Anyone who has ever dealt in real estate—either buying a house, renting, or just living with someone in the industry—has heard the mantra “location, location, location.” As it turns out, location matters in the cloud, too. In particular, if you work for a regional or global company, you’ll find that certain governments, regional political entities (eg. the EU), and industries impose restrictions on where specific types of data can physically reside.

These jurisdictions apply regulations that protect individual and corporate data privacy pertaining to their citizens, public entities, or private sector firms. The most sensitive data of which, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), can be used to identify, locate, or contact specific individuals. Typically, the governance and compliance requirements that they specify require one or more of the following:

• PII and other data must remain physically resident within the jurisdiction.
• PII and other data must be protected from …