Data Residency and Regional Data Storage
Choose Where Your Payment Data Is Stored
HostedPCI Data Residency gives businesses greater control over where their payment information is stored, with regional hosting options in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia.
For organizations operating internationally, the location of cardholder data can be an important part of meeting customer expectations, contractual obligations, internal security policies, and applicable data protection requirements.
HostedPCI provides regional payment tokenization and vaulting through its PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider infrastructure, helping businesses protect cardholder information while maintaining flexibility across supported payment gateways.
What Is Payment Data Residency?
Payment data residency refers to the geographic location where payment information is stored.
Businesses may need to keep cardholder information within a particular country or region for contractual, operational, or regulatory reasons.
HostedPCI allows businesses to select a supported regional payment vault rather than relying exclusively on the storage location of their payment gateway.
Merchants retain ownership of their payment data while HostedPCI provides the infrastructure to collect, tokenize, and store it within the selected regional environment.
HostedPCI Data Residency Locations
HostedPCI offers four regional hosting options:
Canada Data Residency
HostedPCI’s Canadian hosting environment allows businesses to store cardholder information within Canada using Google Cloud Platform infrastructure.
Headquartered in Canada, HostedPCI provides payment tokenization and vaulting solutions for businesses that want greater control over their payment data and where it is stored.
Canadian data residency can support organizations evaluating their payment architecture against Canadian privacy requirements, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and Quebec’s Law 25.
Regional hosting may also help address contractual and internal data storage policies, although storing information in Canada does not automatically establish compliance with Canadian privacy legislation.
United States Data Residency
HostedPCI provides a U.S. payment data hosting environment using Amazon Web Services.
This option allows businesses to maintain their HostedPCI payment vault within the United States while using supported tokenization and payment integration services.
European Data Residency
HostedPCI offers a European payment data hosting environment through Google Cloud Platform.
This can support organizations evaluating regional payment storage requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
European data residency can form part of a broader privacy and compliance strategy but does not automatically establish GDPR compliance.
Australia Data Residency
HostedPCI provides an Australian payment data hosting environment through Google Cloud Platform.
This option can support organizations evaluating payment data storage requirements under Australia’s Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles.
Regional storage can help address data location considerations, while broader privacy and processing obligations remain dependent on the organization’s operations.
How HostedPCI Data Residency Works
Step 1: Select Your Hosting Region
Choose a supported data residency location based on your business requirements, customer commitments, and applicable regulatory considerations.
HostedPCI works with your organization to establish the appropriate regional configuration.
Step 2: Configure Payment Collection
HostedPCI configures the supported payment collection methods for the selected regional environment.
Depending on availability and integration requirements, this may include HostedPCI’s payment iFrame, IVR, and other supported tokenization methods.
Step 3: Tokenize and Store Payment Information
HostedPCI collects and tokenizes the cardholder information, storing the original card details within the configured regional payment vault.
The merchant receives a HostedPCI token that can be used to reference the stored information without retaining original card numbers within its applications.
Step 4: Connect to Supported Payment Providers
Businesses can initiate payment transactions using HostedPCI tokens through supported gateway integrations.
Payment provider requirements and any cross-border transmission of cardholder data are reviewed as part of the configured payment workflow.
Key Features and Business Benefits
Regional Payment Data Storage
Choose from HostedPCI hosting environments in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia.
Regional Payment Collection and Tokenization
Collect and tokenize payment information through supported regional integrations while maintaining the original card details in the configured vault.
Multi-Regional Payment Infrastructure
Organizations operating internationally can work with HostedPCI to establish regional payment environments without maintaining separate tokenization vendors in every market.
Each deployment is configured according to the applicable data storage and integration requirements.
Gateway-Independent Payment Vault
HostedPCI stores cardholder information independently of individual payment gateways.
This allows businesses to maintain greater control over their stored payment credentials while supporting transactions through compatible providers.
PCI DSS Scope Reduction
By using HostedPCI’s hosted payment collection and tokenization infrastructure, businesses can reduce the number of internal systems that directly handle cardholder information.
This can help reduce PCI DSS scope depending on the integration and overall payment environment.
Selecting a particular data residency region does not eliminate remaining PCI DSS responsibilities.
Data Residency, Data Sovereignty, and Compliance
Although related, data residency, data sovereignty, and regulatory compliance are different concepts.
Data Residency refers to the geographic location where information is stored.
Data Sovereignty concerns the legal jurisdiction and laws that may apply to information based on where it is stored, processed, or controlled.
Data Protection Compliance includes the broader legal, technical, and organizational requirements governing how information is collected, accessed, processed, retained, and transferred.
Regional hosting can help businesses address data location requirements, but it does not automatically establish compliance with GDPR, PIPEDA, Australia’s Privacy Act, or other applicable legislation.
Organizations should also consider backup locations, disaster recovery, administrative access, payment gateways, and authorized third-party processing when evaluating their data residency requirements.
HostedPCI works with customers to review the supported regional configuration and integration requirements.
Who Can Benefit From HostedPCI Data Residency?
Canadian Businesses
Organizations that prefer to store payment information within Canada for contractual, operational, or data governance reasons.
International Enterprises
Businesses operating across multiple markets that require different regional payment data storage configurations.
SaaS and Software Platforms
Payment-enabled software providers serving customers in different countries that want regional payment vaulting options through a single infrastructure provider.
Organizations With Specific Data Location Requirements
Businesses in financial services, healthcare, and other industries that need to evaluate where payment information is stored as part of their broader risk and compliance strategy.
Use Case: Regional Payment Vaulting for an International SaaS Platform
An international SaaS provider serves customers in Canada, Europe, and Australia.
The organization wants to collect customer payments while supporting regional data storage requirements across these markets.
Rather than working with different tokenization providers in each region, the business chooses HostedPCI.
With HostedPCI Data Residency:
- Select Regions: The SaaS provider identifies its regional data storage requirements.
- Configure Collection: HostedPCI establishes supported payment collection services for each selected environment.
- Tokenize: Customer card information is collected and tokenized within the applicable regional configuration.
- Store Regionally: Original cardholder information is maintained in the configured payment vault.
- Process Payments: The platform uses supported payment gateway integrations, with cross-border data handling requirements evaluated as part of the workflow.
This approach helps the organization manage regional payment data storage through HostedPCI without building and maintaining its own regional cardholder data vaults.
This is an illustrative example of a potential multi-region deployment.
Need to store payment data in a specific country or region?
Contact HostedPCI to discuss your regional payment storage and integration requirements.
Data Residency FAQs
What is payment data residency?
Payment data residency refers to the geographic location where payment information is stored.
Businesses may select a region to support contractual commitments, internal policies, or applicable data protection requirements.
Where does HostedPCI store payment data?
HostedPCI offers regional payment vaulting in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia.
The applicable storage region is established during implementation.
Which cloud providers host each region?
HostedPCI uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its U.S. hosting environment.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) hosts the Canadian, European, and Australian environments.
Does HostedPCI offer Canadian data residency?
Yes. HostedPCI offers Canadian payment data storage through its regional Google Cloud Platform environment.
This helps businesses select Canadian storage for their cardholder information.
Does Canadian data residency mean payment information never leaves Canada?
Not necessarily.
Canadian data residency identifies the storage location of the configured HostedPCI payment vault.
Payment information may still be transmitted to external payment gateways or other authorized providers, depending on the integration.
Businesses with restrictions on cross-border processing should review those requirements with HostedPCI before implementation.
Can businesses use multiple data residency regions?
Yes. HostedPCI offers multiple regional hosting environments for organizations operating across different markets.
Businesses requiring more than one region should review their vault configuration, token management, and payment integration requirements with HostedPCI.
Does HostedPCI Data Residency guarantee GDPR compliance?
No. Selecting a European hosting environment does not automatically establish GDPR compliance.
GDPR requirements extend beyond storage location and include obligations concerning processing, access, international transfers, security, and data subject rights.
Regional hosting may support an organization’s broader compliance strategy.
Does PCI DSS require cardholder information to be stored in a particular country?
PCI DSS establishes security requirements for protecting payment account data but does not generally require cardholder information to be stored in a particular country.
Other legal, contractual, or organizational requirements may affect where payment information is stored or processed.
Can HostedPCI Data Residency work with multiple payment gateways?
Yes. HostedPCI supports integrations with multiple payment gateways.
Businesses can select a regional payment vault while working with compatible payment providers. Gateway availability and any associated cross-border data transfers should be considered during implementation.
Is HostedPCI a payment gateway or processor?
No. HostedPCI is not a payment gateway or payment processor.
HostedPCI provides payment collection, tokenization, vaulting, and payment integration infrastructure.
Merchants maintain their processing relationships with their selected payment providers.
Does Data Residency eliminate PCI DSS requirements?
No. Data residency alone does not eliminate PCI DSS responsibilities.
HostedPCI’s tokenization and hosted payment services may help reduce PCI DSS scope depending on the merchant’s integration and overall payment environment.
Store Payment Data Where Your Business Needs It
HostedPCI provides regional payment vaulting and tokenization in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia, helping businesses choose where their cardholder information is stored.
Whether your organization operates in one country or across multiple regions, HostedPCI can help you evaluate a payment infrastructure configuration that supports your data storage, security, and integration requirements.
Contact HostedPCI to discuss your regional data residency requirements.
Explore HostedPCI Payment Tokenization and Vaulting to learn more about our payment infrastructure.