Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Benjamin Bengfort, the founder and CEO of Rotational Labs, is revolutionizing the world of data engineering and applied AI. With a focus on natural language understanding and computer vision applications, Rotational Labs specializes in globally distributed systems, addressing privacy concerns and data localization issues for its global clientele.
A Vision Rooted in Academia
“Rotational Labs was born out of my dissertation on globally distributed systems,” Bengfort shares. “My partners and I had previously been part of startups where we weren’t the founders. We decided it was time to carve our own path and commercialize the software we had been developing in academic forums.”
Harnessing Cloud Agnosticism
Rotational Labs leverages the global build-out of data centers by major cloud providers. “We consider ourselves cloud agnostic,” says Bengfort. “Using cloud-native tools like Kubernetes and global CDNs, we can deploy our applications wherever our customers are, be it South Africa, Sweden, or anywhere else.”
This flexibility is crucial for a company with a team spread across the United States, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Hong Kong, and contributions from open-source communities worldwide. They have customers from 16 countries across the globe, highlighting the importance of cross-border data flows and digital payments in their operations.
This diverse and widespread collaboration allows Rotational Labs to harness a wealth of expertise and perspectives, driving innovation and excellence in their AI and data engineering projects. “Our global team and the contributions we receive from around the world are key to our success,” says Bengfort. “They enable us to build cutting-edge solutions and remain at the forefront of the industry.”
Private Sector Collaboration and Advocacy
“Advocating for AI regulation and digital privacy legislation is crucial. We’re learning how significant this work is and are eager to get more involved,” says Bengfort.
Public and private sector resources have also been instrumental. Standards organizations supported by the US Department of Commerce and USTR have created essential data standards for compliance. “Cloud service providers like Google, AWS and Microsoft offer tools for GDPR compliance and other regulations, which are invaluable for us,” Bengfort notes.
For instance, tools like Google Analytics offer opt-in and opt-out controls for GDPR compliance. “It’s not something that we have the time or resources to implement ourselves. We have to focus on our own product,” Bengfort notes. These tools are indispensable for maintaining compliance with data privacy laws, allowing Rotational Labs to efficiently manage data while adhering to international regulations.
Major cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google provide logging and data compliance tools that Rotational Labs relies on. “We depend on their replication management systems for ensuring that we’re following data localization and privacy laws,” Bengfort says. These resources help Rotational Labs navigate the complex landscape of global data regulations, ensuring their services remain compliant across different jurisdictions.
“These tools and technologies allow us to focus on our core product and innovation, without getting bogged down by compliance complexities,” Bengfort concludes. The collaboration and resources provided by private sector giants enable Rotational Labs to thrive in the competitive field of data engineering and applied AI.
Advocating for policy is crucial for businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to ensure that their voices are heard and their unique challenges are addressed. Bengfort recently experienced the significance of policy advocacy firsthand during a visit to Washington, D.C.
“We were in DC for a fly-in with the App Association. They were so well organized and prepared,” Bengfort recalls. “They had 63 CEOs fly in from all over the country. On the first day, we had a legislative briefing where they walked us through the issues up for discussion, like the S 174 tax, research and development tax credit exemptions, privacy, AI regulation, and some FTC-related mergers and acquisitions issues.”
This briefing was essential for preparing the CEOs to effectively communicate their concerns to legislative assistants. “They taught us how to talk to legislative assistants and approach these meetings,” says Bengfort. “I had meetings in the Senate and with White House executives.”
Sharing their stories and perspectives with legislators was a pivotal experience for Bengfort and his peers. “It felt very important for us to be able to share our story, show how small businesses are being impacted, and really give a different perspective to the legislative assistants than what they might get from other lobbying groups,” he explains. “These policies affect smaller companies directly, and hearing from constituents makes a big difference.”
Policy Recommendations
Cross-border data flows are critical for small companies. Bengfort illustrates, “Our most variable cost is egress costs – the cost when data leaves a cloud provider. When a new undersea fiber optic cable was laid in the South Indian Ocean, our egress costs dropped by 15-20%. This shows the hidden effects of data flows and how vital they are for global communication and business.”
Data localization requirements pose significant challenges. “If countries mandate local cloud providers or data storage, it becomes cost-prohibitive for small businesses like ours to comply. This could exclude entire markets from our services,” explains Bengfort.
The importance of technology choice is paramount for Bengfort, as it underpins their ability to serve a global customer base effectively. Being cloud agnostic has allowed Bengfort to select the most suitable cloud data centers for their applications, a flexibility that would be severely restricted if they were confined to specific providers or locations. “The only reason that we can have customers in Singapore and Lithuania and Estonia is because we can use those data centers that are being built by the cloud service providers,” Bengfort explains. This adaptability not only reduces costs but also ensures compliance with local regulations through trusted tier one providers like Google, Alibaba, and Microsoft. Bengfort emphasizes the impracticality of setting up dedicated data centers in every country due to cost and compliance challenges: “If I have to find a cloud service provider in Liechtenstein, it’s probably not going to be a tier one, tier two, or tier three cloud service provider.” Thus, the ability to choose technology strategically is crucial for Bengfort’s international operations and market presence.
Mandatory disclosure of source code and algorithms is a bad idea for several reasons, as highlighted by Bengfort. One primary concern is the inherent inefficacy of such measures in enhancing software security. “I don’t think that any country is good at being able to detect malware, or any other type of bad behavior from source code,” Bengfort explains. If source code inspections were truly effective, malware would have been eradicated long ago.
Furthermore, mandatory disclosure poses significant economic barriers, particularly for small businesses. Unlike tech giants like Google or Microsoft, which can afford to establish secure facilities to comply with such requirements, smaller companies lack the resources to do so. “A company like Google or Microsoft could open a white room in the country and go there… Small companies simply cannot do that,” Bengfort points out. This discrepancy would create an uneven playing field, where only large corporations could operate globally, leading to market monopolization and a fractured internet.
Bengfort also stresses the impracticality and potential market distortion resulting from such mandates: “It’s a bad idea from a market perspective and a security perspective. I don’t think it helps anyone.” Mandatory disclosure of source code and algorithms would neither enhance security nor foster a fair and competitive market environment. Instead, it would impose undue burdens on smaller entities while failing to address the core issues of software security.
Future Outlook
Looking ahead, Bengfort is excited about Rotational Labs’ growth. “We’re bringing our first African customer online soon, a Pan-African company based in South Africa. We’re also eager to expand into South America to truly become a global service provider.”
As Rotational Labs continues to innovate and expand, it serves as a testament to the potential of digital transformation in empowering SMEs globally. Through advocacy, collaboration, and a forward-thinking approach to policy, Rotational Labs is not just surviving but thriving in the dynamic world of digital technology.