Air-gapped deployment
An air-gapped deployment runs software on hardware with no connection to any external network: no model updates fetched at runtime, no telemetry sent, no cloud inference call. Defence sites, some central banks and classified facilities require it because policy forbids the data leaving the premises at all.
What does an air gap actually forbid?
- Outbound inference calls: every model the system uses runs on hardware inside the boundary.
- Runtime downloads: no model weights, no dependency resolution, no container pull once installed.
- Telemetry and crash reporting, including the kind enabled by default in most SDKs.
- Online licence activation and periodic licence checks against a vendor server.
- Automatic updates of any component, including the operating system.
Most enterprise software fails at least one of these without anyone noticing during a normal deployment, because the failure only appears when the network is genuinely absent rather than merely restricted. A vendor claim of air-gap support is worth testing on a host with no route out.
How do licensing and updates work without a network?
- Licences are issued as offline files bound to hardware identifiers rather than validated against a server.
- Updates are packaged as signed bundles, transferred on physical media, and verified inside the boundary before installation.
- A staging system outside the boundary is used to test each bundle first, because a failed update cannot be rolled back over the network.
- Change control records what was carried in, by whom and when, which is usually a requirement of the same policy that mandated the air gap.
The practical consequence is cadence. An air-gapped installation updates on a schedule the site controls, measured in months rather than the continuous delivery a connected product assumes, and the software has to remain correct and supported across that interval.
Air-gapped, on-premise and private cloud are not the same
| Model | Where it runs | Outbound network |
|---|---|---|
| Air-gapped | Customer hardware inside the boundary | None at all |
| On-premise | Customer hardware or data centre | Usually permitted, often restricted |
| Private cloud | Dedicated tenancy at a provider | Inherent, data leaves the organisation |
A requirement written as on-premise will usually be satisfied by software that phones home for licensing. If the intent is an air gap, the requirement has to say so, because the two are procured as though they were the same and they are not.
The distinction has a procurement consequence beyond wording. An air-gapped installation cannot be supported by a vendor reading logs remotely, so support has to work from evidence the customer exports and carries out, and that exchange belongs in the contract rather than being discovered during the first incident.
Frequently asked questions
- What is an air-gapped deployment?
- An air-gapped deployment runs entirely on hardware with no outbound network connection: no model updates fetched at runtime, no telemetry sent, no cloud inference call. It is required in defence facilities, some central banks and any environment where law or policy forbids the data leaving the premises.
- Is on-premise the same as air-gapped?
- No. On-premise means the software runs on the customer's own hardware, which usually still permits outbound connections for licensing, updates and telemetry. Air-gapped forbids all of them. A requirement written as on-premise is routinely satisfied by software that phones home, so the stricter intent has to be stated.
- How are air-gapped systems updated?
- Updates are packaged as signed bundles, tested on a staging system outside the boundary, carried in on physical media and verified before installation, under a change-control record of what was brought in and by whom. The cadence is measured in months rather than continuous delivery.
- Can AI models run without any internet access?
- Yes, provided the model weights are installed locally and the runtime does not resolve dependencies or fetch resources at start-up. The common failure is not the model itself but a library that reaches out on first use, which only shows up on a host with no route out.
- Does licensing work in an air-gapped environment?
- It does when the vendor issues offline licence files bound to hardware identifiers. Products relying on periodic online activation stop working at the first check, which is why licensing mechanics belong in the requirements alongside the functional ones.
- Which industries require air-gapped AI?
- Defence and intelligence facilities, parts of central banking and payments infrastructure, some healthcare and pharmaceutical research environments, and critical infrastructure operators. The common factor is a legal or policy rule that data cannot leave the site, rather than a preference for local processing.