Juniper launches local cloud instance in India aligning with data protection laws

Networking company Juniper Networks launched a local cloud instance in India on Thursday. A cloud instance is a virtual server that runs on a cloud computing platform. Juniper’s local cloud instance will support wireless and wired access, indoor location services, and SD-WAN solutions. All these solutions are driven by the company’s enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) platform Mist AI.

Juniper has made this announcement amid its growing business in India market with increasing adoption of its AI-Native Networking solutions across key sectors including Government, Public Sector, and Financial Services Institutions (FSI). Further, the decision also aligns with the country’s data protection laws that restrict the transfer of sensitive data, with making it possible for customers to store in the local cloud instance securely within India.

This announcement will benefit partners in the region by offering them cloud-native architecture that leverages microservices agility, resilience, and elastic scalability, along with local hosting and storage, the company said.

“With the introduction of locally hosted cloud services in India, Juniper is positioned to accelerate our vision of transforming IT operations and elevating user experiences. Many organisations in India have already embraced our AI-Native Networking solutions, and this new cloud instance will allow even more businesses, including government entities, to leverage innovation Juniper delivers in bringing new levels of agility, scalability and resiliency to accelerate digital transformation across industries,” said Zohar Cohen, Area VP Sales, AI-Driven Enterprise Sales, APAC at Juniper Networks 

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, enacted in August 2023, emphasises the governance and processing of digital personal data. Regarding data localisation, the DPDP Act imposes restrictions on the cross-border transfer of personal data by adopting a whitelist-blacklist approach. This allows the transfer of personal data across borders, except to countries explicitly restricted by the government.

In response to the DPDP Act and other data localisation mandates, many global companies are now offering their customers the option to store and process data locally, ensuring compliance with regional regulations.