‘Will become data localization compliant in India by Dec-end’
Cloud operators will need to increasingly make sure that compliance with local laws are upheld, says Jonathon Dixon, MD for Asia-Pacific, Japan and China, Cloudflare
US cloud services provider, Cloudflare, runs one of the world’s largest content delivery networks (CDNs), which is used by companies such as India’s largest brokerage firm Zerodha, and payment services provider BharatPe. In an interview, Jonathon Dixon, managing director for Asia-Pacific, Japan and China, and Samuel Sathyajith, country head of India and SAARC, discussed Cloudfare’s plans for India. Edited excerpts:
For a CDN operator that distributes content across the world, how do you deal with the idea of the ‘splinternet’ and restricted flow of data between countries?
Dixon: Cloud operators will need to increasingly make sure that compliance with local laws such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation are upheld, while enabling enterprises to operate globally. To do this, storage of personally identifiable information (PII) must always be done within the country of origin. In an ideal world, we all want a free and open internet but the division of borders in data transfer is inevitable, and compliance for any operator would be mandatory.
So, if India adopts a law mandating data localization tomorrow, would a service like Cloudflare be compliant with the same?
Dixon: We have already invested in taking steps towards achieving this goal, and a lot of data processing and distribution on our network is already done locally for our clients in India. In terms of achieving complete data localization, we will be fully compliant for data localization in the country by the end of this year.
Would this also lead you to increase your data centre capacity in India?
Sathyajith: We already have plenty of capacity for our India data centres. We have 23 data centres in India, and each facility already offers edge facilities. The end objective is to reach a stage where we are closer to the place where the data is being processed. As a massive number of businesses come online in India—including both existing businesses migrating to cloud, and new, cloud-native businesses — it will be crucial for service providers to be closer to the source of the demand for all this data.
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First Published:29 Aug 2022, 01:50 AM IST
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