Backup Data Zone Control

This question asks whether your backup data ever leaves the geographic or network boundaries you've defined as your 'data zone' - either by physically shipping backup media elsewhere or routing backup data through networks outside your control. It's about maintaining control over where your backup copies travel and reside.

Backups leaving your data zone can violate data residency requirements, expose data to foreign government access, and create compliance violations. Maintaining zone control ensures regulatory compliance, protects against jurisdictional risks, and maintains data sovereignty. This is critical for regulated industries and international operations where data location determines applicable laws.

Organizations often don't realize their backups are routed through or stored in different countries due to cloud provider architectures. Another issue is focusing on where backups are stored but ignoring the network path they take to get there, which might transit through restricted jurisdictions.