Messaging Platform Slack To Store Data Of Indian Enterprise Customers In The Country

Instant messaging platform Slack has announced that it will store the data of Indian enterprise customers within the country to make it easier for them to comply with corporate or regulatory standards.

“Data residency for Slack makes it easier for customers to comply with corporate or regulatory standards. It allows customers to choose India as a region where their data is stored, for Plus and Enterprise Grid plans,” Rahul Sharma, country manager for India at Slack, said.

According to Sharma, the move represents significant investment in infrastructure, security and people to manage the physical infrastructure. This is important for regulated industries like healthcare, financial services, etc.,  and is also significant for businesses that want to keep their data within the country, he added.

Data residency is Slack’s data centre which allows global teams to choose the region where certain types of data at rest are stored. Other than India, Slack’s data residency is available in Germany, France, Japan, Australia, UK and Canada.

While India is yet to finalise data protection rules, a significant amount of work has been done on the proposed Digital India Act, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar reportedly said recently.

“A significant amount of work has been done on it, and we expect that in early 2023, under PM’s leadership, a legislative framework for India’s techade will be placed in front of the country,” he said.

It is to be noted that the Indian government withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2021 in August after 81 amendments were proposed by a joint parliamentary committee (JPC). Currently, the government is preparing a fresh legislation which will offer a comprehensive framework of global standard laws, including for digital privacy. 

Slack works in a freemium model in the country. The Indian market is one of the largest free user bases for Slack and is in the top 10 markets for paid teams globally.

The messaging platform is used by many prominent startups such as Zomato, Dreamsports, Freecharge, Razorpay, and Meesho. Moreover, some of Slacks’ global customers such as IBM, Oracle, Amazon, and Intuit also have their presence in India. 

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