There is a lesson here...
Set the politics aside for a moment.
Way back at the time of the event, SFDC blocked activities of one of its customers, the RNC. Now, over a year later, SFDC is being legally pursued to provide emails from this customer.
This would not be in issue if RNC had provided for their own infrastructure instead of relying on a cloud SAAS provider. What happens here, and the outcome of this case, will set a precedent for future SAAS customer relationships. And if the customer's information is in any way potentially sensitive or private, the customer may want to seriously consider using their own infrastructure instead.
CEOs, CIOs, etc need to pay attention here. Not because of what they are doing today, but because of what their SAAS provider could potentially do to them tomorrow. Without any measure of due process, the SAAS provider could shut down their operation. And the SAAS provider may be required by law enforcement to produce private data from the organization's records.
Again, not trying to debate the right & wrong of RNC actions. I am just seeing how much control their SAAS provider had and how that relationship is now being addressed in the courts. If the RNC had controlled their infrastructure and data, they would not be in this situation today.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
