Microsegmentation in Data Centers: Trends and Implementation in 2019

December, 2019 • 7 min read

As data center environments evolve, the need for granular control over east-west traffic grows. In 2019, microsegmentation emerges as a cornerstone of data center security, offering organizations a method to contain threats, enforce policy, and gain visibility across virtualized and hybrid infrastructures.

Understanding Microsegmentation

Microsegmentation refers to the practice of creating secure zones in data centers and cloud environments to isolate workloads from one another and define security controls down to the workload level. Unlike traditional segmentation that operates at a VLAN or subnet level, microsegmentation works at the application and VM level.

Drivers of Microsegmentation in 2019

Several trends have driven interest and adoption:

• East-West Traffic Growth: Lateral traffic in data centers now vastly exceeds north-south traffic, and legacy firewalls can't efficiently monitor this.
• Zero Trust Architectures: The need to verify and authenticate traffic inside the network aligns with microsegmentation’s enforcement capabilities.
• Virtualization and Hybrid Cloud: Workloads move dynamically across environments, and static controls are no longer sufficient.
• Compliance Requirements: Regulations like PCI-DSS and HIPAA require strong internal data isolation and auditing.

Approaches to Microsegmentation

Organizations in 2019 typically adopt one of the following:

• Agent-based: Deploy agents on workloads to enforce policies regardless of network topology.
• Hypervisor-integrated: Solutions like VMware NSX leverage the hypervisor for granular flow control.
• Overlay-based: Use overlay networks with integrated policy engines to manage segmentation independently of physical infrastructure.
• Network-based: Leverage next-gen firewalls or SDN to apply policies at the network layer.

Use Cases and Benefits

Effective microsegmentation helps in several ways:

• Application Isolation: Prevent unauthorized access between services.
• Threat Containment: Stop lateral movement of threats like ransomware.
• Policy Enforcement: Centrally define and enforce rules based on workload identity.
• Visibility: Gain insights into traffic flows and application behavior.

Challenges and Pitfalls

Despite the benefits, challenges remain:

• Operational Overhead: Implementing and maintaining policies requires effort and visibility.
• Policy Complexity: With fine-grained rules, mistakes or gaps can create outages or blind spots.
• Integration: Aligning microsegmentation with existing tooling and infrastructure can be complex.

Market and Vendor Landscape

In 2019, several key players shape the microsegmentation market:

• VMware NSX: Broad adoption in virtualized data centers with integrated firewall capabilities.
• Illumio: Agent-based solution focusing on adaptive segmentation and visualization.
• Cisco Tetration: Focuses on telemetry and policy enforcement across hybrid environments.
• Guardicore Centra: Provides visibility and segmentation for both on-prem and cloud environments.

Strategic Considerations

Before implementation, organizations should:

• Map application dependencies and flows.
• Start with a visibility phase using monitoring tools.
• Pilot segmentation in a test environment or with low-risk apps.
• Define operational ownership between security and infrastructure teams.

Conclusion

Microsegmentation in 2019 offers a practical path to Zero Trust and improved security posture. With virtualization and hybrid models becoming the norm, traditional perimeter models fall short. Microsegmentation enables organizations to defend from within and enforce meaningful, workload-centric policies that align with today’s dynamic environments.

Eduardo Wnorowski is a network infrastructure consultant and Director.
With over 24 years of experience in IT and consulting, he helps organizations maintain stable and secure environments through proactive auditing, optimization, and strategic guidance.
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