Redefining the Global Edge: How Skyhigh’s Next-Gen POP Architecture Powers Agile, Sustainable SSE

By Steve Tait - Chief Technology Officer

May 14, 2025 2 Minute Read

A foundational question every enterprise must ask when developing a Secure Service Edge (SSE) strategy is:

“Will my vendor’s global PoP network support all the regions in which I operate—and deliver the full range of services in each of those regions?”

At Skyhigh Security, we believe the answer to that must be a confident and consistent “yes.” But that’s not the only “yes” that matters.

A second, equally critical question is:
“Will this cloud-native infrastructure integrate seamlessly with my existing on-premise web policies and hybrid environments?”

Again, the answer from us is a firm yes.

Delivering both of these outcomes is no small feat—especially on a global scale. Regional demand for SSE services is not uniform. Some geographies carry high traffic volumes and require full SSE capabilities (SWG, CASB, ZTNA, DLP, etc.), while others see lighter usage or may need only a subset of services. The challenge is how to offer complete coverage, without over-provisioning or incurring waste through idle capacity.

Some vendors take a “build it and they will come” approach—pre-provisioning all services across all PoPs based on projected demand. But this often leads to inefficiencies: expensive capacity sitting idle, underutilized compute, and an unnecessarily large carbon footprint.

At Skyhigh, we’ve taken a more intelligent path—one built on modular, containerized, and fabric-independent architecture, powered by our own substantial and continually expanding network of dedicated regional data centers, augmented by deep cloud partnerships. 

Let’s pause here to be clear:
Over 75% of Skyhigh’s global traffic is served through our dedicated PoPs—purpose-built regional data centers designed from the ground up for security and performance. This isn’t a hyperscaler-hosted overlay. It’s an infrastructure layer we fully control, optimize, and evolve—year after year. That said, we complement this core backbone with a flexible, cloud-augmented deployment strategy that enables us to scale with precision.

 

This model dramatically reduces waste, speeds up global expansion, and—critically—offers a greener, more sustainable SSE footprint.

And because our web containers are fabric-independent, we can deploy the same services across our dedicated infrastructure or burst into the public cloud for capacity or regional agility. In doing so, we ensure every location is covered, every service is available, and every customer gets the same enterprise-grade experience.

Finally, Skyhigh’s Hybrid PoP model means on-premise services—like a locally deployed SWG—are fully interoperable with our cloud fabric. Enterprises don’t have to choose between cloud and on-prem. With Skyhigh, they get both—unified by policy, visibility, and enforcement.