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The growing popularity of software-as-a-service(SAAS) has presented CIOs and CTOs of organization with questions about privacy, FOIP compliance, the patriot act and FTE savings among others. Here’s some Canadian answers to CIOs of regulated public sector firms.
1. Hosting does not mean privacy infringement. It is as secure as your telephone line passing through the local carriers network operations centre. Sure, someone can listen in, but really who cares, especially when they sign confirmatory privacy agreements.
2. FOIP Compliance, Patriot act et al. - Canadian data centres are popping up all over the place from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Victoria. While still far fewer and probably pricier than their contemporaries to the south. Another consideration, yes, the Patriot act is annoying, and no I do not want my personal and or mission critical data to be spied on, but do I really care if my work schedule or my touching base emails are made available to Uncle Sam?
To quote the Canadian OIPC on a recent privacy assessment review submitted by a Canadian University to move towards a US based provider of hosted email:
“The risk of a U.S based service provider being ordered to disclose personal information to U.S authorities is not a risk unique to U.S organizations. In the national security and anti-terrorism context, Canadian organizations are subject to (and may be just as likely to receive) similar types of orders to disclose information of Canadians to Canadian Authorities. There are several formal bilateral agreements in place between analogous Canadian and U.S Organizations that provide for cooperation and exchange of relevant information” (http://www.vpit.ualberta.ca/canheit/2010/gmail.ppt)
This leads to another interesting question. What is your business? Is it IT or it public service?
If it’s the latter, than pragmatism demands the need to focus on working on your business and allow for those whose business it is, to assist with your business enablers such as IT. The cost savings presented by SAAS solutions are also negligible when compared with the potential for architecting a great customer experience. Cost limitations significantly affect the ability to deliver technology and ensure a great experience at the same time. Focusing on addressing your customer’s pain points far outweighs the need to walk into your own server room and prepare for the next OS update.