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0 pointslondons_explore4y ago0 comments

I think a lot of the big tech companies are very reluctant to split their operations inside/outside europe.

They gain big benefits by having a single pool of datacenters able to serve users from anywhere in the world. If they needed to guarantee that an EU user would always be served with a machine in the EU, I can imagine it would add at least 20% to their operating costs.

They'd need more equipment both inside and outside the EU to handle failover, maintanance, etc. They'd also have more complexity slowing development down (they can no longer have small services 'mastered' in just one region). And there is substantial extra complexity in application design (what when a tweet from an EU user is retweeted by a US user, but then replied to by an EU user. Where will the text of the tweet be stored? How will deletion be handled?).

For example, will HN have to have seperate databases for "comments by EU users" and "comments by US users"? And will they need a process to migrate your account from one to the other?

0 comments

pmontra4y ago

It's not only "a machine in the EU" . It's a company in the EU totally separated from the main company in the US to be out of the reach of the US government and legal system. Maybe the EU company could license software and knowledge from the US one, to keep sending a steady flow of cash there. But it's going to have its own goals and it will want to go its way soon. A hard problem IMHO.

toto4444y ago

When I hear arguments like this I always think about what it would be if we were to replace 'user data' with 'financial data'.

"It would be so easy if companies could just pay their taxes in one country. Think of how much they could scale their finance department."

The same applies for start ups : "book keeping is such a hassle for start ups, why impose that on them? All these financial regulations are really anti business".

ClumsyPilot4y ago

"I can imagine it would add at least 20% to their operating costs."

Why is everybody working on the assumption that all this data has to sit in the US?

Keep it in a country with the strict-est possible privacy laws, say Switzerland, and noone would complain.

rolisz4y ago

Hah, it's a myth that Switzerland is so privacy oriented. They have laws saying that the Swiss intelligence services can access all data, so it wouldn't help.

And Switzerland is not part of the EU.

jeffbee4y ago

Both Swiss and German people seem completely deluded about the activities of their own governments and intelligence agencies.

2 more replies

jimbob454y ago

Right now, the data sits where it “loses” the least amount of money (I.e. where it is most efficiently spaced). If we start arbitrarily forcing companies to move their data elsewhere, then they’ll incur serious costs without any real benefit.

I’d almost rather just give a French company control over some section of the US warehouse if I’m Amazon.

londons_exploreOP4y ago

Plenty of US organisations couldn't use a cloud service that loudly proclaimed to store the data outside the USA.

KingOfCoders4y ago

"I think a lot of the big tech companies are very reluctant to split their operations"

Yes but they are even more reluctant to lose all EU revenue.

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