Our clients lean on us to help them secure their IT environments - whether they’re midmarket companies or 60,000-employee enterprises, whether they have a dedicated security team or not. We help our clients assess, design, and implement technology that secures their core tech stack every single day.
Whether they live in the cloud or a data center, most companies have adopted some variant of a zero-trust approach to manage their security program. Microsegmentation can be a big part of that - effectively creating “fences” inside your environment that prevent lateral movement of the bad guys in the event of a breach or infection.
Typically, they need a security solution that can consistently monitor and enforce security policies, regardless of where the workload resides. After numerous implementations of the major platforms, we’ve got a new favorite - Cisco’s Secure Workload.
We find that Cisco Secure Workloads offers a great fit to improve overall security posture through Microsegmentation.
Some key differentiators for CSW include:
Cisco Secure Workload is a microsegmentation platform designed to protect applications and workloads in hybrid and multi-cloud environments. It provides zero-trust microsegmentation, which is a security approach that restricts access to applications and data based on the principle of "never trust, always verify.”
This means that only authorized users and devices can access specific resources, regardless of their location or network. Read on while we explore the benefits of this approach, as well as competitors in the microsegmentation space.
Comprehensive Visibility: Provides real-time monitoring of applications and workloads across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, offering a detailed view of communication patterns and potential security vulnerabilities.
Automated Micro-Segmentation: Automates the segmentation of workloads, reducing the risk of lateral movement by limiting how threats can spread, and ensuring consistent security policy enforcement at scale.
Scalability: Easily scales to accommodate growing businesses and expanding IT environments without sacrificing security performance, making it ideal for dynamic, distributed networks.
Threat Detection and Response: Offers robust threat detection capabilities through advanced analytics and insights, enabling faster identification and response to potential security incidents.
Seamless Integration: Integrates with Cisco and third-party security tools, allowing businesses to enhance their security strategy without replacing existing infrastructure, improving overall operational efficiency.
Comprehensive deployment options: While all microsegmentation tools can deploy an agent to control access to your workload, CSW provides the ability to manage a firewall or use the APIs from the hyperscaler cloud providers. With all three options, CSW provides more flexibility to deploy in a wider variety of scenarios, including cloud and legacy systems.
While Cisco Secure Workloads can be a safe choice for many organizations (let’s face it, no one gets fired for buying a Cisco product), the obvious reality is that it works best when paired with an extensive existing Cisco environment.
So what do you do if Cisco doesn’t play a major role in your network strategy?
Let’s look at some industry comparisons.
Known for its advanced network virtualization and security capabilities, VMware NSX offers robust microsegmentation and workload protection across multi-cloud environments.
Organizations might choose VMware NSX if their present and future strategy includes deep integration with the VMware ecosystem. However, if the Cisco ecosystem plays a big role as well, it would be advised to evaluate both solutions.
Illumio takes a Zero Trust or “least privileged” approach to micro-segmentation, offering detailed visibility and policy enforcement to prevent lateral movement of threats within data centers and cloud environments.
Illumio takes a different approach to the lateral threat problem by focusing on segmentation from a workload behavior perspective rather than relying solely on the underlying network topology. This can make it much easier to deploy and manage in the long run.
Organizations might choose Illumio Core over Cisco Secure Workload if they prioritize simplicity and ease of integration. However, if they require a more comprehensive security solution with a wider range of features, Cisco Secure Workload might be a better fit.
Guardicore combines AI with traditional segmentation policy to improve breach detection and traffic visualization. This allows it to perform really well in hybrid environments.
Guardicore also focuses on Zero Trust, application-centric security, and ease of deployment. They combine threat intelligence, defense, and breach detection capabilities to reduce incident response time. Their agent-based approach allows businesses to implement security controls without overhauling their network infrastructure.
To keep this brief, we wanted to highlight a few of Cisco’s top competitors in the microsegmentation space. The reality is there are a lot more choices out there to explore. For example, Lacework and Orca Security burst onto the scene as startups focused solely on the protection of hybrid workloads through agentless segmentation. The key to finding the right solution for your business is like any other decision process: Define your business use case and compare it against each vendor’s feature set.
At Hypershift, our goal is to help you define what your workload protection goals are to effectively help you steer your organizational ship in the right direction. That being said, if your network infrastructure consists mostly of Cisco devices, we recommend you evaluate Cisco Secure Workload as your starting point because of the benefits of native integration.
What is microsegmentation?
Microsegmentation is a security technique that divides a network into smaller, isolated segments to limit the spread of threats and ensure that only authorized communication occurs between applications or systems.
Is Cisco Secure Workload a good option for microsegmentation?
While there are other microsegmentation solutions available, Cisco Secure Workload's combination of features, performance, and integration capabilities make it a strong contender for organizations seeking a robust and effective microsegmentation solution. This solution is the best option for organizations already within the extensive Cisco environment.