Accounting vendor Saasu has moved its data infrastructure from the US back to Australia, citing “geo-political risks" and claiming data is safer in Australia.
In an email, chief operating officer Sofia Silva Eastmond said Saasu was moving its entire data infrastructure to Australia "to mitigate data privacy, latency and geopolitical risks for its customers".
"Data-related concerns are often raised in the online accounting space. The infrastructure overhaul is in response to these concerns, and the common practise of hosting data mainly in the USA by most major competitors.
"These concerns are a combination of geo-political risks the US is bringing on itself, but also internally with NSA and other government agencies’ disregard for people’s privacy."
Speaking to CRN, chief executive Marc Lehmann added that privacy was “way down the list” compared with latency advantages and improved performance from new equipment.
With 80 percent of Saasu’s customers in Australia, moving the data to Australia should mean performance benefits, said Lehmann.
“With the way apps are designed these days, you’ve sometimes got to do lots of trips back and forth, so you get this compounding effect with latency that can build up,” he said.
Nevertheless, Lehmann also said the move would also remove some of the risk of “prying eyes” he perceived comes with having data hosted in the US. “It’s a low risk, but we just don’t like increasing activity in this space."
The Australian company completed a major part of the migration last weekend, moving data to new Rackspace servers in Sydney.
In a blog post on the Saasu website, Lehmann stated: “We’re going against our major competitors’ common practice to mostly host data in the USA. We’re addressing the big elephant in the room; the privacy, latency and geopolitical risks this can represent to our clients. In Australia, we think you’re safer.”
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