Google Cloud has introduced new data residency capabilities for its hosted artificial intelligence service suite, Vertex AI, to meet regulatory requirements for data localization.

The new feature allows Vertex AI customers to specify the geographic region where records processed by Vertex AI are stored. This enables organizations in regulated industries such as healthcare and financial services to keep their data within the jurisdiction of the data source.

Initially, the data residency option is available for the pre-trained generative AI models collection of Vertex AI, which includes natural language models like PaLM-2 and Codex, as well as image generation models. Users can choose to store the data processed by these models in one of the 10 countries in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.

This update introduces data residency options in 10 countries or regions in North America, Europe, and Asia. Notably, it includes the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. Additionally, the embedding API of Vertex AI, which helps transform datasets for neural network processing, will also benefit from these data residency options.

The Embeddings API of Vertex AI will also implement data residency controls for preparing datasets for AI model training.

In addition, users of Vertex AI Search and Vertex AI Conversation can choose data storage between the United States and the European Union. Google states that processing will take place in the same region as the storage and will adhere to the selected location.

Warren Barkley of Google Cloud states that this launch is just the beginning, and data residency will soon be expanded to more Vertex AI services. As artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent in enterprises, it aligns with customers' demand for localized data.

Google Cloud's main cloud competitors are also prioritizing data residency amid tightening regulations. Last month, AWS announced the launch of AWS Europe Sovereign Cloud specifically for European organizations. Microsoft has also enhanced data localization options in Azure, and Oracle has its European Sovereign Cloud.

While emphasizing its new data residency capabilities, Google Cloud highlights its existing enterprise AI privacy and security measures. This includes giving customers control over access to data and models. The company reiterates that customer data will never be used to train AI models without explicit permission.

By combining robust data protection with fine-grained data residency, Google Cloud aims to provide a compliant foundation for regulated industries to expand the adoption of artificial intelligence. The new localization options address key requirements for unlocking AI in industries such as banking and healthcare.