CloudPassage: Microsoft Ruling to Impact U.S. Cloud Providers

A federal District Court judge’s ruling last week that stated Microsoft must comply with a U.S. warrant for customer data stored in a data center in Ireland could impede progress for American cloud companies hoping to continue growing their European Union accounts.

The ruling, which Microsoft will be fighting, came from U.S. District Court Judge Loretta A. Preska and has to do with a narcotics investigation in which the feds are demanding access to some Microsoft customer emails stored in Ireland.

Cloud security solutions provider CloudPassage commented on the ruling, noting it could inhibit the adoption of cloud within the European Union.

“As the result of the District Court ruling last week in the Microsoft case, coupled with the NSA PRISM program, U.S. policy is having a serious negative impact on the ability of U.S. technology companies to compete in the global market for cloud-based services and infrastructure,” wrote Carson Sweet, founder and CEO of CloudPassage, in a statement. “Cloud computing is likely the largest technology disruption of the last 20 years, and cloud providers are seriously hampered, particularly in Europe, by recent U.S. policies and legal rulings.”

It’s a potentially huge problem for American cloud services providers that are hoping to either get into the European Union or expand on a current presence. It’s a landmark decision that could have a rippling effect throughout the cloud industry. Should Microsoft be successful in overturning the ruling, perhaps such distrust of American cloud companies will be reduced.

“As we’ve worked with EU-based enterprises on cloud security, we’ve seen a marked drag in public cloud IaaS adoption as the result of privacy concerns,” Sweet wrote. “Most of our international customers lean toward private cloud adoption as a result, and many are waiting for non-U.S.-based cloud providers before adoption public cloud IaaS.”