Beyond Borders: A Global Perspective of Cloud Governance 

In Episode 8 of CloudBrew, CoreStack’s Managing Director of Europe shares a revealing international take on cloud governance  

Cloud is global. It’s designed to be accessed from everywhere. However, that also presents challenges in terms of democratizing data flow amid international boundaries and regulations. 

In Episode 8 of CloudBrew, CoreStack's NextGen Cloud Governance podcast, we get a global perspective from Sanjeev Arya, CoreStack’s Managing Director, Europe. He discusses international innovations, influences, and challenges—and how regions beyond our own are helping to roadmap the future of cloud. 

Democratizing Data Flow
Not unlike when the Internet became available to anyone with the means to connect, international laws and regulations can be tricky when it comes to accessing and exchanging cloud data. “When we look at cloud, it's supposed to be democratic everywhere—anything can be accessed from anywhere,” says Arya. “But there comes challenges with growth, regulations, nuances, and many other things.” 

“So then comes those guardrails and do's and don'ts. The European market is growing quite substantially, as is the characteristic with any technology consumption in our global markets; however, Europe trails the American market by 3 or 4 years. If you look at cloud as a global market, it's about $600-700 billion. I’d say Europe is about one-third of that—and growing faster than the rest of the geographies. The base is smaller, and the growth is higher, so with growing consumption comes additional challenges.” 

Demand from Covid-19
When it comes to recent innovation trends, Arya shares: “Another aspect of the European market, with respect to cloud, is not only the hyperscalers, but also several local and regional cloud providers. The pandemic kicked off a whole raft of new demand for cloud technology; not only the public cloud providers grew, but also the local and regional ones that serve the local markets, local languages, etc.” 

Digging deeper into how Covid-19 impacted cloud globally, Arya states: “Europe benefited from the availability of technology and innovation was at an all-time high—not only in the current business models, but new, innovative businesses took shape to serve the customers who were locked away in the pandemic. Keeping up with that growth has become the latest challenge—that's the main challenge we see in Europe.” 

Cloud Governance: Better Together
Turning his thoughts to the importance of global partnerships, Arya states: “It's a very diverse, heterogeneous market—not only on the culture aspect, but languages, borders, and whatnot. I think Europe has been traditionally the cradle of innovation. Go back centuries: a lot of things you know emerged from Europe and that streak continues even today. Corporate governance, ESG, sustainability—everything is coming together in Europe and enterprises are very conscious about doing it right. Hence, they build the framework first—rather than quickly rushing into a decision.”  

In terms of regulatory aspects, Arya shares: “Recently, the court of justice in the European Union ruled that the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is invalid. Now, what do you do with the differences between GDPR and the U.S. regulations? That's the job of the governments to put policies in place; however, it makes the operational and financial implications harder to meet. Those decisions go beyond the control of the IT department. When we try to put a cloud model in place, we have these regulations to look after—I think it slows it down.” 

Lastly, on localization, Arya states: “I mentioned data flow between the U.S. and EU, but what about the data flow between EU and UK? Similar stuff happens. Hence, it's very important, when you're playing in the markets, to be aware of what your customers’ pain points and regulatory needs are—and build a solution to co-create and work with them.” 

“I'm a firm believer that partnership is the new leadership.”