One of the most controversial issues in cloud computing is data jurisdiction. Data jurisdiction talks about which country’s governing law that rules the data in the cloud. This is a major issue, as risks of data lockout are pretty high. How so?

Well, you and I don’t really care about where in the cloud the data will be stored, correct? Yes, most of us would agree with that statement, but the truth is the otherwise: You need to know in which data centers your data is stored.

Signing up for a cloud storage service in Australia doesn’t always mean that the data centers would be in Australia. Your data could be stored in a data center in the US, for example.

If, for example, SOPA law comes to pass and the US Government want to check on copyright infringement materials on the data centers located in the US, the US Gov’t will have the right to place your data under investigation, even though you are based in Australia and sign-up with Australia-based cloud storage service.

Ninefold, Australian virtual servers and cloud storage company, released a useful infographic showing you the concept of data jurisdiction that you should be aware of:

Via Ninefold