Key facts
| Sovereignty criteria | Data residency, model control, operational sovereignty and compliance alignment |
| Deployment models | Plugsky cloud region, VPC/private endpoint, on-prem and fully air-gapped |
| Air-gapped mode | No internet egress, local model registry and offline update channels |
| Key custody | BYOK via AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault or on-prem HSM |
| Audit | Per-request logs with region; SIEM export; retention up to 7 years |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II under NDA, ISO 27001, HIPAA with BAA; FedRAMP Moderate in process |
| API compatibility | OpenAI-compatible /v1/chat/completions; change the base URL |
| Local presence | No Seoul office or facility claimed; sovereignty is delivered by deployment model |
TL;DR
- Sovereignty covers data, models, operations and compliance — not just server location.
- Air-gapped sites run with no internet egress, a local model registry and offline updates.
- BYOK keeps key custody with you via AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault or an on-prem HSM.
- SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and HIPAA evidence support review; FedRAMP Moderate is in process.
How it works, step by step
- Define which sovereignty criteria your regulator, board or customer requires.
- Choose the deployment topology: cloud region, private cloud, on-prem or air-gapped.
- Decide key custody — managed KMS or an on-prem HSM with BYOK.
- Design offline update and model-approval workflows for air-gapped sites.
- Validate audit log fields, SIEM export and retention against your policy.
- Run a pilot on one workload and collect the evidence procurement needs.
- Move to production once the controls are signed off.
Original data
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The Seoul case for sovereign AI
Seoul is South Korea's capital and its finance, technology and government centre, with conglomerate headquarters, fintech firms and a dense startup ecosystem. Organisations here — financial groups, technology firms and public-sector bodies — need AI that passes four tests at once: data residency, model control, operational sovereignty and compliance alignment.
Sovereign AI means prompts, completions, embeddings, models and logs stay inside your jurisdiction and perimeter, with local administrators able to run, patch and audit the stack. Plugsky publishes no Seoul facility; deployments ship as cloud regions, private environments or customer-owned infrastructure — see the data-residency overview.
Cloud, VPC, on-prem or air-gapped: options for Seoul
Plugsky ships four deployment patterns for sovereign programmes:
- Region-locked cloud: a pinned plane in the EU (Frankfurt), GCC (UAE and KSA), APAC (Singapore) or US (Virginia and Oregon). For Seoul, the nearest published plane is APAC (Singapore).
- VPC or private endpoint: the control plane inside your AWS, Azure or GCP account with no public ingress.
- On-prem: open-weight models on hardware you own, with local operations and patching.
- Air-gapped: no internet egress, a local model registry and offline update channels.
Keys stay with you through BYOK in AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault or an on-prem HSM; per-request audit logs capture model, tokens, latency, user and region, and export to your SIEM with retention up to 7 years.
What procurement can verify
Procurement and security teams can review documented programmes rather than assurances: SOC 2 Type II under NDA, ISO 27001, HIPAA with a BAA, and GDPR/PDPL alignment, with a DPA, EU SCCs, sub-processor terms and right-to-audit clauses in enterprise contracts. FedRAMP Moderate is in process, so treat it as pending for US federal work.
For South Korean programmes, PIPA expectations apply; validate the current evidence pack, sub-processor list and retention terms with the enterprise team.
From sovereign pilot to production
Start with one workload and a written definition of the sovereignty criteria. Choose the deployment topology and key custody, design offline update and model-approval workflows for air-gapped sites, and validate audit fields, SIEM export and retention against policy. Run the pilot, collect the evidence procurement needs, then move to production once controls are signed off.
The API stays OpenAI-compatible and one key reaches 30+ models, so existing SDK code, prompts and evaluations carry over. New accounts start on the free plan with plugsky-micro and plugsky-lite and a 14-day full-access trial; see the live pricing page for plans.
Honest comparison
| Capability | Plugsky | Typical public-cloud AI | Building in-house |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty scope | Data, model, operations and compliance covered | Usually data location only | You must build and prove all four |
| Deployment models | Cloud region, VPC, on-prem, air-gapped | Shared public cloud only | Your own infrastructure only |
| Air-gapped mode | No internet egress, offline updates | Not offered | Custom engineering effort |
| Key custody | BYOK via KMS or on-prem HSM | Provider-managed keys | You operate the HSMs |
| Audit | Per-request logs with region; SIEM export; up to 7 years | Often limited retention | You build the pipeline |
| Local presence in Seoul | No facility claimed; sovereignty is deployment-based | Varies by provider | Depends on your own sites |
Frequently asked questions
Does Plugsky have a facility in Seoul?
No. Plugsky does not claim an office or data centre in Seoul; sovereign deployments are delivered as cloud regions, private environments or customer-owned infrastructure. See /data-residency for the current region list.
What makes a deployment sovereign?
Four criteria at once: data residency, model control, operational sovereignty and compliance alignment. A deployment that only pins storage to a region does not satisfy the full set.
Can Plugsky run fully air-gapped?
Yes. Air-gapped deployments run with no internet egress, a local model registry and offline update channels, which suits defence, government and critical infrastructure programmes.
Who holds the encryption keys?
You can. BYOK is supported through AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault or an on-prem HSM, with per-region envelope encryption for data at rest.
What compliance evidence can we review?
SOC 2 Type II under NDA, ISO 27001/27017/27018 and HIPAA with a BAA; FedRAMP Moderate is in process. Enterprise contracts add a DPA with EU SCCs, sub-processor terms and right-to-audit clauses.
Can we keep using the OpenAI SDK?
Yes. The API is OpenAI-compatible, so you change the base URL and model name and keep your existing SDK, prompts and evaluations.
Which endpoints are still coming soon?
Audio, images, moderation, files, batch and fine-tuning are coming soon; chat, streaming, JSON mode, function calling, embeddings and RAG are live.
Would our data be used to train models?
No — prompts are not used to train models. For strict requirements, use a private, on-prem or air-gapped deployment so data stays inside the contracted environment.