10 Reasons to Choose Illumio for Segmentation

Breaches happen. And traditional security tools can’t stop the damage once hackers get into your network.

That’s why more organizations are building Zero Trust security and turning to microsegmentation as a key part of their strategy.

Segmentation helps stop attacks like ransomware from spreading. It works by showing how systems and apps talk to each other, blocking anything that isn’t needed, and stopping attackers from moving around — even during an active breach.

Here are 10 reasons why Illumio makes segmentation smarter and stronger.

1. Predictability  

Illumio’s architecture is built for stability. Our lightweight VEN doesn’t sit inline with traffic. Instead, it programs the native OS firewall on each workload. That means there's no risk of disrupting application traffic if something goes wrong.

Other vendors take a riskier approach with inline agents that actively handle firewall functions. If those agents fail, apps can break or, worse, run without any security at all.

Illumio doesn't have these issues. Even if the VEN goes offline, your last known policies stay enforced at the OS level, so protection never disappears.

We bring that same predictability to endpoints, too. Illumio works whether devices are on or off the corporate network — unlike some vendors that only protect systems on-premises.  

That’s a problem if you’re trying to secure remote Mac and Windows laptops or workstations. With Illumio, you're always covered.

2. End-to-end visibility  

You can’t protect what you can’t see. Our real-time application dependency mapping provides visibility across your entire attack surface, improving your security posture and ability to prevent and respond to attacks.  

Illumio gives you full visibility into how applications and workloads connect across your environment, including the hybrid, multi-cloud, on-premises data centers, virtual machines, and endpoints. Illumio covers it all: Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, Kubernetes, OpenShift, VMware, AWS, Azure, IBM, Oracle, and beyond.

You can enforce Illumio Segmentation policies anywhere: in the data center, across cloud platforms, at home offices, and even in IoT environments. Thanks to integrations with Cylera and Armis, that includes connected devices like medical tech and industrial hardware.

Other tools stop short. Illumio sees the full picture and gives you the control to contain threats wherever they appear.

3. Simplicity instead of complexity  

Faster time-to-value  

Other segmentation tools can slow you down with complicated setup and long inventory processes. This costs your team time and trust.

With Illumio, you'll be up and running fast — designing rules, automating policies, and gaining visibility in just minutes or hours.

Our lightweight architecture and easy-to-deploy VENs mean there’s no heavy lift. And with Illumio’s Policy Compute Engine (PCE), you can automatically build microsegmentation policies based on real network traffic for every workload and application no matter where your workloads live.

This means less waiting and more protecting.

Flexible, multidimensional labeling  

Illumio lets you tag workloads any way you need: by location, app, environment, OS, business unit, and more.

Our flexible, multidimensional labeling makes it easy to build precise, dynamic security policies that reflect how your business works.

Quick, easy set up for groups and tags  

Other segmentation tools make grouping and tagging a headache — slow, manual, and full of trial and error.

Illumio takes the pain out of the process by integrating with next-gen firewalls (NGFWs) like Palo Alto Networks. We also integrate with IT service management tools such as ServiceNow's Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to import tags automatically and give your workloads richer context.

No more broad, messy groupings just to get things done. Illumio makes it easy to build precise, policy-ready groups from the start, so you can segment smarter, not harder.

4. No time-consuming, error-prone rules ordering  

Many segmentation platforms support multiple rule types: allow, block, override, and reject. And that means rule order is critical.

For example, you might want to allow most traffic from an endpoint into the data center but reject certain traffic from specific applications or during certain times. If the rules aren’t in the right order, the wrong traffic could be blocked — or worse, allowed.

That might seem manageable with one or two policies. But when you're dealing with hundreds or thousands of workloads, managing rule order becomes a nightmare. It gets slow, complex, and error prone.

In contrast, Illumio enables a simple, straightforward segmentation rules model. Our model is simple: by default, all traffic is blocked. Only explicitly allowed traffic is permitted.  

There’s no ambiguity about which rules apply and no risk of traffic slipping through because of misordered rules.

And because Illumio makes it easy to model policies before enforcing them, security teams can confidently define what should be allowed. They can also know everything else is automatically blocked in line with Zero Trust best practices.

The result is clear, consistent enforcement that dramatically reduces the chance of human error and helps stop attacks from spreading across your network.

5. Contain ransomware  

When ransomware hits, every second counts. Illumio’s Enforcement Boundaries let you instantly isolate compromised workloads or endpoints to stop lateral movement before it spreads.

You can activate Enforcement Boundaries through scripts or manual controls, giving security teams fast, flexible response options during an attack.

Illumio also makes it easy to block high-risk protocols like remote desktop protocol (RDP) and server message block (SMB) — the go-to paths for most ransomware — cutting off common entry points and attack vectors.

The result is faster breach containment, less damage from an attack, and greater control over workloads.

6. Real-time visibility maps and AI-powered observability

Illumio offers you live, interactive visualization maps that show exactly how your applications and workloads communicate.  

These maps use real-time telemetry to help you:

• Spot risky behavior
• Understand critical pathways
• Build segmentation policies
• Safely test rules before enforcement

With powerful application dependency maps, security teams, app owners, and business leaders can all see traffic patterns in real time. This helps them work together to define policies that allow only the traffic that matters for business-critical operations.

Illumio also provides risk visibility by combining data from leading vulnerability management solutions with application dependency maps. That means you can identify lateral movement paths, prioritize patching for exposed assets, and block attack routes before they’re used.

But Illumio goes further than visibility by delivering observability with Illumio Insights, the world’s first cloud detection and response (CDR) solution powered by an AI security graph.  

It helps you understand not just what traffic exists, but what it means. Is it normal? Is it risky? What should you do about it?

See everything in your environment, prioritize critical issues, and contain attacks with one click. This gives you a complete, real-time picture of your environment with the clarity and confidence to act where it matters most.

7. Easily build, model, and test  

Illumio makes it simple to create and refine segmentation policies. No guessing needed.

Illumio's Policy Generator analyzes real-time traffic and suggests policies based on how your applications communicate. Combined with application dependency maps, your team can understand and secure traffic that's needed for business and block everything that’s not.

You can model policies before enforcement, seeing exactly what Illumio would block in real time. This makes it faster and safer to fine-tune your policies.

Illumio also supports natural language policy definitions, so security and business teams can design rules while others handle implementation. This separation of duties prevents accidental overwrites and ensures better compliance and collaboration. And if needed, teams can easily roll back policy changes to the previous version.  

With Illumio, you get fast, accurate, disruption-free enforcement — and your business leaders get peace of mind knowing critical traffic will keep flowing.

8. Integrations  

Illumio integrates with the tools you already use, including:

• Ansible
• Appgate  
• ArcSight  
• AWS  
• Chef  
• Docker  
• Hashicorp  
• IBM  
• Kubernetes  
• Microsoft Azure  
• Okta  
• Puppet
• Qualys  
• RedHat  
• ServiceNow
• Splunk  
• VMware vSphere

These integrations make it easy to import tags, boost visibility, and act automatically when there’s a threat through your SIEM, SOAR, or automated workflows.

That means less work for your team — and stronger, faster security.

9. Expertise  

At Illumio, segmentation isn’t just a feature. It’s our focus.

We’ve helped companies all over the world build microsegmentation quickly and easily, no matter their size or industry.

Our platform is built to make this process simple, fast, and reliable. And we’re here to support you every step of the way.

Don’t just take our word for it — Forrester named Illumio a Leader in microsegmentation.

10. Scalability  

Illumio is built to grow with you. It’s already protecting over 700,000 workloads across cloud, data centers, endpoints , and hybrid environments.

We power some of the largest microsegmentation installations in the world, stopping ransomware and breaches from spreading — no matter how big or complex their networks are.

Contact us to find out how Illumio can help strengthen your organization's defenses against cybersecurity threats.