Today’s piece is about the cloud; not the cloud we grew up learning about in Geography.
This is a different kind of cloud. Although different, it has become an extremely important part of our lives, just like the cloud we are used to.
Think about it for a moment; the natural cloud in the sky holds the rain; shields us from the sun; provides beauty to planet earth and serves as one of the fastest means of transportation from one place to the other.
In the same vein, the cloud I am referring to in this piece holds tons of data across the globe and it has made it possible for humans to enjoy awesome services and become more productive – the world has not been the same with the cloud becoming more ubiquitous.
Techopedia.com describes the cloud as a general metaphor that is used to refer to the Internet. Initially, the Internet was seen as a distributed network and then with the invention of the World Wide Web (www), as a tangle of interlinked media. As the Internet continues to grow, in both size and range of activities, it has become known as the cloud.
A much simpler definition of the cloud states that there is no such thing as cloud. It is simply your information on other people’s system.
Irrespective of what definition is accepted, one thing is clear and that is the fact that the importance of cloud in today’s technologically-driven world cannot be overemphasised.
This is why Nigeria, as a country, should be bothered about where her data is stored.
A number of countries today have created policies that are designed to mandate organisations within their countries to store all sensitive data locally.
The question that concerned Nigerians should be asking is: where are some or all of my most sensitive data stored? Are they stored in Delhi, New York, Sydney or even Accra?
This is why I believe that the efforts being made by Layer3, a proudly Nigerian company, should not go unnoticed.
Recently, the company brought together a number of stakeholders, which included civil servants, members of the armed forces and policy makers to discuss data sovereignty and the power of the cloud.
I attended the event and like the fact that it was not designed simply to promote the company’s interest, but to draw attention of the country to the impending dangers, if we do nothing about localising our data storage.
Yes, I am aware that the National Information Technology Development Agency is working on the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation, which is currently being enforced, but unfortunately, not yet backed by law.
I wonder what will happen if an organisation decides to challenge the legality of the regulation.
Be that as it may, the regulation provides for Nigerians to have greater control over how their data is collected, shared and used.
The regulation prohibits data generated and collected within Nigeria from being passed to other countries without the permission of the Nigerian government.
More far-reaching legislation will thus be needed to deal with data sovereignty issues in the country.
While the government, however, works on introducing new laws, businesses being run in the country will have to consider their options and try to make sure that they are keeping their data safe from — Finish Reading on the Punch
