When you buy a Salesforce instance, it is normally created on a US server (at least that’s what happens in Canada and the US).
However some organizations prefer to have their data in their country or state of residence. In some cases, it’s not merely a preference. In order to comply with certain internal or external regulations, they require their instance to be local.
Some popular regulations are:
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): A data privacy and security law in Europe
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) : A US law designed to protect sensitive patient health information
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): A California law that grants locals more control over the information that businesses collect about them
As a Salesforce consultant, it’s important to know your client’s data residency regulations. Some clients won’t care, but some definitely do.
Leveraging Hyperforce, it’s relatively easy to switch to a local server when it’s early in the project. It’s doable, but more complex, later on.
The takeaway
Early in the project, an important question to ask clients is, “Do you have any data residency or regulations that you need to comply with?”