Netskope completes expansion of 'Localization Zones' in global private cloud

Netskope, the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) company, has revealed that it has completed the expansion of its NewEdge security private cloud's 'Localization Zones'.

The feature will serve approximately 220 countries and territories across the globe, inclusive of every non-embargoed United Nations (UN) member state.

The increasing global shift towards cloud services sees the user experience dependant on the locale of the web security service or Security Service Edge (SSE) data centre, rather than the user's location.

This situation can result in users encountering content in an unintended language or even being blocked from accessing certain websites or applications entirely.

Fortunately, by launching 205 Localization Zones on top of Netskope's existing full compute data centres in 71 areas, a localised experience will be available for over 220 countries and territories. This makes Netskope's global coverage unparalleled within the Security Service Edge sphere.

In another first for the industry, Netskope rolled out their Localization Zones in February 2023. These offer users a similar digital experience to that encountered when going direct-to-net, no matter their geographic location.

This includes the support of native languages and localised content for websites, as well as offering access to geo-fenced content and applications, even in the absence of an in-country data centre.

David Mann, the Managing Director of Information Security & Infrastructure Services at PageGroup, discussed how practical this could be for their globally scattered business operations.

Mann explained: "Data residency is one thing, and user experience is another. We use more than 80 of Netskope's NewEdge global data centres to meet our data processing compliance requirements, but for a truly global business like ours, compliance alone is not enough."

"Netskope's NewEdge Localization Zones mean that our data routing decisions don't determine things like the language that our employees search results are returned in - or the geographical IP-restricted web services that they are able to access."

The last 18 months have seen Netskope implementing a series of enhancements to the NewEdge private cloud platform. These upgrades include a 40% expansion in its global footprint of full compute data centres, each with a complete SSE stack. 

This marks a significant presence in Mainland China for improved access to both domestic and international applications, and an expansion of its global Management Plane footprint, which has more than doubled the number of regions available.

Jason Hofmann, SVP of Platform Strategy and Architecture at Netskope, clarified the benefits for their customers: "Our customers benefit from something that no other vendor can match - a user experience that is indistinguishable from direct-to-net for virtually every user on the planet, not only from a throughput and latency point-of-view, which was a milestone we achieved a few years ago, but now also from a content localisation standpoint."