When you start using a visitor management system that is cloud based and electronic automatically all of your data is stored in the cloud. This is not a problem as there are millions of solutions now storing data in the cloud. Data warehouses around the globe have become professional and provide the tightest of securities to protect your information.
But what if you’re based in one country and the service you subscribed to is based in another country for example what if you’re based in Sydney Australia and you subscribed to a service coming out of the UK. Where is your data? The overwhelming answer to “where is your data” is often in the country that the supplier resides. Today you can live in the UK and provide a software solution globally and a company in Sydney could subscribe to the service coming from the UK. People don’t often spend a lot of time thinking about this however we get asked weekly from potential customers that all-important question… Where is my data stored?
We went live with visitor management software in the cloud more than 7 years ago now and initially we only had a server in Australia in Melbourne. As soon as we got our 1st USA customer we decided to put a server in the USA so that all of the data for the USA customers was kept in the USA. Along came our first Canada customer and the same thing we put in a server for Canadian customers to have all their data stored in Canada. Now USA customers have all their data stored in USA while Canadian customers have all their data stored in Canada, UK customers in the UK, Australian customers have all the data stored in Australia, New Zealand customers have all their data stored in New Zealand and so on it goes around the world. Each country we store the data on servers in the country of origin. We do have some customers using our software in countries where we have not established a server at this stage. These companies are in smaller countries that at this time don’t seem to be concerned about having the data stored on a USA server or an Australian server for companies in the Asia-Pacific. We always give the customer the choice.
Many countries are still working towards the rules around cloud software and where data should be stored. Some companies have made clear policy and insist that the data for USA companies is stored in USA, data for Australian companies is stored in Australia and so on. Next time you buy your cloud software product if it is visitor management or rostering or time and attendance make sure you ask… where is my data stored? so that you can ensure that your data is kept in the country that you want or need.