Sarah Bell: Driving Innovation in sovereign Cross Domain Solutions

Sarah Bell is the Product Manager of Auralis, our sovereign Cross Domain Solution (CDS). It's a role that sees her live and breathe the Auralis product range every day. That means leading the development and evolution of Auralis, ensuring it meets the complex needs of secure data environments.

Auralis Product Manager Sarah Bell with Defendable Technologies colleague Grant.

Prior to Defendable Technologies, Sarah built a diverse career in the finance industry. Here, she honed her experience across product development, digital strategy, branding and marketing. She now brings that multifaceted expertise to the tech world, helping shape the future of Auralis.

We recently sat down with Sarah to explore her journey into product management, her experience with CDS technology and her vision for Auralis.

What does a product manager do?

As product manager, I have the exciting role of helping evolve the team’s technical vision into a commercial reality. In a defence context, that means translating capability into a deployable outcome. Real-world constraints like size, mobility, speed, and regulation define the job. I’m responsible for ensuring our product suite delivers value, meets regulatory requirements, and anticipates the future needs of our clients.

What drew you to be a product manager?

End-to-end responsibility for delivering a capability at scale. I get to see the foundation being built and see how every decision creates ripple effects. That level of ownership is rare and allows me to surround myself with a very talented and driven team.

It’s a great feeling to build something that matters – whether it’s designing a form factor that’s field ready, or drafting compliance statements, product management gives you the runway to think big but execute precisely.

What do you like best about your role?

The responsibility. You’re not just shaping a product, you’re shaping how it’s understood, adopted, and trusted. That’s especially true when the product protects national interests.

What's been your experience working with CDS technology? A CDS is mission-critical infrastructure but is often under-recognised. We are handling earth’s most precious resource, data, so It’s complex! It operates quietly, which is both its strength and its challenge. It handles sensitive data where the stakes are highest: multi-domain networks, tactical edge to enterprise, with untrusted domains and secure zones. The architecture is complex with purpose-built hardware, proprietary software, and strict policy enforcement. Every deployment is tailored because it has to be. No two environments are the same.

Once integrated, the CDS becomes silent infrastructure. No friction, just secure, real-time data movement. Educating clients is rewarding. Most understand they need it but most aren’t sure why. Bridging that gap, articulating why architecture and compliance matter, is where a CDS earns trust. That’s what makes it a sovereign capability, not just a tech solution.

What do you think our clients are looking for in a CDS? Assurance for starters. Real-time data movement with zero compromise. They want the capability to adapt - whether it’s scaling across domains, running in austere environments, or drawing on our library of agents for a variety of data types.

Security isn’t the selling point, it’s the expectation. What clients truly want is for the CDS to be out of mind and always working. Integrated, efficient, and maintaining sovereign control across domains. It’s the invisible pipeline that keeps operations moving.

What makes Auralis unique?

It’s engineered to be mission-ready from day one. Secure data flow isn’t just a requirement; it’s how resilient systems stay ahead of the threat curve.

Auralis shifts the CDS from rigid, hardware-bound systems to a responsive, user-friendly platform that scales across environments. Auralis delivers fast, secure data movement with minimal overhead. It provides multi-domain flexibility, embedded compliance, and sovereign control. Auralis gives its user the clarity to act quickly and confidently. We treat data protection as strategic infrastructure, and this in turn will unlock commercial value for our clients.