The SAP-Google data custodian partnership

In March of this year, SAP and Google partnered to advance innovation, agility and global reach for enterprises adopting the public cloud. As part of our collaborative development and solutions integration, we are working on a data custodian model that allows customers with specific needs to manage sensitive data on a public cloud platform.

To fully benefit from cloud computing, enterprises need to store and process their sensitive data on public cloud platforms, while complying with regulations and managing unauthorized access risks. Enterprises often need to address these requirements as part of a broader governance, risk and compliance solution for the public cloud. 

The data custodian model

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) already offers robust security capabilities and extensive compliance with public cloud security and privacy standards. To further increase customer trust, the data custodian model allows SAP, a trusted enterprise solution provider, to act as the custodian of the customer’s data on GCP. This provides greater transparency and separation of controls.

With the data custodian model, we envision enterprises defining a set of controls about how they want to handle their data on GCP, then relying on SAP, as the data custodian, to continuously monitor compliance to these controls and manage exceptions as needed. A current focus is on data access transparency for GCP services that store or process customer data. In the coming months, SAP and Google will continue to work together to enable custodian oversight and control over handling customer data on GCP. 

What are the benefits for customers?

Enterprises can benefit from the data custodian model in several ways. They can leverage SAP’s deep knowledge of GCP’s security approach, controls and workflows instead of building that expertise in-house. With SAP as a data custodian, customers have additional confidence that their data is accessed and stored in compliance with their defined data sovereignty, privacy and protection policies.

In addition, with this partnership, SAP and Google are extending and integrating their product portfolios, including GCP and G Suite to provide even greater value to customers. Look to SAP and Google to continue to collaborate on solutions like the data custodian model to enable the next generation of digital services.