Data has become a buzzword that means different things to different people, but all organizations agree that understanding customer behavior, sales performance, and information processes can build a platform for achieving business success.

However, our reliance on data and the potential pitfalls associated with managing it have given rise to the need for safeguards for the protection of information, particularly in Europe where the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will soon come into force. GDPR is designed to harmonize the current data protection regulations across EU member states, with strict data compliance stipulations and the possibility of huge financial penalties for those who breach of the rules.

While the regulation doesn’t deal specifically with cloud service providers, it does have implications for organizations that use cloud services to store data. And with many companies in need of guidelines on how to deal with new approaches to data management, it’s time to turn to the experts.

We spoke to a number of thought leaders based in Europe to get their view on the steps organizations should take to ensure data is managed correctly in the cloud when GDPR comes into force.

“Even though the law-making process often appears to move at glacial speed, there is no doubt that the EU Data Privacy Regulation is coming,” said Richard Edwards, Principal Analyst at Ovum. “Whether it actually comes into force in 2017 or 2018, companies offering or using cloud services in EU territory need to pay heed to it now.”

DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

Christian McMahon, CIO at three25, a technology business consultancy in the UK, said organizations should initially research how GDPR applies to their business, and benchmark their current level of compliance before detailing where change is necessary. Many may benefit from the appointment of a data protection officer, he said. However, he added that none of the above should affect a company’s move to the cloud.

“Unless your data is in such an amorphous state that you cannot remodel it to fit the new standard without teams of data scientists and alchemists, the move to a cloud strategy may be a sensible and cost-effective approach to doing it all in house,” said McMahon. “Any well-governed cloud vendors should already be on point to restructure their applications and services accordingly to accommodate said changes with many being ready a long way before you can make your own internal changes.”

Adrian Bridgwater, an enterprise IT blogger for a number of B2B sites, including Forbes, agreed that many reservations over placing data into the cloud were misplaced, including fears over security.

“If the single biggest concern centres around the security of placing data in multi-tenant public clouds then this is a misjudgement,” he said. “If anything, providers of public cloud managed hosting services know a lot more about system security than most individual firms. Second, privacy policy controls stipulated upon instances of private cloud may be harder to update that those held in public environments where service layers are stronger.”

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