It's true there's sometimes an air of flippancy here at SumProduct when presenting some of our news. However, we'll don our "serious" hats today because an appeals court today ruled that the US government cannot force Microsoft to give authorities access to the firm's servers located in other countries. This overturns an order previously granted by a court in Manhattan in 2014.

A test case had been brought by the US Department of Justice, who had wanted to access a server in Ireland, as part of an investigation into a drugs case. The Department of Justice is said to be disappointed by the decision reversal and "...was considering what it would do next". If it appeals, the case could then move to the US Supreme Court.

Microsoft said it welcomed the ruling and thanked the companies that had backed its appeal, which included the likes of Amazon, Apple and Cisco. The decision is being seen as a precedent for protecting the privacy of cloud computing services.

This is particularly pertinent to SumProduct and our clients as many are considering cloud services for applications like Excel Online, Power BI, OneDrive and so on. Many clients have been hesitant to embrace a beneficial technology where data stored on Microsoft services may be viewed without company consent.

It's likely this case will rumble on a while longer, but hopefully, companies will become more trusting of the cloud. If you want to discuss how this ruling may assist your company in sharing files, creating dashboards and storing data in a secure cloud environment, feel free to drop us a line at contact@sumproduct.com.