I’m leading an IT infrastructure project for our company’s expansion into Europe, and I’m hitting a roadblock with GDPR compliance for our authentication systems. We currently have a centralized LDAP infrastructure in the US that handles authentication for all our business process workflows.
However, our legal team has advised that to comply with GDPR, we need to ensure that EU employee data stays within EU borders. This means we need to set up regional LDAP servers and somehow configure our workflow automation platform to use the appropriate authentication server based on the user’s location.
I’m looking for advice on:
- How to architect a multi-region LDAP infrastructure that maintains synchronization where needed
- How to configure our BPM workflows to dynamically choose the correct authentication server
- Best practices for maintaining security and consistency across regions
Has anyone successfully implemented a solution for this kind of data residency requirement? Any pitfalls I should be aware of?
I tackled this exact GDPR challenge last year when our company expanded to Germany and France.
The solution that worked perfectly was using Latenode’s centralized data residency controls. I set up separate LDAP servers in our EU datacenter, and used Latenode’s authentication routing feature to direct EU users to the EU servers while US users stayed on US servers.
The workflow configuration was surprisingly simple - Latenode’s visual builder has data residency controls built-in. I created a condition based on the user’s region attribute, and it automatically routed authentication requests to the appropriate server without any custom code.
For synchronization, I set up one-way replication from EU to US for just the attributes needed for global applications (no personal data), while keeping sensitive data local to each region. Latenode’s workflow engine respected these boundaries automatically.
The whole setup took about a week and our legal team was thrilled with the clear data boundaries. It’s been running smoothly for over a year now.
Check it out at https://latenode.com
I implemented a multi-region LDAP solution for GDPR compliance last year. Here’s what worked for us:
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We set up separate LDAP servers in each region (US and EU) and used a directory services architecture with selective replication. Certain attributes were replicated globally, while PII stayed regional.
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For our BPM platform, we implemented a routing layer that sat in front of our authentication system. When a user attempted to log in, this layer would determine their region (based on attributes in their JWT token) and route the authentication request to the appropriate regional LDAP server.
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For consistency, we created a centralized schema management process. Any schema changes had to be approved and then deployed to all regional directories simultaneously.
The biggest challenge was handling users who traveled between regions. We ended up creating a temporary access mechanism that allowed limited-time authentication against non-home region servers when necessary.
I implemented a GDPR-compliant multi-region LDAP infrastructure for a global manufacturing company. Here’s the approach that worked well for us:
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We deployed regional LDAP servers in each major geography (US, EU, APAC) with primary ownership of user accounts based on the employee’s home region.
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For synchronization, we used a hub-and-spoke replication model where certain attributes (non-PII) were replicated globally, while personal data remained only on the regional server. We used attribute-level access controls to enforce this segregation.
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For our workflow platform, we implemented a federation approach. Rather than having the workflows connect directly to LDAP, we deployed regional identity providers that handled authentication locally and provided standardized tokens to applications.
This architecture allowed us to maintain strict data residency for personal information while still enabling global applications to function with appropriate access controls. The key was carefully designing which attributes needed to be global versus regional.
we use multimaster AD with regional controllers. EU data stays in EU. set up location-aware DNS so users auto-connect to local servers. workflows use SAML so they dont need direct ldap access.
Implement geo-aware identity federation.
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