Leverage Micro Segmentation To Build A Zero Trust Network

In an increasingly connected world, data is and will continue to be a vital component of any business. Whether it is customer data, proprietary business data, or otherwise, data is a valuable resource and therefore must be secured and protected. However, certain types of data are more valuable than others, and hackers know that and will stop at nothing to obtain that sensitive data. Cyberthreats today are more persistent and sophisticated than ever before, and protecting against these threats requires companies to evaluate their current security strategy to ensure they are capable of defending against them. While most companies will claim that they are capable of protecting their data effectively, the truth is that their security can always use improvement. New security approaches must consider the varying levels of sensitivity of data types and be able to protect them accordingly.

In April 2015, VMware commissioned Forrester Consulting to explore the hypothesis that businesses that are looking for improved agility, security, and compliance in a more virtualized world need to pursue a Zero Trust (ZT) security model — where there is no longer a trusted and untrusted network, but rather all networks are untrusted and need to be secure — with network virtualization and microsegmentation as important pieces for enabling this model.

To test this hypothesis, Forrester conducted an online survey of 210 security and IT professionals involved with virtualization and networking from enterprise organizations in the US, the UK, Germany, France, China, and Japan. Through this research, Forrester found that although many organizations are better segmenting and securing parts of their network, they still face challenges with their overall security strategy and could benefit from a strategy aligned with the Zero Trust model.