Sovereign Internet
Everybody is talking about Sovereign Cloud, but who is talking about Sovereign Internet?
Most organisations take the Internet for granted: data leaves the corporate network, and somehow arrives. Without thinking about it, organisations send large amounts of data over the Internet to SaaS applications every day. But how does that data actually get there? And what is your data exposed to while travelling across the Internet?
Why it matters
For many organisations, the Internet has become the default corporate backbone — the single layer that connects employees, cloud platforms, SaaS applications, customers and business partners. It is the fabric that ties the entire digital environment together and enables data to move between all these systems.
Because so much critical activity depends on it, the way organisations connect to and use the Internet has become a fundamental part of their digital resilience.
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a global system of thousands of independent networks connected together. When your organisation sends traffic to the Internet, it is first handed to your Transit provider, which forwards it across multiple other networks until it reaches the destination.
Each network independently decides how to best pass the traffic along at that moment. As a result, the path your data takes is unpredictable and changes every time.
This creates challenges:
- Dependency on external routing decisions
- Exposure to unintended networks and jurisdictions
- Limited visibility into traffic destinations
What is Sovereign Internet?
Sovereign Internet is a network design approach that gives organisations more control over how their Internet traffic flows — without replacing the Internet itself.
It is built on three principles:
- Keep traffic within trusted NL-ix backbone infrastructure wherever possible
- Reduce unnecessary exposure to unknown networks
- Provide visibility into where traffic goes
Sovereign Internet addresses these challenges by structurally reducing exposure — not by blocking the Internet, but by making smarter use of it.
How it works
Sovereign Internet is delivered using NL-ix infrastructure, which connects over 2,400 networks within the trusted NL-ix backbone environment.
Traffic from and to these 2,400 networks remains within this controlled environment. Traffic only leaves the NL-ix network , if the destination-network is outside of the 2,400 connected networks.
The solution is delivered redundantly across two datacenters in order to guarantee high uptime.
Key characteristics
Trusted Traffic Environment
Traffic between connected networks stays within the NL-ix backbone wherever possible, limiting unnecessary exposure to the public Internet.
Controlled Exposure
Different IP spaces and routing domains can be used to ensure traffic is reachable where required — and not reachable where it shouldn’t be.
Resilience by Design
Delivered redundantly across two datacenters for high availability and continuity.
Direct Network Access
Access to 2,400 networks, often with a single handover between source and destination.
Visibility with ICON
Real-time and historical insight into traffic flows towards connected networks.
Clear visibility into which destination networks are reached when traffic leaves the trusted environment.
Ready to design your Internet?
Interested in what Sovereign Internet can do for your organisation or looking for a demo?
sales@nl-ix.net or call +31 (0)70 3120710
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