THE LAST WORD Recent advances in generative AI present leaders across all sectors with the potential to adapt existing infrastructures and evolve operations in ways which hitherto were confined to the pages of a science fiction novel. In all probability, recent developments will have a profound effect upon all areas of daily life; however, those seeking to take advantage through early adoption of these new tools are likely to find themselves challenged on a number of fronts. One of the first hurdles to be cleared comes in the form of data sovereignty. In the very early stages of its evolution, the business of data sovereignty was confined mainly to the public sector. However, as collective corporate data continues to move away from on-premise storage and into the cloud, individual players need to evolve strategies that encompass legislation at a national, regional and even global level. What once was merely a question of whether or not to store data outside of a private server farm has grown to incorporate a complex set of regulatory requirements, all put in place to control the movement of data in secure and measurable ways. And before this information data journey even begins, the organisations involved must demonstrate legal ownership of that data. The challenges are significant, but so are the opportunities, which is why data modernisation has become such a hot topic for industry leaders as well as governmental policymakers. Data gathered as part of IDC’s latest Cloud Pulse survey show that almost half of the organisations polled had conversations about data sovereignty and industry compliance under way, with only four per cent of those interviewed believing they would not be impacted by ongoing changes to regulatory frameworks. “IDC expects data sovereignty and industry compliance considerations to be of increasing importance to decisions about the design, operation and management of IT architectures, including the selection of cloud service providers,” says Chris Drake, senior research director at IDC. “This partly reflects the growing importance of regulation, including GDPR, which emphasises the importance of personal data protection and provides specific rules about data storage and transfer.” No wonder then that organisations like Microsoft are leading the way when it comes to defining best practice in the sovereignty space. With products such as the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, end users are able to protect their data and provide evidence of regulatory compliance across all areas of their business, whilst at the same time organising data silos to take full advantage of the new innovation that AI will bring to enterprise activity. Embracing legislation to drive innovation Industry leaders must manage their data in order to successfully implement artificial intelligence BY ANDY CLAYTON-SMITH 160 Photo: iStock/ipopba
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