As we mentioned in part 1 of this article, InCountry is the best way for companies to securely store regulated data and stay compliant with local data regulations worldwide. InCountry is unique because the platform has considered all the imaginable specifics of data regulations in various countries. This country-specific approach combined with our base infrastructure is why InCountry can cover compliance in more than 90 countries, including coveted markets like Russia, Turkey, and even China.
The platform has incorporated a network of geographically distributed servers and data centers, with at least two points of presence in every country to ensure redundancy. For business customization, we have a variety of development and integration tools to address any specific data governance challenges, even on SaaS platforms like Salesforce and ServiceNow.
How the InCountry platform can help with data governance in ServiceNow
As InCountry was designed to help close this SaaS issue, we have a native integration that streamlines data compliance for ServiceNow users. Once you configure InCountry, the integration will run in the background, separating regulated from non-regulated information and distributing and storing the former in line with local data regulations. Non-regulated information is still stored in your ServiceNow instance, while regulated data is fetched from the InCountry platform and displayed in ServiceNow when opening a record. That means you don’t need to worry about cloud providers, network architecture, or data security mechanisms, as InCountry handles all of that without impeding day-to-day operations.
The InCountry Data Residency for ServiceNow application supports two data regulation models to address various data protection and localization requirements.
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The stricter model on offer is “redacted.” The “redacted” model complies with the most stringent data regulations around, which mandate only domestic retention of personal data within the country of origin, meaning cross-border transfers are completely prohibited, even for reading purposes. This is the strictest current form of data localization.
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The other model is “restricted,” which we built to comply with less stringent data regulations that tend to require domestic retention of personal data, but do not forbid cross-border transfers for things like reading data.
With both of these models, the personal data of your employees and/or customers is not physically stored in the ServiceNow Cloud database, instead fully residing on the InCountry platform in the target country of origin. When you load a record in the form or list views, the InCountry Data Residency for ServiceNow application fetches the data and rewrites it to the InCountry platform upon any updates.
To maintain full compliance, the application also takes your current location into account, so it can regulate access to records. If a company is using the “redacted” model, where personal data cannot be read outside the country of origin, the application will not give you access to the actual record's values if you access ServiceNow outside the country of origin.
On the “restricted” model, however, you will be able to load the actual value for the record with regulated data values. In both cases, only users within the country of origin will be able to modify fields storing sensitive data. This mechanism fully addresses the data compliance issue in ServiceNow and provides companies a simple way to block exposure of sensitive data outside the country of its origin in regulation-strict countries.
How to get started with InCountry Data Residency for ServiceNow
Beyond the platform’s compliance capabilities, InCountry for ServiceNow is an ideal solution because it does not require any stack or tech maintenance. Once you install and activate the application, you go straight to configuring the application in three quick steps:
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Setting up your connection to the InCountry platform
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Configuring your data regulation model and how fields will be rendered
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Creating configuration rules.
You’ll get the connection details and additional metadata required to set up a secured connection between the ServiceNow and InCountry platforms after installing InCountry. Then you need to choose the applicable data regulation model, restricted or redacted, and how the application should render fields that contain regulated data (such as names, date of births, etc.). Lastly, create configuration rules to define the ServiceNow tables and protected fields that are processed by the InCountry application.
Once those three things are done, created records containing regulated data will be physically saved to the InCountry platform in the necessary country. The platform will then hide the actual values of protected fields and only load them if the user can view them based on their current location and established access restrictions.
In addition to protected fields with regulated data, the InCountry for ServiceNow application also supports the remote storage of attachments with sensitive data on the facilities of the InCountry platform. This means you no longer have to keep quotes, project proposals, or invoices in ServiceNow and expose them to people who you don’t intend to ever view them. The application handles attachments the same way as protected fields and eliminates compliance risks in ServiceNow with minimal effort from you.
With that in place and InCountry up and running for your ServiceNow SaaS, compliance risks will no longer stand between your company and international operations.
