Data Residency in Canada Explained
Data residency is the legal and physical location where your data is stored. For many Canadian businesses, especially in public sector and regulated industries, data must remain within Canadian borders.
Does Microsoft 365 keep data in Canada?
Core Microsoft 365 workloads for Canadian tenants are stored in Toronto and Quebec City data centres by default. Some advanced services may use other regions; this is documented in the Microsoft trust portal.
Does Google Workspace keep data in Canada?
Google offers data region controls on Business Plus and Enterprise tiers that pin storage to a region, including Canada. Without that setting, data may replicate globally.
Is AWS data resident in Canada?
AWS has Canadian regions (Central in Montreal, West in Calgary). You must explicitly deploy resources to a Canadian region and configure replication to keep data resident.
Can Northstar IT verify data residency for my business?
Yes. North Star reviews tenant configurations, runs data residency audits, and documents compliance for Canadian SMBs.
Quick answers.
What is data residency?
Data residency is the legal and physical location where your data is stored. For many Canadian businesses, especially in public sector and regulated industries, data must remain within Canadian borders.
Does Microsoft 365 keep data in Canada?
Core Microsoft 365 workloads for Canadian tenants are stored in Toronto and Quebec City data centres by default. Some advanced services may use other regions; this is documented in the Microsoft trust portal.
Does Google Workspace keep data in Canada?
Google offers data region controls on Business Plus and Enterprise tiers that pin storage to a region, including Canada. Without that setting, data may replicate globally.
Is AWS data resident in Canada?
AWS has Canadian regions (Central in Montreal, West in Calgary). You must explicitly deploy resources to a Canadian region and configure replication to keep data resident.
Can Northstar IT verify data residency for my business?
Yes. North Star reviews tenant configurations, runs data residency audits, and documents compliance for Canadian SMBs.
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