If you work in defence, government, or critical national infrastructure, you’ve probably heard it before: “We need a diode.” And you’d be right; a diode is the foundation of secure cross-domain data transfer. But here’s the problem: stopping at the diode alone can leave you with hidden costs, maintenance headaches, and security blind spots.

At Nexor, we’ve spent over 35 years securing information flows in the most demanding environments. What we know, and what many don’t, is that the real challenge is not just moving data securely but ensuring that data is usable and trusted once it arrives.

The buyer’s choices

When procurement teams look at the market, they face four common options:

1. Cheaper diodes – often with lower certification, poor integration, and costly rework down the line.

2. Diode plus custom scripts – low upfront cost, but high maintenance, in-house expertise required, and operational risk.

3. Diode plus 3rd-party proxies – better than DIY, but not integrated into your guard environment, meaning upgrades and fixes can lag.

4. Do nothing – leaves secure transfers unreliable, manual, or not assured.

The perfect world

In an ideal world, you could:

• Choose from market-leading diodes, certified to the highest relevant security standards.

• Add proven proxies to ensure data flows seamlessly across the diode and eliminate the maintenance burden, providing protocol flexibility from day one.

• Upgrade to deep content inspection to ensure the data you receive is clean, safe, and ready for use.

• Deploy in compact, edge-optimised form factors for mobile, tactical, or space-constrained environments.

The Nexor value journey

We take you from foundation to full operational assurance:

1. Choice of diode – Sentyron (EAL7+) or Oakdoor (NCSC CAPS) – both market leaders.

2. Proxies – Fully supported by Nexor, avoiding DIY costs and operational risk.

3. GuarDiode – Adds deep content inspection and sanitisation across 40+ file types.

4. GuarDiode Edge and GuarDiode Edge+  – Compact, edge-ready solutions with higher throughput, more protocols, and virtualisation support.

The result? Predictable cost, certified assurance, and operational agility, from fixed datacentres to the front line.

Questions to consider:

• How do you currently ensure incoming data is safe to use?

• What’s the true cost of maintaining your current solution?

• If your mission had to go mobile tomorrow, could your security solution keep up?

• Which security certifications are non-negotiable for you, and are you meeting them today?