That little symbol with the golden kangaroo in the middle and the "Australian Made" slogan is so helpful when trying to buy a new pillow or can of tomato soup.
Unfortunately, in IT world, data storage suppliers don't display an "Australian Stored" symbol on their paraphernalia.
You may be thinking:
I don't really care where my data is stored as long as it's safe and I can always get it.
or
Cloud computing is all the rage and advertised so heavily, it must be OK.
You may not know this but in the US the government has the right to confiscate your data if it's stored in the US. That may seem farfetched for your business but if you're in the cloud or use an international data storage company, it's likely that some or all of your data is stored in the US.
At the time that Osama was on the run in Afghanistan the US implemented the awesomely named Patriot Act, giving the Feds the power to grab information from companies that don't have any real presence in the US as long as there is some connection to the US.
The connection can be tenuous, like storing company information on a server located in the US – even if you didn't know or intend to do so. If the US wants to investigate your company they issue you or your data storage provider a National Security Letter and the government seizes your information.
The number of Letters sent in 2009 was 14,788 and in 2010 it was 24,287.
With the increase in the amount of data storage needed by businesses and the variety of ways and suppliers available to provide the storage, you might want to check where your current supplier or future supplier stores your information. You can demand that your storage only occur in Australia.
In our view, "Australian Stored" is more important than you may realise.
We do not disclaim anything about this article. We're quite proud of it really.
