Today Bloomberg announced the latest extension to its cloud-based enterprise information management service, Bloomberg Vault. Called 'Local Vault,' the new service leverages Bloomberg's expansive global network of data centers in more than 55 countries to give global firms a highly scalable, secure cloud-based solution for managing and archiving corporate messages and digital communications.

"Bloomberg Local Vault is the first truly global service capable of supporting various regional and national regulations governing data transmission and storage, as well as large-scale analytics," said Harald Collet, global business manager for Bloomberg Vault. "Local Vault makes it easier for international organizations to leverage cloud-based solutions for 'Big Data' challenges."

With Local Vault, data compliance and archiving policies can be configured at the employee level to abide by prevailing regional regulations across all corporate communications and content, including e-mail, mobile communications, social media content, instant messaging, files and documents.

Many multinational organizations, particularly those with European operations, have difficulty managing sensitive electronic data while adhering to regional data privacy guidelines. An IDC survey(1) commissioned by the European Commission's Cloud Partnership initiative describes the benefits and barriers to using cloud computing services in the European Union (EU).

Technology professionals surveyed by IDC say issues related to legal jurisdiction, security, data protection and data access and portability impede the adoption of cloud computing-services.

Chris Dale of the e-Disclosure Information Project said, "European enterprises are looking to cloud providers, such as Bloomberg, to remove the barriers to cloud adoption, including those posed by data privacy laws. Bloomberg's Local Vault combines the cost benefits of a managed service with the data privacy controls required by global organizations."

Bloomberg's Local Vault service includes:

• A network of globally-linked secure local data centers that allow for in-region or in-country archiving
• Secure data transfer, data storage, and instant search and analytics tools
• Global services for user management, data retention management, legal hold application, policy management, fine-grained auditing and reporting
• Granular policy management to enable centralized access to remote data archives.

1 - IDC, Quantitative Estimates of the Demand for Cloud Computing in Europe and the Likely Barriers to Up-take, SMART 2011/0045, Final Report, July 13, 2012.