Building a scalable and secure data pipeline requires careful decision-making, particularly regarding data storage solutions. While major cloud providers like Google and AWS offer significant benefits, specific privacy and security considerations, such as regional data compliance, often dictate the best storage choice, especially for sensitive data like medical or defense information. For machine learning and data science teams, using storage-agnostic data products, such as Encord, allows seamless integration with any storage facility, whether on-premise or cloud-based, facilitating a multi-region, multi-cloud strategy essential for accessing diverse datasets and ensuring compliance. These products enhance model development by enabling easy data access and integration through features like signed URLs and flexible APIs, which ensure granular data access control and security. Encord, specifically, is designed to quickly integrate with various storage providers, enabling companies to expand their data pipeline without compromising security or compliance, thus streamlining the process of training and deploying AI models efficiently.