatibility with the familiar S3 API, but with no data leaving Germany. This new offering will ensure that their customers are in full compliance with the German Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz, or BDSG). ScaleUp cloud storage solution costs only 0.10 € / GB / mo, even less expensive than even Amazon S3.
On a related note, Scaleup Technologies hired a well known cloud computing privacy and security guru, Scott Sanchez, into their team. This clearly shows the seriousness on the side of Scaleup Technologies about the security and privacy of their customer data. Even though the main responsibility of the security and privacy of data lies with the user, it is also important that the vendor work with the user to help with their regulatory needs. This point was highlighted by Mr. Sanchez as well.
Ultimately, the responsibility for keeping data secure and compliant is the data owners, not the cloud providers. However, the providers that will be the most successful in the long run are the ones that work together as a true partner on security and compliance with their clients – building and operating the cloud platform with shared goals and objectives.
Even though enterprises are still wary of public cloud providers like Amazon, smaller providers like Scaleup Technologies who take the issue of security seriously will have a stronger future. The proliferation of such regional players catering to the needs of specific regions will ensure that the cloud ecosystem is open and federated.
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