Netskope launches Mumbai management plane for Indian data

Netskope has launched a management plane in Mumbai, adding a local management layer to its existing NewEdge network footprint in India, where it already operates eight data centres.

The company said the Mumbai deployment is designed to help organisations keep policy, configuration, metadata and log data within India.

Indian companies face tighter requirements on where some categories of data can be stored and processed under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, along with sector-specific rules covering financial services and other regulated industries. Those requirements have increased demand for local data residency arrangements from technology suppliers, particularly among organisations handling sensitive information.

The management plane oversees the administration of Netskope services, storing customer policies, user configurations and operational records. Its data planes, by contrast, handle user traffic and security services.

That distinction matters for customers trying to meet domestic hosting rules. By placing the management plane in Mumbai, Netskope is positioning its platform for organisations that want operational control and service administration to remain within Indian borders.

Compliance push

Netskope linked the launch to compliance needs under the DPDPA, including provisions affecting Significant Data Fiduciaries, and to sector-specific frameworks such as the Reserve Bank of India's IT and security requirements and the Securities and Exchange Board of India's Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework.

These rules do not apply in the same way to every business, but they have sharpened focus on data sovereignty across government, critical infrastructure and regulated private-sector organisations. In practice, that has meant closer scrutiny of whether technology providers can offer local control over administrative data and associated records, not just local inspection of traffic.

Customers will also be able to apply hybrid policies that keep some data in India while allowing cross-border transfers for other categories of information. That reflects the reality for many large enterprises, which often operate across several jurisdictions while still needing domestic controls for specific workloads or records.

Netskope's broader NewEdge infrastructure spans more than 120 data centres worldwide. The India rollout extends that private network rather than standing apart from it, with the Mumbai management plane joining local compute data planes that already support its secure access service edge, or SASE, offering.

Partner impact

The deployment will also affect channel partners, including managed service providers and managed security service providers. Those partners are expected to use the local management setup to support Indian customers seeking more direct control over rules governing data location and transfers.

For channel firms, local infrastructure can be an important factor in regulated deals because customers often require a documented answer on where service administration data sits and who can access it. A management plane inside India gives partners a clearer response to those procurement questions.

Nageshwaran C, CISO at TVS Motors, commented on the development and its relevance for customers operating under stricter data rules.

"It is great to see our collaboration with Netskope continue to deliver value as it expands its local infrastructure. The availability of a management plane in India is crucial for us because it gives us flexibility to define exactly how and where our data is handled. Data residency and sovereignty are increasingly important, especially in a context of rapid AI adoption and data sprawl. Having Netskope handle the compliance heavy lifting gives us peace of mind regarding the DPDPA, letting us focus on other aspects of our security programme while other organisations are still adjusting or even rearchitecting their security and data protection frameworks," he said.

Ajay Gupta, Vice President and Country Manager SAARC at Netskope, said demand from Indian organisations for domestic hosting and governance features had risen as regulatory obligations evolved.

"Netskope One is a modern platform built for cloud and AI requirements. We help organisations modernise safely for the cloud and AI while giving customers significant advantages as they navigate regulatory changes such as the DPDPA. In this context, adding a management plane in India was essential to meet the growing data residency and sovereignty requirements of Indian organisations using the Netskope platform, not only for DPDPA compliance but also amid rising geopolitical uncertainty and cybersecurity risk," Gupta said.