Compliance and Data Residency

Cloud storage compliance extends beyond technical security to encompass data residency, sovereignty, and regulatory requirements. Different jurisdictions impose varying requirements on where data can be stored and processed. GDPR requires data remain within the EU or countries with adequate protection. Some regulations prohibit certain data types from leaving national borders.

Multi-region replication, while improving availability, complicates compliance. Organizations must carefully configure replication to respect data residency requirements while maintaining disaster recovery capabilities. Some cloud providers offer policy-based replication that automatically enforces residency rules, but these features require careful configuration and regular validation.

Compliance automation helps manage the complexity of multi-jurisdictional requirements. Policy-as-code approaches enable version-controlled, auditable compliance rules that automatically enforce requirements across cloud resources. Regular compliance scanning identifies drift from required configurations, while automated remediation can correct common issues without manual intervention.