Location for Data Centers and Cloud Services of expertise are IT and technology law. He has been appointed as an expert lawyer by banks and insurances in negotiating and implementing many complex IT and outsourcing projects. works mainly in the areas of IT and IP Law, employment and inheritance law. Kreuzstrasse 42 Zurich, Switzerland CH-8008 +41 44 254 99 66 Phone +41 44 254 99 60 Fax martin.eckert@mmepartners.ch stefanie.debrunner@mmepartners.ch www.mmepartners.ch centers and cloud services: In Switzer- land, privacy and data protection have a longstanding tradition and are respected both by law and in practice. Judicial aid is granted restrictively. Data stored by a Swiss company in Switzerland is there- fore well protected. From a privacy point of view, U.S. providers (in the U.S. or U.S. affiliates based in Switzerland) have a disadvan- tage as extraterritorial U.S. law can be applicable. Location for Data Centers leading host country for data centers. social stability and has one of the lowest inflation rates worldwide. A highly competitive business and tax environment further advantages. a low latency period and excellent data and travel connections to all key European cities. Furthermore, natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes are extremely rare. enables the processing of high data volume. point is sustainability; Switzerland scores well with its renewable energies, such as hydroelectric power. tradition. In the Federal Constitution, data protection is recognized as an indepen- mental rights of natural persons and legal entities whose data is being processed. security has been the EU Data Protection Directive. While not a member of the EU, Switzerland is a member of a very small club of non-EU countries declared to be compliant with the EU's requirements for international data processing. This opens up opportunities for Swiss businesses to do cloud computing for other countries, inside and outside the U.S. The Swiss data protection level is even higher than in EU countries. Contrary to EU-legislation, Swiss law protects not only personal data, but also data on legal entities. This is an additional advantage. European countries (England, France, Germany), as far as known in the public, Swiss authorities have not implemented surveillance like activities such as PRISM. The access of (Swiss) authorities to private data is very restricted by law and in fact. Swiss Data Protection publications, data center customers are increasingly concerned about their privacy. U.S. and non-U.S. providers of data and cloud services are faced with many questions. |