That said, I don't think this has much to do with protecting MS's customers, or for that matter standing up for them as it is presented. I'm pretty sure it's more about MS operations being able to continue to run in Ireland and the rest of the EU. If MS hands this data over, you can be assured that MS would face stiff penalties and restrictions to even be able to operate in the EU, and would likely have their Azure facilities shut down as a result.
MS is stuck between a rock and a hard place here, no doubt, and I think it's important for this stand to be made. Hopefully sanity will prevail here...
I don't think the U.S. government would appreciate if Google were forced to turn over the Google Apps data of scientific universities to China because of a court order there.
My work is very much involving this, and it does have to do with protecting customers, because those customers won't exist unless Microsoft stands up to this. It's very much an issue with all companies that are non-US.
That's why my company is putting datacenters everywhere. Chinese demand a Chinese data center for Cloud computing. This happens all over the world, and our strategy is all about that.
This is a very real issue, and if the US states that any US company has to turn over data, you can kiss every customer from another country goodbye.
This is a very real issue, and if the US states that any US company has to turn over data, you can kiss every customer from another country goodbye.
It's not as if Microsoft is selling access to the highest bidder, or considering a request from another company or a charity. Turning over specific data in the face of a court order is not going to drive every customer away, many will see that as acceptable, low risk, reasonable behaviour.
I've worked on many bid (on both sides of the table) where US based hosting was forbidden either by the bid process or by law (the new Australian privacy legislation makes it much simpler to keep data on-shore).
At the moment many companies just resort to using the Australian Amazon data centre, and everyone is ok.
If MS loses this case, I'd say 70% of those (enterprise) contracts using Amazon will use a non-US-owned provider simply because the risk is yet another things that has to be overcome.
I don't think the foreign country would care unless it was data that was owned or related to an entity in that country.
Its an american owned and operated data center in Irelend (where I live). Presumably the email is 'owned' by an american and the case involves all american actors(cant really make that assumption I guess) so there dosn't seem to be anything to spark the interest of the Irish legislature. Unless you make the leap to the point that now america can just demand ALL the data in that data center which you certainly could.
This isn't really the same as a warrant either is it? They are not demanding to be allowed access to or to search the data center. Microsoft in America is being ordered to hand over a document that they have access to, where that document is seems irrelevant (just playing devils advocate).
Also the chances of any small to medium sized nation (particularly Ireland) getting on their high horses about this is quite unlikely due to the amount of money these large multi-nationals bring here. In fact if this is upheld I imagine it would be another boon for Ireland as the american companies will have to set up even more infrastructure so that they can argue that its a completely separate entity that they simply funnel customers to or whatever. If the companies act first they could even get favorable Irish legislation passed to prevent the type of treaty talked about in the article (although this would be a pretty ballsy move for Ireland)
MS is stuck between a rock and a hard place here, no doubt, and I think it's important for this stand to be made. Hopefully sanity will prevail here...
I don't think the U.S. government would appreciate if Google were forced to turn over the Google Apps data of scientific universities to China because of a court order there.