Data residency requires data to remain stored or processed within specified geographic or jurisdictional boundaries. It shapes storage topology, replication policies, query planning, encryption, access control, and auditability rather than functioning as a storage-location checkbox. section 5.1.2 section 9.5.6
A residency-aware architecture evaluates:
- Where primary data and replicas are stored, since public-cloud defaults may span regions while on-premises storage provides greater geographic control. section 5.1.2
- How encryption, identity integration, access logging, retention, and audit trails support regulatory obligations across storage and retrieval. section 5.1.2 section 7.2.3
- How catalogs, federation engines, and partitioning enforce locality during metadata management and query planning. section 9.5.6
Hybrid regional storage
A bank uses Amazon S3 for elastic analytics workloads and MinIO clusters in European and US data centers for regulated data. The on-premises clusters provide local control, air-gapped environments, and encryption at rest while supporting residency obligations under GDPR and SEC Rule 17a-4. section 4.5.1
Table 4.1 Stakeholder interview findings
| Stakeholder group |
Key observations |
Challenges highlighted |
|---|---|---|
| Data engineers |
Fragile, manually intensive pipelines |
Complex schema evolution, redundant regional pipelines, and operational overhead |
| Data analysts and data scientists |
Slow and inconsistent access to trusted data |
Need for improved data freshness, clarity, and reduced manual preprocessing |
| Compliance and security teams |
Strong regulatory compliance needs around data residency, encryption, and lineage |
Lack of built-in auditability and dynamic access controls |
| Business leadership |
Demand for faster insights and lower analytics costs |
Desire for new data-driven products is blocked by slow platform agility |
| IT and infrastructure |
Scalability and operational complexity challenges |
Hybrid cloud/on-prem needs; difficulties maintaining legacy on-prem resources |
Stakeholder findings connect residency requirements with encryption, lineage, auditability, hybrid deployment, and operational risk. section 4.2.1
