Microsegmentation

Microsegmentation is a security approach that creates granular, workload-level boundaries within a data center, cloud, or multi-cloud environment to control communications between systems. By applying explicit access policies to individual workloads, microsegmentation aims to reduce the risk of lateral movement after a breach and to enforce least-privilege network access, even for east-west traffic.

Implementation is policy-driven and enforcement can occur at various points: within the host, at virtual switches or firewalls, or via software-defined networking overlays. Methods include host-based agents, network-based segmentation using virtual switches, or overlay technologies, and often rely on identity or workload attributes rather than IP addresses alone.

Policy model: Segmentation policies specify which workloads or services may communicate, often defined by workload identity, roles, or metadata. Enforcement is continuous and can be dynamic to accommodate scaling in cloud environments. Tools may provide a policy graph and real-time monitoring.

Deployment contexts: On-premises data centers, public clouds, and multi-cloud deployments employ microsegmentation to isolate sensitive workloads, comply with data protection requirements, and support zero-trust architectures. Common use cases include isolating databases, payment systems, or IT management interfaces, and securing containerized workloads with container-aware segmentation.

Benefits and challenges: Benefits include reduced attack surface, containment of breaches, and faster incident response. Challenges include designing correct policies, ensuring visibility across environments, performance considerations, and integration with existing networks and security tools. Microsegmentation is often associated with zero-trust networking, serving as a practical mechanism to enforce workload-level trust policies.