One of the most critical questions in cloud services: "Where does my data sit?" Let's cover GCP's situation for Turkey and practical notes for data-protection compliance.
01. Region Status
GCP doesn't have its own region in Turkey yet. The nearest regions:
- Zurich (europe-west6)
- Frankfurt (europe-west3)
- Warsaw (europe-central2)
Latency from Turkey is between 30-80 ms.
02. Data Protection and Data Residency
Turkey's data-protection law doesn't impose a strict "must be stored in Turkey" requirement, but it requires explicit consent or an undertaking. An evaluation is essential for critical data.
03. Data Residency Policies
With a "location constraint," GCP guarantees keeping data in specific regions. You can pin it to Frankfurt and keep the data there.
04. DPA (Data Processing Agreement)
Google offers a standard DPA for enterprise customers. This agreement must be signed for data-protection compliance.
05. Alternative: Local Turkish Cloud
For companies wanting critical data to remain in Turkey: a local cloud (Teletek, TurkNet) + GCP hybrid architecture can be considered.