Intro

As organizations increasingly migrate from on-premises environments to cloud-first and work-from-anywhere models, the need for a security framework like SASE becomes clearer. By offloading security to the cloud instead of handling it on-premises, SASE allows organizations to apply security controls closer to their applications and services.

However, for many organizations, sending user traffic to the cloud is not ideal. In fact, entire industries prohibit routing traffic through third-party cloud providers. Consider healthcare, finance, or the public sector, where compliance and data sovereignty regulations strictly dictate data residency requirements. Even when cloud deployment is possible, it might not be preferred—particularly for organizations with numerous internally hosted applications and services.

This is why a new type of SASE model, called Sovereign SASE, has emerged. Sovereign SASE provides organizations a new way to deploy SASE entirely within their private infrastructure, avoiding the cloud altogether. In this article, we’ll explore what Sovereign SASE is and how its architecture specifically addresses requirements for data sovereignty and privacy.

What is Sovereign SASE?

Sovereign SASE refers to the deployment of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) capabilities entirely within an organization’s private infrastructure, with the primary goal of keeping user traffic, data, and logs on-premises—and off the vendor’s cloud.

Unlike traditional SASE offerings, where all users connect to vendor points of presence (POPs) for security inspection and policy enforcement, Sovereign SASE performs all security inspection within the organization’s own infrastructure.

Core Components

To understand how Sovereign SASE works, it’s important to examine the key pillars on which it is built.

The first and most foundational pillar is data sovereignty—the principle that user data must remain within clearly defined boundaries and under the organization’s full control. This includes the ability to enforce data jurisdiction, meaning organizations should be able to specify exactly where their data resides and ensure it never leaves that geographic or regulatory boundary

The second pillar of the Sovereign SASE framework is Controlled Private Infrastructure, where all data plane processing and user traffic remain entirely within the organization’s infrastructure and control. Unlike the traditional SASE model—where security inspection occurs in the vendor’s cloud—Sovereign SASE performs inspection and policy enforcement within private points of presence (POPs), which may reside on-premises or in external colocation facilities.

The third pillar of the Sovereign SASE model is Service Autonomy—the principle that organizations should maintain granular control over the security services they deliver to users, with minimal reliance on external or third-party dependencies. This includes control over physical architecture, such as the ability to define the level of redundancy and availability they wish to provide. Granular control also extends to the specific SASE services an organization chooses to implement.

Service autonomy means the organization has full flexibility to design, deploy, and enforce its security posture based on internal policies and business requirements—not those dictated by a vendor’s cloud platform.

Sovereign SASE Architecture

The Sovereign SASE architecture consists of three main components: the user layer, the data plane, and the control plane.

Because SASE encompasses a wide range of security and networking functions—including endpoint protection, next-generation firewall services, load balancing, and more—it is essential to maintain a clear separation between the control plane and the data plane. The control plane handles orchestration and management, typically accessed through a web-based portal where administrators define security rules and policies. These configurations are then synchronized downstream to the data plane and user layer, where policies are enforced in real time.

In a Sovereign SASE model, the data plane is hosted entirely within the organization’s own network infrastructure. It is responsible for all security inspection and network connectivity functions and remains strictly confined within the organization’s boundaries—never offloaded to the cloud. This directly supports the data sovereignty principles discussed earlier.

The specific devices used at this layer should include security appliances—such as next-generation firewalls—capable of delivering core SASE services like secure web gateway (SWG) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) enforcement.

Rules and policies defined in the control plane are pushed down to the devices in this layer, where they are enforced in real time. Ultimately, this is the layer users connect to when accessing SASE services, ensuring that all traffic remains fully under the organization’s control from end to end.

At the user layer, the experience should feel identical to that of a traditional SASE deployment. The key distinction is that users connect to private security POPs within the organization’s infrastructure, rather than cloud-hosted POPs operated by a third-party vendor.

At this layer, endpoint clients play a critical role by communicating with the controller to enable three core functions:

• Endpoint policy enforcement: These are standard endpoint protection features configured by administrators through the web portal.
• Network connectivity: The orchestrator informs the endpoint of the nearest POP location and provides ZTNA destinations for direct access to approved applications and services.
• Continuous posture checking: The orchestrator continuously evaluates the endpoint’s security posture to ensure compliance and applies updates as needed.

Together, these three layers form the foundation of the Sovereign SASE architecture—each aligned with the core pillars we’ve just reviewed, with a central focus on upholding data sovereignty by keeping user traffic, inspection, and logging entirely within private, organization-defined boundaries.

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SOV SASE

An important note: a true Sovereign SASE solution is not a SASE service in and of itself. Rather, it is a platform that provides all the components—both hardware and software—needed to deliver a private SASE service within your own infrastructure. It is better understood as a platform than as a standalone technology or cloud service, but one that is designed to accelerate and simplify your path to deploying private SASE.

That said, a Sovereign SASE solution offers several key benefits:

• Comprehensive technology stack: Includes all essential components—such as the endpoint client, next-generation firewall, and other core SASE functions.
• Integrated policy enforcement: Acts as a unified technology framework, translating intent-based policies across multiple security and networking tools.
• Centralized orchestration: Streamlines policy management and coordination across diverse systems and layers.
• Unified management interface: Provides a single pane of glass for configuration, monitoring, and visibility across the entire deployment.

FortiSASE Sovereign

FortiSASE Sovereign is a turnkey solution for deploying private SASE services, powered by Fortinet and aligned with the principles and architecture we’ve previously discussed. It enables organizations to offer customized, private SASE solutions while maintaining complete control over data residency and service implementation.

For additional details on FortiSASE Sovereign, please visit our product page and explore the resources below.

• FortiSASE Ordering Guide
• Datasheet
• Solutions Brief (Enterprises)
• Solutions Brief (SP)
• Release notes
• Reference Architecture
• Deployment Guide