[LINK] Data Embassies

[Stephen Loosley]

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'Data embassies' promise bubbles of digital sovereignty ..

Scratch the surface, and they look more like a sales pitch – or a soft power play


By Simon Sharwood  24th Jul 2024   https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/24/data_embassies/


Embassies are bubbles of sovereignty that local authorities cannot freely enter and in which certain communications are privileged – an arrangement that is generally agreed as essential to facilitate international relations. 

And now, the same protections are being suggested as needed to create a "data embassy" – datacenters that local authorities can't access and in which nations can store info and run software on foreign shores.

Estonia already has a data embassy, at a datacenter located in Luxembourg – the two nations struck an agreement to afford the facility the same rights as a conventional embassy. The Baltic nation owns the hardware, and uses it as a backup for its digital services and critical datasets. It's operated without incident since 2017.

Monaco has also agreed to create an "e-embassy" in Luxembourg, after deciding the tiny principality "is too small with regard to the risk of a natural disaster or cyber attack." Luxembourg may not be your first thought when seeking wide open spaces, but compared to Monaco it qualifies.

https://en.gouv.mc/Policy-Practice/A-Modern-State/News/The-Principality-and-the-Grand-Duchy-Linked-by-a-New-Bilateral-Agreement-Pierre-Dartout-and-Xavier-Bettel-Sign-an-Agreement-to-Create-an-e-Embassy-of-Monaco-in-Luxembourg

Monaco is not alone in being too small to host large datacenters or multiple facilities that improve resilience.


Australian telco Vocus recently made a submission [PDF] to an Australian parliamentary inquiry into priorities of Pacific Island countries and the Pacific Region, in which it pointed out that small island nations aren't likely to attract investment from datacenter operators or hyperscale clouds. 

https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/07/24/vocus_pacific_inquiry_submission.pdf

Allowing data embassies in Australia – which has plenty of datacenters – could therefore help Pacific nations to adopt modern infrastructure without compromising sovereignty.

India has also advanced the idea. In 2023, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman used her budget speech to announce the nation would explore the creation of data embassies "for countries looking for digital continuity solutions."

India envisioned data embassies located in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City International Financial Services Centre – a zone created to host international businesses and which is home to Tier-4 datacenters.

Dr Deborshi Barat, an Indian lawyer who has written about India's proposal, told The Register regulations that would allow India to formalize data embassy hosting rules remain incomplete. India's 2024 budget, delivered yesterday, doesn't mention the concept. Dr Barat hoped it would advance last year's plan.

Cui bono?

As The Register explored the concept of data embassies, it became apparent that it's not just nations in need of secure sovereign compute that may benefit from them.

India, for example, has made sharing technical capability and free software its government developed a big part of its diplomatic outreach. 

By sharing tools like its Aadhaar identity-as-a-service platform or UPI payments scheme, India can become a big part of other nations' digitalization process. 

Helping its neighbors to secure their infrastructure in a data embassy creates another chance to get closer. Finding tennants for a flagship economic zone doesn't hurt, either.

Vocus, meanwhile, has partnered with Google to build a submarine cable linking Australia, the US, and Pacific nations in between. Data embassies located in Australia will send data over that cable, which means revenue for Vocus.

Suggesting data embassies rely on commercial cloud providers also means those orgs can profit. Which may be why Google is keen on the idea.

Establishing more data embassies will need either changes to the Vienna Conventions that govern diplomatic and consular relations, or bilateral agreements. To date, only the latter have been created.

And even if those diplomatic niceties can be addressed, technical challenges remain.

Vindu Puri, a Delhi-based advisor at Australian consultancy Intelligent Business Research Services – which specializes in advising IT and business managers – told The Register "addressing security concerns, data sovereignty issues and regulatory hurdles is crucial for successful implementation."

Puri also warned that vendor lock-in could become an issue.  Which may be why the concept is not, at present, being widely discussed. 

Indeed, data embassies are absent from analyst firm Gartner's 2024 Hype Cycle for Digital Sovereignty.


COMMENTS:  Post your comment

* 23 hrs  Doctor Syntax (Silver badge)

"Suggesting data embassies rely on commercial cloud providers also means those orgs can profit. Which may be why Google is keen on the idea."

I wouldn't have thought it would have been possible for any US owned coporation to participate. Luxembourg night grant embassy rights to a data cente run by Google or any other US corporation but unless the US also does so the data centre would be at the mercy of the CLOUD Act.


* 6 hrs trindflo (Silver badge)

India ... sharing ... free software

"India, for example, has made sharing technical capability and free software its government developed a big part of its diplomatic outreach. 
 By sharing tools like its Aadhaar identity-as-a-service platform or UPI payments scheme"

They're offering to do what now? For free? Beware of Geeks bearing gifts.

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