SECURE NETWORK ACCESS
Michael LevyOctober 22, 2025 4 minute read

Keeping Your Data Where It Belongs: How AppGate ZTNA Preserves Data Sovereignty

Data sovereignty is no longer a niche concern — it’s a business and regulatory mandate that’s reshaping how organizations approach security and compliance. Around the world, governments and industries are raising the bar for how organizations handle sensitive information. AppGate’s direct-routed ZTNA architecture is uniquely positioned to help organizations preserve data sovereignty without compromising performance, security, or user experience. 

Regulations like the GDPR in Europe, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act in India, the CCPA in California, and a wave of new standards across APAC and the Middle East make one thing clear: your data must stay within its sovereign jurisdiction, and you must be able to prove it.

Yet, as organizations modernize their access controls with Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), many solutions inadvertently introduce new risks. Cloud-routed ZTNA architectures, which force user traffic through vendor-controlled points of presence (PoPs), can cause sensitive data to cross borders — often without the organization’s knowledge or intent. This not only violates sovereignty requirements but also adds latency and creates unnecessary exposure.

The Growing Pressure of Data Sovereignty

Data sovereignty refers to the concept that data is subject to the laws and governance structures within the nation where it is collected or processed. For enterprises and government agencies, this means that sensitive data—whether personal, financial, or operational—must remain within specific geographic or jurisdictional boundaries.

Key global regulations include:

  • GDPR (Europe): Mandates that personal data of EU citizens must not be transferred outside the EU unless adequate protections are in place.
  • CCPA (California): Imposes strict controls on how personal data of California residents is handled, including cross-border transfers.
  • India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act: Requires that certain categories of data remain within India.
  • APAC and Middle East: Countries like Singapore, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are introducing or strengthening data localization and sovereignty requirements.

Failing to comply with data sovereignty regulations can result in:

  • Hefty fines (GDPR fines can reach up to 4% of global annual turnover)
  • Reputational damage and loss of customer trust
  • Operational disruption if regulators restrict data flows or access
  • Legal liability for executives and board members

As scrutiny intensifies, organizations must be able to demonstrate—not just assert—that their sensitive data never leaves its required jurisdiction.

Inherent Weaknesses in Cloud-Routed ZTNA

Many ZTNA solutions on the market today use a cloud broker model. This typically means that user traffic is routed through vendor-controlled PoPs (often in public clouds) before reaching the destination resource. As a result, even if a user and the resource are in the same country, their session may be relayed through infrastructure in another region or even another continent.

The following hypothetical scenarios illustrate how cloud-routed ZTNA can undermine data sovereignty:

  • A European company’s employee accesses an internal app, but the ZTNA vendor’s PoP is in the U.S. — so the session (and potentially sensitive metadata) traverses U.S. infrastructure.
  • A Middle Eastern bank’s traffic is routed via a European PoP, violating local data residency laws.

The hidden risk: Even if the data is encrypted in transit, sovereignty is violated the moment it leaves the prescribed borders. Encryption does not absolve organizations from regulatory requirements regarding data location and jurisdictional control.

How AppGate ZTNA Preserves Data Sovereignty

AppGate ZTNA is designed from the ground up to address these challenges with a direct-routed architecture, including the following benefits:

Direct-Routed Design

  • Sessions travel directly from user to resource — no detours through third-party or vendor infrastructure.
  • Traffic is never backhauled through a vendor cloud, ensuring that data paths remain under your control and within your chosen jurisdiction.

Segment of One

  • AppGate enforces a dynamic least-privilege access model: each user is granted access only to the specific resources they are authorized for, and nothing more.
  • This “segment of one” approach minimizes the attack surface and exposure of sensitive data.

Any Environment, Any Topology

  • AppGate works seamlessly across on-premises, hybrid, cloud, and edge environments.
  • You retain full control over where your data flows, regardless of where your resources or users are located.

Compliance Alignment

  • AppGate’s architecture supports regulatory requirements by ensuring that data paths and access policies remain under customer control.
  • Entitlements and policy controls are highly granular, allowing you to define exactly who can access what, from where, and under what conditions — supporting compliance with even the strictest data residency mandates.

Advanced Security and Context Awareness

  • AppGate leverages claims-based access and can integrate with risk engines (such as AppGate Risk Sentinel) to dynamically adjust access based on user, device, and contextual risk.
  • This ensures that only trusted users and devices can access sensitive resources, further reducing the risk of data leakage.

Real-World Advantages

AppGate’s direct-routed ZTNA isn’t just theory — it delivers tangible benefits across performance, security, and sovereignty. The examples below highlight the practical outcomes organizations can expect:

Performance  

  • No unnecessary backhauling: Direct routing means fewer hops, lower latency, and a better user experience.
  • Scalable and resilient: AppGate’s architecture is designed to perform at scale, supporting large, distributed organizations without bottlenecks.

Security  

  • No “man-in-the-middle” exposure: By eliminating third-party intermediaries, AppGate reduces the risk of interception or compromise.
  • Decentralized access: Access decisions are enforced at the edge, not in a centralized cloud broker.

Sovereignty  

  • Prove compliance: Organizations can confidently demonstrate to regulators and auditors that sensitive data never leaves its required jurisdiction.
  • Flexible deployment: Whether you need to meet GDPR, CCPA, or local data residency laws, AppGate gives you the tools to align with region-specific requirements.

Why This Matters for Global Markets

Data sovereignty is now a top priority for:

  • Governments and public sector agencies: National security and citizen privacy depend on strict data controls.
  • Financial institutions: Regulatory scrutiny and cross-border data transfer restrictions are intensifying.
  • Healthcare providers: Patient data is highly sensitive and subject to strict localization laws.
  • Critical infrastructure operators: Energy, utilities, and telecoms must protect operational data from foreign access.

Direct-routed ZTNA is quickly becoming a must-have differentiator outside the U.S. AppGate ZTNA is already supporting multinational enterprises and federal customers who need to meet the world’s toughest data sovereignty and compliance requirements.

As data sovereignty becomes central to security and compliance strategies worldwide, organizations need solutions that don’t force trade-offs between performance, security, and regulatory alignment. AppGate’s direct-routed ZTNA delivers on all fronts — keeping your data where it belongs, under your control, and always in compliance.

 

Ready to learn more? Explore AppGate ZTNA or Request a Technical Consultation.

 

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