Sovereign SASE: Secure Access Service Edge Under Your Control, or, Bowtie
Introduction
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) revolutionized network security by unifying networking and security in the cloud. But for organizations in highly regulated industries, the vendor-owned, shared-cloud model hasn’t always been a perfect fit. Enter Sovereign SASE — a version of SASE that puts the infrastructure fully under your control.
What is Sovereign SASE?
Sovereign SASE means running a SASE solution on infrastructure you control, rather than relying entirely on a vendor’s cloud. It’s still the same unified security and networking architecture — just deployed in a way that meets your operational, regulatory, and sovereignty requirements.
You choose where the software runs — whether that’s in your own data center, on a private cloud, or through a trusted service provider. You control the architecture. You decide where data gets inspected. You hold the keys.
Readers may be quick to point out that this is effectively “self-hosting” and with that comes all the perceived downsides – scalability, updates, resilience, etc. These are important considerations and it’s why choosing a solution that still delivers the SaaS experience is a critical part of the decision.
Why Sovereignty Matters
The main appeal of Sovereign SASE is data control. Many organizations need to ensure traffic and logs stay within specific regions or jurisdictions — especially those in finance, healthcare, government, or any business facing strict data residency rules.
Sovereign SASE makes that possible by allowing you to control both where your security stack runs and where your data lives. It’s a model designed for compliance, privacy, and assurance.
Benefits of Sovereign SASE
- Data residency and compliance: Keep sensitive data and traffic within your chosen boundaries.
- Full architectural control: Tailor your security policies, tools, and traffic flows to meet your exact needs.
- Dedicated infrastructure: Your SASE deployment isn’t shared with other customers — it’s yours alone.
- Improved trust posture: With no vendor middleman, you reduce the attack surface and avoid third-party visibility into your network traffic.
Conclusion
Sovereign SASE is SASE on your terms. For organizations that can't afford to compromise on control — whether due to regulatory pressure or strategic choice — it's a compelling option. You get all the benefits of a unified security architecture, with none of the vendor lock-in or shared cloud tradeoffs.
Bowtie was built this way from the ground up, rather than retrofitting a cloud infrastructure into this model. With Bowtie, you have the same components you are used to managing today, but without the downside of Cloud centralization. Deploy in minutes, auto-updates take care of keeping you current, and never think about your SASE solution again.