No-deal Brexit will impact channel's GDPR pitch

The sales pitch around GDPR has changed over the past year moving from counting down towards a deadline to waiting for the fines to start to reactivate spending.

For those in the channel that have invested heavily in data protection there could be a fresh angle to reignite customer conversations around GDPR in the form of the potential no-deal Brexit.

Although it continues to remain unclear whether or not the UK would leave the EU on a no-deal basis the current Prime Minister has vowed to do so unless a deal can be reached next month.

A no-deal Brexit could have consequences for GDPR and resellers need to be on top of the potential issues for customers.

“The growing prospect of a no-deal Brexit could have a major impact not just on the UK economy, but also on how organisations comply with GDPR. We all know the major headlines, but the devil is in the detail for businesses faced with widespread regulatory change," said David Smith, head of GDPR Technology, SAS UK & Ireland.

“In a no-deal scenario, Britain would become a ‘third country’ - neither in the EU nor officially in line with EU regulations. That would mean that UK companies may have to employ a staff member within the EU to act as an intermediary on GDPR compliance. Furthermore, if a company has multiple European operations and has the UK as its lead supervisory authority, then they could no longer rely on the “one-stop-shop” provision and would have to deal with multiple European agencies. This would be expensive and time-consuming, and could lead to serious delays in compliance and potential data exposure during the changeover," he added.

The advice from the likes of Smith is for firms to prepare in advance and for resellers that means discussing the issues with customers now.

"Organisations need to prepare in advance to handle the data challenges of a no-deal Brexit. They need to have deep insight into the data they hold and where it’s stored - and under which jurisdiction - to ensure they can effectively plan their compliance efforts," he said.

“We’re used to hearing the impact of no-deal described as ‘Project Fear’. UK organisations need to respond with ‘Project Prepared’ - taking the initiative now and equipping themselves with the tools to quickly review their compliance landscape," he added.

Even without a no-deal Brexit the pressure to get on top of data management is an on-going challenge for customers and an area resellers should be focusing on.

Forrester's Data Resiliency Solutions, Q3 2019 report made it clear that customers are dealing with multiple challenges: “Fast-paced digital transformation has technology and business leaders scrambling to become competent in multiple domains and is forcing I&O leaders to bolster their data resiliency practices. Privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA stipulate how firms can process, store, and use data. Ransomware attacks have increased in frequency, intensity, and impact. Agile application development and new platforms like containers make data protection an afterthought. Multicloud environments, edge computing, and containers distribute data closer to business applications; this scattering of data requires I&O to take a fresh approach to data resiliency.”

Druva was one of the vendors listed in the report as being a strong contender and its chief product office Mike Palmer said that customers were looking for support.

“Digital transformation and the sheer growth of data is challenging IT teams to find solutions that can protect enterprise data at scale, while simultaneously reducing costs,” he said.