The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation will take effect in the UK as of 25 May 2018 (a full overview is available on eugdpr.org).
In brief, the GDPR applies no matter where you are located. With many organisations storing critical data in their database platform it will be incumbent upon them to ensure that the entire IT environment complies with the legislation to avoid fines of up to €20 million, or 4% of annual worldwide turnover.
SQL Server can help you to navigate the process by securing data and become GDPR compliant. For example the Always Encrypted feature on SQL Server 2016 allows users to encrypt sensitive data inside client applications and never reveal the encryption keys to the Database Engine (SQL Database or SQL Server). As a result, Always Encrypted provides a separation between those who own the data (and can view it) and those who manage the data (but should have no access).
As a Microsoft Gold Partner on the Data Platform we are well placed to help you achieve GDPR compliance. So whether you are looking at your options, or would like discuss further how an upgrade to SQL Server 2016 could help with your compliance give us a call on 01342 410223.