In May 2018, a new European Union (EU) privacy regulation went into effect with broad-reaching implications for organizations around the world.

The regulation, called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), introduced new requirements on privacy, security and compliance for organizations that offer goods and services to European Union (EU) residents.

Digital technology has enabled the world to innovate faster and more cost-effectively. And, all of this has created a complex new environment. The rules and regulations, like GDPR, that are used to govern technology are also evolving, creating complicated requirements with sometimes blurry boundaries and outcomes.

Connected devices and services have provided organizations with valuable data on individuals, creating new opportunities to personalize service and drive new business models. This has simultaneously raised new security and privacy concerns, which GDPR is responding to.

In many cases, this data collection evolved over years across multiple IT systems with variable levels of security and compliance. It doesn’t matter whether data is created, processed, stored, managed, and protected on desktops, mobile devices, on-premises servers, or in the cloud. GDPR holds your organization to the same standard across all of your IT environments.

So it’s important to be – and stay – prepared. As a Microsoft partner, we can help.