There's been an interesting court ruling recently that is complicating how U.S. businesses are effected by national laws about data protection. A federal judge ruled that Microsoft must comply with a US warrant for customer data stored in one of their datacenters in Ireland. This ruling has a widespread and negative impact on US cloud companies in particular but many IT providers in general.
The implications are pretty significant for U.S. companies trying to compete in the international marketplace. It puts American companies at a distinct disadvantage competing with foreign competitors that are located in countries with less stringent data protection laws (China immediately comes to mind). U.S. companies can now be forced to hand over client information on their servers even if those servers are off-shore.
As a business consultant to small and mid-sized organizations considering the cloud as an alternative for their business, I strongly recommend each of them consider the implications of data ownership in the cloud and where their data actually resides before relocating to the cloud. You're going to be subject to the rules and business practices of whatever final resting place your data actually is stored NOT where your business is located. Even then, the rules and regulations of the vendors home country could come into play and may even supersede the privacy rules of YOUR country.
With China buying so many U.S. businesses behind the scenes, businesses considering putting their information in the cloud have to really do their homework to make sure that their data is safe, still belongs to them, and won't be subject to inspection by outsiders without their knowledge.
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