LOCALISATION OF CLOUD STORAGE DATA SOUGHT
Cost of power, infra for tech giants, which offer storage units, might increase
New Delhi, Aug. 4: A panel working on the Indian government’s cloud computing policy wants data generated in India to be stored within the country, according to its draft report seen by Reuters, a proposal that could deal a blow to global technology giants such as Amazon and Microsoft who offer such services.
New Delhi, Aug. 4: A panel working on the Indian government’s cloud computing policy wants data generated in India to be stored within the country, according to its draft report seen by Reuters, a proposal that could deal a blow to global technology giants such as Amazon and Microsoft who offer such services.
It could not only raise their costs because they will need to ramp up the number and size of data storage centers in India, where power costs remain high, but at least some of those increases are likely to be passed onto customers who include everyone from small startups to large Indian corporations.
The policy will be the latest in a series of proposals that seek to spur data localization in India, as the government finalizes an overarching data protection law. Local data storage requirements for digital payments and e-commerce sectors are also being planned.
The authorities want the information stored locally so that they can more easily get access to it when conducting investigations.
India’s push for localisation comes at a time of heightened global scrutiny of how companies store user data. In July, India said its federal police had begun probing Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of Facebook user data, which New Delhi suspects included information on Indian users.
The draft report of the cloud policy panel, which is headed by the co-founder of Indian tech giant Infosys, Kris Gopalakrishnan, said a “forward looking” data protection regime was needed as India’s IT laws framework was “not sufficient” for cloud computing.
“We recommend localisation of cloud data and any data that is stored about Indian entities or data generated in India,” it said, adding this data “must be available for investigative and security agencies.”
Gopalakrishnan declined to comment on the draft report, but said he hopes to submit it to the IT ministry by September 15. A spokesman for the IT ministry said the department would review the report once it’s submitted but won’t comment before that.
— Reuters