The role of the Legal & Compliance Community in shaping the future of technology

Legal and Compliance professionals have an important role to play in helping shape the future of technology and cloud computing in particular. That was highlighted at today’s 28th Global Legal ConfEx, where I had the opportunity to deliver a keynote discussing the role of the Legal and Compliance community at a time of great uncertainty.

The opportunities offered by cloud computing are big, as many of us who work with technology see every day. But these are also challenging times. In many instances technology has outpaced law and regulation. The Legal and Compliance community is grappling with the uncertainty that this creates, which in many cases is exacerbated by a lack of resources. However, it is also important to acknowledge that this is not a new phenomenon – it has happened before with other technologies. History tells us that regulatory equilibrium is eventually restored and progress continues.

During this period of regulatory catch-up, Legal and Compliance professionals must manage regulatory compliance risks and protect their organizations, whilst also enabling these same organizations to take advantage of the opportunities that new technologies offer to foster growth, innovation and long-term success. This is where trust in the technology, and the technology provider, plays an important role.  At Microsoft, we believe that for the full benefits of these new technologies to be realized, we must build a solid foundation of trust. To this end, we have pledged to build Microsoft’s cloud services on four foundational principles:

  • Security: Our priority is to safeguard your data with state-of-the-art technology, processes and encryption.
  • Privacy and control: You control the privacy of your data, who has access to it and where it resides.
  • Compliance: We will always offer the largest portfolio of compliance standards and certifications in the industry.
  • Transparency: You will always have complete visibility into where your data is located and how it’s managed.

We are also providing new resources for Legal and Compliance professionals who want to use the Microsoft cloud to fully understand exactly how it works and what it means for their own regulatory obligations and risk management.

Some of the challenges are formidable. But if we within this community do our best work and forge new ideas together, I am optimistic that we can move our organizations to the cloud and ensure they reap the benefits.

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