Key Checks:
- On Tuesday, Microsoft-owned developer site GitHub announced that corporate customers will be able to store crucial software code only in European Union data centers.
- GitHub’s improve for data residency is part of a larger political and legal topic in the EU involving so-called digital “sovereignty.”
- Former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s long-awaited study called for 800 billion euros in extra spending each year to make the EU more competitive, determining technology innovation as an essential sector for development.
Microsoft-owned developer platform GitHub said on Tuesday that it will allow corporate users to limit the storage of critical software code to data centers in the European Union.
The move, which is part of an effort to satisfy the bloc’s tough data privacy regulations, comes as part of a larger political drive for digital “sovereignty.”
The business stated that it will provide clients of its GitHub Enterprise Cloud more flexibility over where their repository data is hosted, with the option of only storing it on Microsoft Azure-owned servers in the EU, rather than in other countries where data guarantees may be less effective.
Firms will be allowed to manage the “data residency” of software code hosted on GitHub, which means they may determine which region data is stored in.
GitHub stated that business users would be able to manage and control user accounts, as well as create different namespaces for companies that are independent of their open-source experience.
Business customers will also receive better business continuity assistance and disaster recovery, which might be useful in the case of a cyber attack or outage impacting physical server infrastructure.
GitHub Enterprise Cloud is a commercial solution that the company solely provides to enterprises. Companies that utilize its enterprise-focused solutions are more likely to host closed-source software projects on the platform than open-source ones.
For organizations holding closed-source projects, the ability to govern where that sensitive code is saved and regulated, as well as the level of access allowed to users, is paramount—especially in the EU, according to to GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke.
“Europe is the place where cutting-edge regulation and laws around privacy and data protection and many other things, like AI, were born,” Dohmke told CNBC via video conference. “Here there are exciting frameworks to transfer data back and forth around the world.”
“Data residency emerged as an important driver for any enterprise’s cloud strategy, and enterprises want to know where crucial assets like data are being stored,” according to him.
Shelley McKinley, GitHub’s chief legal officer, stated that closed-source code is now seen as the “crown jewels” of a company’s digital strategy.
“European customers were demanding more from us in this area,” she told CNN. “The EU has been in the center of this [data residency] movement since the beginning of the cloud days.”
Moving ahead, GitHub aims to expand data residency under its GitHub Enterprise Cloud to other locations, including Australia, Asia, and Latin America.
EU campaign for digital’sovereignty’
GitHub’s drive for data residency is part of a larger political and legal topic in the EU surrounding so-called digital “sovereignty.”
The EU is investing billions of euros on what it considers to be essential and core technologies in order to increase technological sovereignty and lessen reliance on the United States and China. The region is presently strongly reliant on technology from beyond its borders. Top authorities are working to rectify this.
Earlier this month, a much-awaited study from former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi advocated for 800 billion euros of extra investment every year help.
“Europe must significantly concentrate its joint efforts to close the innovation gap with the United States and China, particularly in sophisticated technology. “Europe is stuck in a static industrial structure, with few new companies emerging to disrupt existing industries or develop new growth engines,” Draghi stated in the study.
According to GitHub’s Dohmke, Europe now lags behind the United States and China in terms of cloud computing usage.
According to data center operator Stackscale, 45% of EU firms employed cloud computing last year, a four-point increase from 2021 to 2023. However, it is very low in specific nations.
For example, in France, just 27% of firms in the EU employ cloud technology, whereas adoption rates in Nordic nations are much higher, with 78% of enterprises using the cloud in Finland. are much higher, with 78% of enterprises using the cloud in Finland.
From a global viewpoint, Dohmke expressed optimism about the future of technological breakthroughs. In November of last year, GitHub released a new version of its “Copilot” programming helper, GitHub Copilot Enterprise, to allow developers within enterprises to produce software code more simply utilizing AI technology.
Dohmke claims that coders utilizing its Copilot helper can create code 55% quicker than programmers who do not use the AI software.
He envisions a future in which AI automates an even bigger portion of the code-writing effort.
Developers will begin to obtain “AI-native agents” to accomplish certain duties in their coding journeys, he said, adding that it will also become simpler for those who aren’t software engineers to be able to create their software code thanks to artificial intelligence.