Sovereign SASE: Strategic Shift or Just Another Buzzword?
During the Upperside Conferences this March, Versa Networks and Free Pro (Iliad Group) made a compelling case for Sovereign SASE as a rising priority in the French market. Both Versa Networks and Fortinet argue that for national service providers, governments, and compliance-sensitive enterprises, self-hosting SSE solutions—on-prem or in private clouds—isn’t just viable; it’s essential.
Sovereign SASE offers full control over the SSE stack—deployment, infrastructure, and especially data—mirroring what many already do with SD-WAN. The resurgence of interest is clearly tied to geopolitical trust issues, with legislation like the U.S. CLOUD Act cited as a key concern.
To be fair, global vendors have made major strides in addressing data residency (geo-localization, regional clouds, etc.). And history shows these scaled global solutions often win the battle for market share. So the real question is: How much of the market will shift to Sovereign SASE—and how fast?
Sovereign SASE pushes back against the centralized, vendor-hosted Security and networking approaches dominated by U.S. firms like Zscaler, Palo Alto, Cisco, and Juniper. Vendors began hosting solutions on infrastructure they controlled because of evergreen software delivery and AI training needs. But as data sovereignty, AI ethics, and customer trust rise in importance, the centralized approach may not always fit.
As someone who’s long believed that Service Providers should treat data as a strategic asset, I see Sovereign SASE as an opportunity. It empowers providers to:
- Build deeper trust through transparent data practices
- Align privacy policies with local/regional expectations
- Leverage data for insight and service innovation, not just compliance
🎯 The big unknown is whether this model gains traction outside highly regulated industries.
