How Cato delivers security and networking without compromising on data sovereignty
Digital sovereignty is increasingly shaping how organizations design, procure, and operate their technology infrastructure. For governments, international organizations, critical infrastructure operators, and regulated enterprises, the questions are becoming very specific: Is my traffic contained within the region? Where is it inspected? Where are security decisions made? Where are telemetry and logs stored? The answers now directly influence technology procurement and risk management decisions.
This trend is not slowing down. As data sovereignty regulations and national security policies proliferate across regions, requirements are becoming more specific, more auditable, and harder to satisfy with generic cloud infrastructure.
Behind this shift are several reinforcing drivers:
- Regulatory frameworks: GDPR, NIS2, and DORA in the EU, along with equivalent national frameworks globally, require demonstrable controls over where data is processed, who operates the infrastructure, and how cross-border data flows are governed.
- Geopolitical risk: Laws such as the US CLOUD Act and FISA Section 702 create mechanisms for foreign governments to compel access to data held by vendors headquartered in their jurisdiction, regardless of where the data physically resides. Vendor domicile has become a material procurement consideration for organizations with cross-border exposure.
- Sector mandates: Financial services regulators (EBA, BaFin), defense agencies, and government procurement frameworks increasingly treat sovereignty controls as a precondition for vendor qualification in regulated and sensitive sectors.
When organizations evaluate sovereign SASE, the conversation typically starts with geography: where are the servers, and which country's law applies? These are necessary questions. But they miss a more fundamental issue: the internal architecture of the SASE platform itself determines whether sovereignty commitments can actually be made and kept.
When evaluating any SASE vendor for sovereign deployments, a few straightforward questions cut through the marketing:
- Do all the SASE services such as SD-WAN, SWG, CASB/DLP, AI-Security run on a single converged platform, with one control plane, one data plane, and one data lake, or is it a collection of separate platforms?
- Does the vendor own and operate its cloud infrastructure, or does it rely on third-party hyperscalers?
- Can the vendor provide a single audit scope covering all the services, or does each component require a separate compliance assessment?
- Where is customer data stored across all components of the service, and under which legal jurisdiction?
The answers to these questions determine whether a vendor can make binding sovereignty commitments, and whether those commitments cover the entire service or only part of it.
Cato was built as a single platform from the ground up. Every capability (SD-WAN, FWaaS, SWG, IPS, CASB, DLP, ZTNA, RBI, and AI Security) runs on one unified data plane and one unified control plane. Customer data is held in a single data lake, under a single access control framework, within a single regional boundary.
Cato's 95+ global PoPs run on Cato-owned physical infrastructure in Tier-4 data centers, powered by purpose-built GPU hardware for AI-driven security processing. All network and security processing takes place at the locally connected PoP. There is no backhauling, and no service chaining between different PoPs, products or platforms.
For sovereignty assessments, this translates directly into reduced complexity and reduced risk: one audit scope, one data store, one legal regional entity, and one set of contractual obligations covering the entire service.
Cato offers three sovereign deployment configurations. All three run on the same Cato SASE platform with the same full feature set. The choice of model determines who owns and operates the infrastructure, not what capabilities are available.
| Deployment Model | Typical Customer | Regulatory Fit |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereign Public SASE Cloud | Regulated enterprises | GDPR, NIS2, DORA, sector mandates |
| Sovereign SASE Cloud for Service Providers | National telcos, MSPs, MSSPs | National frameworks, critical infrastructure |
| Sovereign SASE Cloud for Customers | Government, defense, financial institutions | Highest classification |
Best for regulated enterprises whose sovereignty requirements can be satisfied by Cato's regional public infrastructure.
- Regional CMA (Cato Management Application) instances provide control and management plane services. Currently available in the US, EU, India, and Japan, with more regional instances planned for future deployment. Customer policy, configuration, and event data is anchored to the selected region and does not leave it.
- Regional Cato PoPs (data plane) serve customers within their geographic boundary, ensuring that traffic inspection and security enforcement occur in-region.
- Granular geo-fencing options are available for all SASE services. Administrators can configure policies to ensure that traffic is processed exclusively by regional PoPs and remains within the defined regional boundary throughout its lifecycle.
Best for organizations that require private infrastructure control delivered through a national telecommunications operator or MSSP.
- The service provider deploys Cato Private PoPs within their own sovereign infrastructure, retaining full physical control over the data plane.
- Two control plane options: the control plane can run on Cato's regional public CMA instance for operational simplicity, or the service provider can deploy and operate a dedicated private CMA instance for full management plane control. With Private CMA option, the encryption keys are managed by the service provider that owns the CMA instance.
-
The regional service provider has operational control of the service. Cato manages the software lifecycle (updates, patches, feature rollouts) transparently in the background.
- A key advantage of this approach is that traffic is carried over the service provider’s own backbone and last-mile infrastructure, rather than traversing third-party transit networks. This allows customer traffic to remain within the SP’s compliant, locally regulated network domain, aligning with national data residency, sovereignty, and lawful access requirements. As a result, both traffic flow and operational control adhere to regional regulatory frameworks.
Best for government agencies, defense organizations, and financial institutions with the highest sovereignty and security classification requirements.
- The customer hosts both the Private PoPs (data plane) and the CMA instance (control plane) within their own data centers or sovereign infrastructure.
- Two control plane options: customers can use Cato's regional public CMA or deploy and operate their own private CMA for complete management plane ownership. With Private CMA option, the encryption keys are managed by the customer that owns the CMA instance.
- The customer has physical and operational control over every component of the service. Cato provides the software platform and manages the software lifecycle.
Architecture and deployment model are necessary but not sufficient for sovereignty. The legal relationship between the customer and the vendor is equally important.
Cato has established regional legal entities incorporated under local law in key jurisdictions. These entities serve as the contracting party for customers in their region, ensuring that the legal relationship and all obligations it creates are governed by and enforceable under local law.
Cato's regional legal entities currently include:
- United States
- Germany (EU)
- Netherlands (EU)
- Italy (EU)
- France (EU)
- Singapore
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- Japan
- Philippines
- Israel
- Additional jurisdictions as Cato continues to expand its regional presence
In addition to legal entities, Cato operates regional support teams that provide in-region technical support. Customers benefit from support delivered by staff operating under the same legal framework and jurisdictional boundary as their deployment.
Cato Networks delivers sovereign SASE through a combination of three fundamental principles:
- Single-platform architecture: One data plane, one control plane, and one data lake. All processing happens at the locally connected regional PoP. This eliminates the fragmented audit scope and compliance complexity inherent in stitched-together multi-product platforms. Geo-fencing is easily achieved for connected sites and ZTNA users.
- Flexible SASE deployment models: Three sovereign deployment options (Regional Public Cloud, Private SASE for Service Providers, Private SASE for Customer) accommodate the sovereignty requirements.
- Regional legal structure: Regional legal entities in the US, EU (Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy), UK, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Philippines, Israel, and more ensure that customer contracts are governed by local law, that regulatory obligations are locally enforceable.
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.