Avoiding unnecessary friction when it comes to data residency is a high priority for business leaders . Darragh Curran , CTO , Intercom , offers some top tips on the best approaches to turn what might seem like a complex and risky infrastructure project , to something much more manageable .

A related trending topic in this space is data hosting – it ’ s a huge consideration for many vendors who service larger customers . It ’ s natural for businesses to question where their data is being stored and to want to feel comfortable with data hosting and handling policies and controls . Whether it ’ s influenced by industry norms , local regulatory guidelines or simply internal company policies , the question of where customers ’ data is stored should never be an issue for the customer .

But the problem with localised data hosting is building out the needed infrastructure . It doesn ’ t work to just have one localised hosting location – to satisfy large , global enterprises , you need to create the systems and frameworks that can build out multiple locations . This can be a friction-filled process .

It ’ s simple to host data in one place . Most companies start with the assumption that hosting from one place will be their standard and it becomes deeply ingrained into their architecture . Unwinding from this is complex and time-consuming and it hinders your company ’ s ability to move fast . Deployment also becomes harder and engineers tend to feel the brunt of the pain .

There are a few pitfalls to watch out for here . When faced with a project that impacts their core infrastructure , companies may be too quick to

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