An interesting discussion arose out of the posting over at Business2 concerning the buyout of Clarke Computers by realestate.com.au. The writer was discussing the move from real estate software companies to develop web based applications where data was stored in web servers offsite and not at the agents premiese.

This prompted me to ask if this was in contravention of the Property Stock and Business Agent's Act which requires licensees to store records on the premises for a period of 3 years. On further reading, the also states that the most recent backup must be stored off premises so, on the face of it, a combination of both onsite and offsite storage is ideal. I will seek confirmation from the OFT