Why an exit strategy from American cloud services?

• American companies fall under the CLOUD Act, which allows US authorities to access data, even if it is stored in Europe. This could also include your organization's data. As an organization, you want to safeguard your compliance and sovereignty, for example by keeping data within the Netherlands or at least within the EU. It is important that the data is stored with a European organization, because when Microsoft stores your data in Ireland or Germany, it still falls under the Cloud Act.
• If ties with the US are cut, for example due to sanctions or political tensions, access to these services will be lost and your company will no longer be able to use them. Can your employees still work if they can no longer use Microsoft services, for example?
• Another reason for an exit strategy could be that your organization does not want to be dependent on a single (large Big Tech) provider in the future.
   

What does an exit strategy look like?

An exit strategy always starts with an inventory: which services are currently being used? Then it is examined which European or open source alternatives can be deployed. After that, the data can be migrated. Employees then receive training, new workflows are adopted, and the backup is reconfigured.

An exit strategy involves a lot. Moreover, European alternatives are currently usually less extensive, migration takes a lot of time and money, and integration with existing systems can be difficult. To still take a first step in your exit strategy, it is best to start by securing all your organization's data in the Netherlands (or in Europe).

We advise our customers to back up the data to a Dutch Cloud, for example the Infracom Cloud.

Do you want that too? Then contact us