Data Residency

What is Data Residency?

Data residency refers to the physical or geographic location where a business’s data is stored and processed, and the legal requirements that may dictate where certain categories of data must remain. For communication platforms, this typically covers where call recordings, message content, and customer metadata are physically hosted.

Why this has become a bigger deal

Regulations in many countries increasingly require that certain categories of data, particularly sensitive personal or financial information, be stored within national borders, both for privacy protection and so domestic authorities retain jurisdiction over it. India’s evolving data protection landscape, including obligations under the DPDP Act, 2023, has pushed businesses handling Indian customer data to pay much closer attention to exactly where that data physically lives, not just how it’s protected.

What businesses need to verify

• Where call recordings and message data are physically stored, including whether backups or disaster recovery copies exist in a different country.
• Whether a vendor’s infrastructure is hosted in-country or routes and stores data through servers elsewhere.
• Contractual and compliance guarantees from vendors about data residency, not just marketing claims.

Use cases

• Financial services and healthcare, where regulatory requirements around data residency are typically strictest.
• Government and public sector contracts, which frequently mandate in-country hosting as a condition of doing business.
• Multinational businesses operating across several countries with differing data residency rules for each market.

Practical takeaway

Data residency requirements should be confirmed early when selecting a communication or cloud platform, since migrating existing data and infrastructure after the fact to meet a residency requirement discovered later is far more disruptive than verifying it upfront during vendor selection.