
US Exports: "The Cloud"? - davidw
http://journal.dedasys.com/2010/04/09/us-exports-the-cloud
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shykes
Data sovereignty is a huge deal in Europe. There is no way a US hosting
provider can gain a meaningful market share without using local facilities.
See Amazon's ec2-eu-west.

That means losing the advantage of a weak dollar, since you'll be paying a lot
of bills in the local currency.

~~~
anamax
> Data sovereignty is a huge deal in Europe. There is no way a US hosting
> provider can gain a meaningful market share without using local facilities.

That's not obviously true. The US' Safe Harbor scheme is acceptable in the EU
for some things.

Google "safe harbor eu data" for general information and "appengine safe
harbor eu data" for a specific case.

~~~
shykes
It doesn't matter what's acceptable from a legal standpoint. The overwhelming
_perception_ in Europe is that hosting data in the US is a risk. That
perception might not be entirely grounded in reality, but it has a very real
impact on the market.

~~~
anamax
> It doesn't matter what's acceptable from a legal standpoint.

I agree.

> The overwhelming perception in Europe is that hosting data in the US is a
> risk.

Which stakeholders have that perception? (Serious question.) Specifically,
what kind of customers care? What kind of investors care?

------
chbarts
If "the cloud" becomes an important export, people in Notamericastan beware:
Screw with us, and find out your data is subject to American law, subpoenas,
and courts.

~~~
davidw
Everyplace has laws, subpoenas and courts. The US legal system has certain
well-known defects, but so do many other countries' systems.

~~~
chbarts
My point is that people might be subject to a rude shock when they realize
their data produced by and for their business processes is subject to the laws
of a foreign country.

~~~
davidw
Ah, yes, that's certainly a potential sticking point. It will be interesting
to see how legal systems evolve and adapt to how easy it is to "globalize" via
the internet.

