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AWS announces new region in Canada

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Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#51

Post by faeriol »

ihsw wrote: post #16
notheguyouthink wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Should have Is there a reason it didn't? (i'm not "in the know")

Shit internet up until recently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Internet_Exchange

Yes that has been a problem... Let me tell you, everybody would have been investing in the infrastructure if there had been a social desire to actually attract datacenters...

Nobody will invest in good internet lines if the only thing to go around is middle-aged people who think the internet is useless...

Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#52

Post by luhn »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #18
a-priori wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't. Most data transmitted between cities in Canada goes through the US. The only mitigation is to make sure you encrypt everything in transit and ensure that the private keys never leave Canada.

And please please please make sure your server is configured to support Perfect Forward Secrecy. https://www.ssllabs.com/projects/best-practices/

A good source for the recommended SSL configuration for Apache, nginx, et al.: https://mozilla.github.io/server-side-tls/ssl-config-generat...

Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#53

Post by faeriol »

mistermann wrote: post #41
faeriol wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The region should have become the Datacenter capital of North-America... Cold temperatures, Cheap (and renewable) power...

Any idea what would a data center pay per year for cooling? Would it be worthwhile to build in a cooler location where cooling would be free in the winter? And maybe even (somehow) freeze water in the winter and melt it in the summer to provide additional "free" cooling? (Might be a bit of a stretch)

Now for cooling, the montreal region has subzero temps from lateish november to somthing like almost april... Apparently Wikipedia has a half decent article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature_in_Canada

Not sure about that freeze water in the winter and use it in the summer idea at such a low latitude...

But yes, using an artificial lake (or even a real one... given the population does not go bersek about protecting the wildlife) as a heat echanger might be an idea. Lake would most likely come close to freezing in the winter (need to engineer this properly) but in the summer you could get water from the depths to provide extra cooling power. Idea, put a beach there, get cheers from the population.

Other idea: run a river from up north in your datacenter and you've got a nice cooling strategy for basically... free. Better idea yet... Build the datacenter on top of the hydroelectric damn... Last thing to do is to run the lines... Not like Quebec had not mastered running lines over hundreds of kilometers anyways, they've been importing power from the north for decades.

Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#54

Post by eigenvector »

Cyph0n wrote: post #44
api wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does data locality matter if the servers are controlled by a US company?

Well, in theory, US companies could still leak user data out, but the consequences are dire if Canada (or whoever) finds out. On the other hand, if Canadian user data is stored in AWS US East for example, then Canada can do absolutely nothing from a legal standpoint.

If the US government did demand data stored in Canada from a US company in contravention of Canadian law, wouldn't they just include a gag order so the US company can't tell their customer about it? And since the vast majority of the US company's assets and operations are in the US, they wouldn't dare stand up to the US government.

Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#55

Post by simonebrunozzi »

faeriol wrote: post #9
api wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OVH has a monster data center there too. The region has very cheap power due to a lot of hydroelectric available.

The region should have become the Datacenter capital of North-America... Cold temperatures, Cheap (and renewable) power...

You need proximity to a ton of people to become the Datacenter capital; I doubt Montreal qualifies.

Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#56

Post by voltagex_ »

psybin wrote: post #13
davidjgraph wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you be sure that data transmitting between the centre and user in Canada doesn't leave Canadian borders?

It almost certainly goes through the US no matter what you do. Traffic going anywhere out of my city first drops down to a big peer exchange in the US, then back up into Canada.

That's odd. I know traceroutes don't always show the truth, but when I was there I could route between Victoria and Vancouver without going through the US, at least. No idea about Vancouver to Montreal.

Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#57

Post by wyck »

api wrote: post #6
exhilaration wrote: post #2

For the curious, the data center is in Montreal according to the press release: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161208006034/en/Amaz...

OVH has a monster data center there too. The region has very cheap power due to a lot of hydroelectric available.

OVH is actually located right inside a hydro dam about 15 minutes away from the city: http://www.hydroquebec.com/visit/monteregie/beauharnois.html

Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#58

Post by grecy »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #38
unfocused wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IT Manager in the Canadian Government here. There is indeed a requirement stating that data must not cross the border. This requirement though depends on the department and level of information security. Whether or not AWS, Azure, etc. can meet this...I honestly don't know.

Yes, for government entities, but the rest of the comments here are talking about businesses, which are going to be the primary consumers of AWS in Canada. There's probably many more requirements that would be needed to be met for any cloud provider to be used for governments. I don't believe any provinces have requirements on border crossing, and there's no federal requirement on data sovereignty at all for private…

I worked for a very, very big Canadian telco.

Same requirement - data must not leave Canada, which ruled out basically all "hosted solutions"

Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#59

Post by count »

exhilaration wrote: post #2

For the curious, the data center is in Montreal according to the press release: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161208006034/en/Amaz...

FWIW, it's not 'a data center'. It's at least 3 a few miles apart from each other. They might (probably do) still end up in Montreal, depending on where those city/county limits lie.

Re: AWS announces new region in Canada

#60

Post by count »

eigenvector wrote: post #54
Cyph0n wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in theory, US companies could still leak user data out, but the consequences are dire if Canada (or whoever) finds out. On the other hand, if Canadian user data is stored in AWS US East for example, then Canada can do absolutely nothing from a legal standpoint.

If the US government did demand data stored in Canada from a US company in contravention of Canadian law, wouldn't they just include a gag order so the US company can't tell their customer about it? And since the vast majority of the US company's assets and operations are in the US, they wouldn't dare stand up to the US government.

Microsoft is fighting for everybody on this one right now. http://www.technology-law-blog.co.uk/2016/07/relief-in-the-c...
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