Risks on DB consolidation

[timeslice]

Hi all,

A new "fashion" arises for all kind of Information Technologies, and it´s called CONSOLIDATION.
It´s happening for some time now, but there is a consolidation model in special flowing inside companies: the ERP consolidation.
It´s starting to be very common in companies, that consolidates all the information in a Head Office, wich is acessed by all (or some) of it´s subsidiaries.
What is new (for now) is that some companies are starting to consolidate ERP systems in a single location for more than one country.
I´d like to ask you all your assistence to identify the risks a company would face when using an ERP system wich databases are not located in the national territory.

All your answers will be very welcome.

Thanks,

 

[longhair]

timeslice,
2 quick thoughts come to mind:
1) certain countries may require (read law was passed) you to keep certain info within your borders.
2) not every country has the same requirements for length of time records must be kept (for tax purposes, etc).
if i think of others i'll post back
regards,
longhair

 

[monkeylizard]

Any old timers want to touch this? How was it done back in the IBM big iron days? Equipment filled a whole floor and was too expensive to do anything but centralized computing, yet many firms had an international scope and presence...

Has international law changed? It's usually not rapid enough to follow technology.

Monkeylizard
If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith. -Albert Einstein-

 

[Sympology]

Response to Longhair.

The EU data protection act is a big example of cross border control. Much of what is stored in the US would be illegal in Europe, along with things such as the Freedom of Information act.

This really is one for the IT Lawyers!

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[mrdenny]

There are huge questions for the laywers.

From the technical side you've got to deal with international weather, network issues, and the fact that if you have staff all over the world connecting to your system you no longer have a period of time where there is little to no use of the system. Somewhere it is always work hours.

While there are down sides, there are also up sides.

Reduced admin costs
Reduced hardware costs
Simplier DR setup
Simplier HA setup


Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

(Not quite so old any more.)

 

[Mag0007]

hmm, if you are talking about hardware, the new way is to do 'virtualzation'

Check out IBMs P5 Unix servers....

 

[chiph]

certain countries may require (read law was passed) you to keep certain info within your borders.

This is true -- at the last job we received an inquiry from the British royal prison system. Since we were an ASP, with the data center here in the US, we were unable to sell to them because of the UK laws regarding data privacy. She was a nice lady, and was impressed that we knew about that restriction. Too bad we couldn't sell to her.

Chip H.


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