Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft May Halt the Expansion of a UK Datacenter Due To Brexit (onmsft.com)
On Monday, Microsoft hosted an online event to discuss the impact of the UK's departure from the European Union on the tech industry. The company currently has two large datacentres in the UK, and it is expanding those in response to vigorous demand for cloud services. But Brexit could throw a spanner in the works. From a report: Microsoft's UK Government Affairs Manager Owen Larter said, "We're really keen to avoid import tariffs on any hardware. Going back to the datacenter example, we're looking to build out our datacenters at a pretty strong lick in the UK, because the market is doing very well. If all of a sudden there are huge import [tariffs] on server racks from China or from eastern Europe, where a lot of them are actually assembled, that might change our investment decisions and perhaps we build out our datacenters across other European countries." Simply put, if they cannot build in Britain, then they will build surrounding it. Currently, the data is shared freely between the EU countries without any issues. This is because they all have similar security between them. However, if the UK leaves the EU, then this could cause even more issues for Microsoft.
Not really, it may have been meant to service Western Europe and once you aren't part of the EU some businesses may not be able to store data there. Typical head in the sand brexiter, it's ok to think the UK will be better off outside the EU but you shouldn't pretend there won't be negative aspects.
But the UK is under EU law, which means you can fulfill EU data protection regulations (necessary for ANYTHING holding personal data in the UK, which is literally every online service you use).
Under Brexit, the UK won't be sufficient, even if the data protection laws NEVER change. It's literally no longer an EU-DP compliant country. Thus all that investment that could have serviced the entire EU is wasted, you need to be an EU datacenter anyway, and the UK one sits and hold UK data only.
As such, it's not stupid reporting. Microsoft are doing what EVER OTHER DATA PROCESSOR in the country is doing. I work for a school. We use an EU off-site location for backups. When Brexit strikes, that will likely have to stop.
For the same reason we cannot use iCloud as they refuse to give any guarantees that UK data will only ever stay within the EU (unlike Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Dropbox, etc. who ALL guarantee that).
UK and EU data protection laws are much stricter than you might think. Literally, cloud-based services will now have to have an EU datacenter and a UK one, whereas before Brexit just a UK one could have done both jobs.
They may change the laws, but that would require EU co-operation to allow EU data to be sent to a non-EU country, and those kinds of things generate lawsuits (it's why the EU-US aircraft travel data sharing regulations were revoked, for instance)
If the UK chooses what seems to be an inevitable hard Brexit AND repels all EU laws that means that a lot of the standard business practices Microsoft streamlines across Europe will now have to have special considerations.
Depending on how idiotic Brexit becomes all multinational business will be forced to rethink their UK strategy.
The UK is not simply closing shop but it may, via Brexit, stop conducting business in the same way it previously had and in some cases that will be worse than closing shop for all the planning
Here's just one simplistic hypothetical; if the UK decides for instance that your company must now employ at least 60% British people (or limit net migration from EU countries to force you into such a position because you cannot find the workforce locally) you might go out of business or have to lower your profit margin expectations which in turn will make you wish to close down.
The Brexit the UK seems to be heading towards is not the Brexit everyone wanted. It's now almost certainly going out of the single European market and ending free movement.
Like so many you did not think far enough along the path before you called BS and used words like "stupid".
Brexit is an unknown. Some people hope for the best believing it will be for the best but they do not know. 52% have put the other 48% in it for an unknown. -not even knowing the odds.
You wanna know what's stupid? -that 13 people can force 12 others into this mess. That's stupid.
(13 to 12 is the ratio people that wanted to leave against the ones wanted to remain)
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
Not really, it may have been meant to service Western Europe and once you aren't part of the EU some businesses may not be able to store data there. Typical head in the sand brexiter, it's ok to think the UK will be better off outside the EU but you shouldn't pretend there won't be negative aspects.
If you had spent any time engaging with Brexiteers you would know that the way to think of this is pretty simple: Brexit always right, EU always wrong. If the UK does what it thinks is best for the UK and crawls out from under the iron boot heel of EU tyranny that's laudable. If however the EU decides that it is going to do what is best for the EU and does not give the UK everything the UK wants that's the EU unfairly punishing the UK. If a company leaves the UK for the EU that's tantamount to treason even if said company is not a UK business and set up shop in the UK in the first place because the UK was part of the EU common market. However, now that the UK will be leaving the EU said company either has to move operations into the EU common market or stay in the UK and have a hard time competing with competitors that are inside the common market and do not have to wade through red tape and pay import tariffs after hard Brexit where the UK looks set to revert to WTO rules.
With the announcement by May that she wants a hard Brexit, companies have started to announce that they are either leaving or starting to plan for that eventuality. HSBC has already announced 1000 jobs moving to France.
It's highly relevant because now is the time that we really need to fight to set the goals of the negotiation. Today's High Court ruling is only a partial victory for the ignored majority who don't want hard Brexit. We need to lobby our representatives now, by the time we leave in a couple of years it will be way too late.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
No. Unequivocally and absolutely not. You have no idea how I voted.
If I had 25 kids and 13 wanted to go live in France and 12 did not then we'd not go anywhere.
Most democracies would give need a large majority to force a minority. Say 60% of the votes, sometimes more. A clear and reasonably wide enough majority.
For such a critical decision I think, in fairness, two thirds of voters would need to decided to go one way or another. I could not in good conscious force practically the other half of people my choice or way of life.
But you see the idea of taking 12 unwilling kids to France is FAR BETTER. Why? because France is a known quantity. Leaving the EU is not.
Thank fuck parliament gets to vote if article 50 is triggered AND the final deal once decided. At lease we'll know if "France" is really some dictatorship banana republic.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
I get your sentiment, but I think that is unfair. A lot of brexiters I have met when I used to travel around up North for work, were quite well meaning people who had simply been fed the lie that the EU causes all their problems for the last twenty years. Anytime their politicians stuffed up, went back on a promise or just flat out neglected them, along would come UKIP or a tabloid to start blaming the EU for the problem, and successive Labour and Tory governments quietly stepped aside to let it happen.
Many parts of England have never recovered from being decimated by Thatcher (I think many of the reforms were required, but they simply left towns to rot, rather than help with any sort of transition), and the convenient scape-goat for politicians doing nothing about this has been the EU. It has been the ultimate case of getting caught in a lie, and it amazes me that rather than anyone admitting that areas outside London have been neglected and need more focus, they are just going through with the foot shooting operation.