Commvault Pitches Geo Shield for Sovereign Data Protection
•February 2, 2026
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Companies Mentioned
Why It Matters
Geo Shield gives regulated businesses a concrete way to satisfy tightening data‑sovereignty laws while reducing exposure to foreign government data requests. It positions Commvault as a viable alternative to rivals in the growing sovereign‑cloud market.
Key Takeaways
- •Geo Shield offers four deployment models for sovereign data.
- •Supports BYOK and HYOK encryption key management.
- •Avoids US cloud jurisdiction for EU regulatory compliance.
- •Integrates with local HSMs and no‑call‑home architecture.
- •Targets industries needing FedRAMP, HIPAA, PCI DSS compliance.
Pulse Analysis
Data‑sovereignty has shifted from a niche concern to a core business imperative as governments tighten residency rules and impose penalties for cross‑border data flows. Enterprises handling personal health information, financial transactions, or critical infrastructure now must prove not only where data lives but also who can decrypt it. This regulatory pressure has spurred a wave of vendor solutions, yet many still rely on US‑based public clouds that remain vulnerable to foreign legal demands. In this climate, Commvault’s Geo Shield arrives as a purpose‑built answer, aligning technical controls with legal requirements.
Geo Shield differentiates itself through a tiered architecture that spans cloud SaaS in local hyperscaler regions, sovereign hyperscaler offerings such as AWS European Sovereign Cloud, partner‑operated national clouds, and fully private sovereign environments. Each tier maintains in‑region control of data, operations, and encryption keys, offering both Bring‑Your‑Own‑Key (BYOK) and Hold‑Your‑Own‑Key (HYOK) options. The solution also leverages hardware security modules and enforces a strict no‑call‑home policy, ensuring that metadata never leaves the jurisdiction. By providing virtual air‑gapped deployments and offline tape options, Geo Shield addresses both modern cloud workloads and legacy backup strategies.
The market response will likely hinge on how quickly Commvault can scale its partner ecosystem and certify compliance across frameworks like FedRAMP High, FIPS 140‑3, DORA, and NIS2. Competitors such as Cohesity, Rubrik, and Veeam already tout similar sovereignty features, but Geo Shield’s granular control over key ownership and its emphasis on local HSM integration may attract highly regulated sectors. As data‑localization laws proliferate worldwide, vendors that can demonstrably isolate data from foreign jurisdictions will capture a growing share of the cyber‑resilience spend, making Geo Shield a strategic play for Commvault’s future growth.
Commvault pitches Geo Shield for sovereign data protection
Commvault Geo Shield: Sovereign Data Protection
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Commvault says sovereign data protection has three core elements: where data is stored, who controls access to it, and who holds the encryption keys. Its new Geo Shield offering is designed to address all three, as organizations face growing regulatory pressure to keep sensitive information under specific national or regional control.
Data has degrees of access privacy depending upon whether it is encrypted, who provides the data storage service, and where the storage system is located. A sovereign territory, either a country or a region like the European Union, can have data‑privacy regulations that apply to certain types of data, such as personally identifiable information, patient medical records, and financial‑system transaction details.
Commvault’s chief product officer, Rajiv Kottomtharayil, said:
“Commvault Geo Shield is designed to help customers strengthen resilience, align with data compliance efforts, and maintain control over how and where their data is managed.”
The data can be stored in physically air‑gapped form, such as offline tape cartridges, or virtual air‑gapped form, like a separate cloud account. However, US‑owned public clouds may be required to release customer data to US government agencies.
If absolute sovereign data protection is required in an EU country, that data should not be stored in a US‑owned public cloud, unless that cloud can unequivocally assure EU customers that their data will never be exposed in that way. Public storage clouds locally owned within the EU generally do not have to comply with US government data‑access requests.
Encryption is good, so long as the encryption keys are private and unobtainable by prying eyes. Hardware security modules can enhance encryption.
It is important for a data‑protection and cyber‑resilience vendor to recognize these issues and support customers in meeting them, if it wants to do business in areas subject to sovereign data‑access controls.
Commvault’s Geo Shield is its way of doing this and has four levels of location and sovereign support:
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Cloud SaaS in a local hyperscaler region
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Cloud SaaS in a sovereign hyperscaler region, like AWS European Sovereign Cloud
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Partner‑operated sovereign national/regional cloud services with Commvault software and virtual air gaps
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Private sovereign clouds within dedicated environments
Commvault says Geo Shield enables cyber resilience and sovereignty with deployments that maintain in‑region control of data, operations, and encryption keys. Geo Shield supports customer‑controlled encryption keys, with both Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) and Hold Your Own Key (HYOK) options. It integrates with customer or partner‑managed hardware security modules (HSMs).
Geo Shield also operates within boundaries, including “no call home” requirements with operations run by screened local partners.
Availability of Geo Shield‑specific deployment models will be announced separately based on implementation timelines with partners in relevant regions. Get more information about Geo Shield here.
Related vendor offerings
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Cohesity – data‑sovereignty support throughout its data‑protection portfolio; see its blog.
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Rubrik – Security Cloud Sovereign offering (early‑access phase) that lets customers “achieve true data sovereignty, beyond data residency… Operate entirely within your designated boundaries… eliminating dependencies on foreign organizational structures.” Details here.
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Veeam – data‑sovereignty support capabilities; see details here.
Commvault describes Cohesity, Rubrik, and Veeam as “one‑cloud ponies” in a cyber‑recovery checklist.
Bootnote
Commvault supports many federal, industry, and global regulatory requirements, including FedRAMP High, FIPS 140‑3, and GovRAMP, industry‑specific mandates like SEC Rule 17a, HIPAA, and PCI DSS v4.0, as well as emerging frameworks such as DORA and NIS2. It also supports several global frameworks, including IRAP PROTECTED status for the Australian Federal Government, and certified Cloud Service Provider (CSP) status with the Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC).
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