Partner Spotlight:

The Security Platform Built for the Way Government Works Now

State and local government agencies are under more cybersecurity pressure than ever: ransomware attacks on public services; phishing campaigns targeting agency employees; and legacy network perimeters that were never built to handle a hybrid workforce, cloud-first operations, or the explosion of AI-driven data flows. The old model of stacking point security products and trusting the firewall to hold the line no longer works.

Cloudflare is the world’s leading connectivity cloud connecting and protecting millions of organizations across 330+ cities worldwide with network security, Zero Trust access, and AI-era threat protection from a single, unified platform. With over 20% of the world’s web traffic flowing through its network across every major industry and government, Cloudflare’s scale gives SLED agencies something no point-solution vendor can match: a global threat intelligence network that blocks billions of attacks every day.

The Threat Landscape Has Changed. Has Your Security?

According to NASCIO’s 2026 State CIO Top 10 Priorities, cybersecurity and risk management has held a spot in the top two for over a decade. State and local agencies manage some of the most sensitive data in existence: voter records, tax information, health data, benefits eligibility, law enforcement files. Any breach, large or small, erodes constituent trust.

At the same time, agencies are being asked to support hybrid workforces, migrate to cloud, deploy AI-powered services, and maintain uptime on citizen-facing systems while simultaneously reducing cost. Legacy VPN-centric architectures weren’t designed for this operating environment, and adding more point products only compounds the problem.

Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud converges network security, performance, and Zero Trust into one globally distributed system. One control plane. One policy engine.

Zero Trust, Done Right: Cloudflare One

The federal government has mandated a Zero Trust security architecture. State and local agencies are following suit. Getting there without disrupting operations or multiplying vendor contracts requires a platform designed for consolidation from the ground up.

Cloudflare One is a single-vendor SASE platform that converges every Zero Trust and network security capability into one cloud-native architecture.

What Cloudflare One delivers for government:

• Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Identity-first access for every employee, contractor, and AI agent with no VPN required. Users get secure, fast access to the apps they need from any device, anywhere.
• Secure Web Gateway (SWG): DNS and HTTP filtering that protects remote workers and branch offices from malware, phishing, and malicious websites in real time.
• Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB): Visibility and control over SaaS app usage, blocking lateral movement and isolating risky links before they become incidents.
• AI-Powered Email Security: Stops phishing, business email compromise (BEC), impersonation, and malware before threats reach inboxes.
• Magic WAN: Replace costly MPLS with Cloudflare’s global backbone, connecting branch offices, data centers, and remote workers securely and faster than legacy WAN architectures.

Cloudflare One was recognized as a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for SASE Platforms—validation of Cloudflare’s unified architecture and security execution at scale.

Security for the AI Era: Protect What You’re Building

AI topped the NASCIO 2026 State CIO priority list for the first time, displacing cybersecurity after 12 consecutive years at number one. Agencies deploying AI chatbots, AI agents, and automated workflows are moving faster than the security controls that can govern them.

Cloudflare secures AI adoption at the network layer, inspecting, governing, and controlling AI interactions before they become data exposure events.

Key AI security capabilities include:

• AI Gateway: Inspect prompts, redact sensitive data before it reaches public AI models, and maintain full visibility into every AI interaction across the agency.
• AI Agent Governance: Cloudflare One is the first SASE platform to secure connections to MCP servers, governing AI agents like any other identity with Zero Trust policies and DLP controls.
• Shadow AI Control: Identify and control unauthorized AI tool usage across the agency, so your security posture doesn’t depend on employees making the right choices.