UK businesses look to store data outside of the US Cloud

American Cloud providers fear they could lose upwards of £20 billion in future business because of the fallout from the National Security Agency (NSA) revelations.

"People in the UK have been reticent for a while about putting data into the US because of the Patriot Act, which means the government there can pretty much get access to everything," said Scott Fletcher - who is the founder and chairman of UK cloud infrastructure specialists ANS Group.


It is claimed that the National Security Agency have ‘direct access' to data stored by major US Cloud providers like Google and Microsoft through its ‘Prism' data collection system. Both Google and Microsoft have admitted that they allow ‘lawful' transmission of data through the NSA.


"Prism has put into peoples' minds that there might be co-operation in the UK with that," said Mr Fletcher - referring to rumours of a data swap between the NSA and GCHQ.


"People talk to us and want their own private cloud service, because they know we don't have that sort of relationship with the government."
"They want all the services to be based in the UK, rather than using Google or Amazon Web Services," he said.


An Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) survey found that 10% of companies from outside the US had cancelled projects with US based cloud providers.


36% of US cloud providers said that the Prism story had made in ‘more difficult' for them to find business outside the US.


The author of the ITIF survey Daniel Castro concluded that it seemed acceptable to assume that US cloud providers would lose 10% or 20% of their overseas business to companies based outside the US.


By 2016 it is estimated that 50% of Cloud computing business will be operating from outside the US and that the total global Cloud market will be worth $207 billion.
 

Keepit's survey highlights the risks of relying solely on native SaaS backups, underscoring the...
Hitachi Vantara offers new storage solutions on Azure for improved management and cost-efficiency.
Nokia is hailed as the leading core network vendor in Omdia's 2025 report, excelling in...
Financial institutions benefit from hosted private cloud solutions, balancing modernisation with...
HANDD Business Solutions teams up with Cloudhouse to modernise legacy systems and protect sensitive...
Node4 launches a partner support program to aid former VMware partners adapt to the changes...
IONOS deploys the latest supercomputing technology for advanced AI and data applications in a...
DE-CIX begins operations in São Paulo, enhancing Brazil's digital connectivity with cutting-edge...