Introduction
Let’s start with a question: where is your data?
In today’s digital world data is a key commodity. Organisations use data to research products, power change and inform key decision makers. In a world that is constantly shifting, the importance of data remains a source of stability.
Yet how many of us know which countries the servers that host our data are located in?
What’s more, with the political and regulatory landscape in a regular state of flux, is it causing organisations to give serious thought to the issue of data location?
Collectively, as part of team.blue, we recently surveyed a number of UK and European businesses to try and find an answer to these pressing questions. Around 250 shared their thoughts on data location and the results were insightful.
In this report we’ll summarise the key findings and offer our own analysis on what we discovered.
| Two thirds of UK businesses don’t know if their data is stored within the EU | 73% of UK businesses are worried about their data being stored in the USA | 61% of UK businesses have become more concerned about where their data is stored |
Demographics
We surveyed a number of UK businesses, across a wide range of industries. Of the 250 responses that we received, 25% were from senior managers or directors and 18% came from C-level executives (CEOs, CFOs etc). This indicates that the question of data sovereignty is one that is of sufficient importance for key decision makers to be considering.
Over 80% of respondents to our survey were from small businesses of 1-10 employees. This type of business represents our core customer base, so it is perhaps not surprising that they were the most engaged on a survey sent by us. Nevertheless, this volume of responses clearly indicates that it is not solely the massive corporations who have an interest in this issue.
Finally, we sought to understand the industries that organisations operated within. Of those who replied, a fifth of them were in the Tech & IT sector – the industry that we would most expect to be knowledgeable about data.
Data Hosting Landscape
Next, we wanted to understand where UK businesses currently hosted their data. A sizeable number (42%) cited our group as their host, suggesting that choosing a UK-based supplier is a key consideration.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, global cloud providers such as Microsoft and Google featured prominently in the results as well. This diversity does offer flexibility and ease of access but could expose businesses to issue around sovereignty and trust.
A statistic that we found particularly interesting is that 19% of respondents had their own on-premise server, indicating that they greatly value the importance of having full control over ownership of their data.
Nearly a fifth of businesses confidently stated that their current provider hosts within the EU, but a worrying 67% responded that they didn’t know. This uncertainty is concerning, as data belonging to these organisations could be hosted anywhere in the world. The gap in knowledge highlights a need for customers to become more aware about who controls their data and where it is.
Geopolitics driving change
With all of the global geopolitical changes happening in the world at the moment, we wanted to understand whether corporate attitudes to data hosting have recently changed.
We discovered that nearly 40% of UK businesses have experienced recent concern about where their data is stored. Tellingly, when we asked specifically about the USA, a staggering 73% of respondents told us they had recently started becoming concerned about hosting their data there.
The message here is loud and clear: geopolitical shifts are causing organisations to think long and hard about data location.
Concern is also originating from customers (17%) and employees (9%), showing us that data hosting isn’t just an internal IT issue but instead a wide-ranging concern that could seriously impact customer acquisition and brand loyalty.
Despite this, 30% of businesses told us they were undecided about whether to switch their data to a different provider, whilst 42% said they currently had no plan to do so.
It’s clear that concern about this topic is mounting across the UK, but isn’t yet showing signs of being acted on. We’re keen to see whether this situation changes in the coming months.
Conclusion
Our objective for this survey was to understand to what extent changes in the global political landscape are influencing the decisions of UK businesses about the hosting of data – that most crucial of all digital commodities.
Here’s a quick recap of what we discovered:
- Keeping it local is favoured, either with a UK supplier or an in-house server
- There is uncertainty about where business data is currently hosted
- Concerns about data location, particularly in the USA, are rising
- Businesses aren’t yet ready to act on those concerns
As a UK business ourselves, we echo the sentiments about keeping data as localised as possible. Your critical business data needs to be in the hands of a trusted local partner who is aligned to your online needs.
Yet thoughts do not translate into deeds, so it’s clear there is need for more education around this topic. Those businesses that are as yet undecided need to be provided with the information they need to help them make informed decisions.
Data isn’t just information – it’s a fuel for the digital age. It deserves a safe and secure home that can future-proof your business in an uncertain world.
Let’s wrap up by going back to our initial question: where is your data? If you’re one of the 67% who doesn’t know, we hope that this report has given you something to think about.
About names.co.uk
Founded in 1997, names.co.uk is a leading British internet services provider that offers online solutions for SMEs and individuals. It specialises in domain name registration, web hosting, email hosting, website builders, ecommerce applications and dedicated servers. Recent additions to its product range include an online booking tool, as well as a digital compliance and accessibility solution.
Since 2019 names.co.uk has been the principal UK brand of team.blue, a European powerhouse of technology companies that helps entrepreneurs and established businesses achieve their online ambitions. Collectively, the group operates across 22 countries, manages over 5 million domains and has more than 3 million customers.
