Little Known Features of Illumio ASP – Color Vision Deficiency Filter

In this quick series, the Illumio product management team will highlight the lesser known (but no less powerful) features of Illumio ASP.

Illumio ASP (now known as Illumio Core) provides a real-time application dependency map called Illumination that visualizes communications between workloads and applications. Lines on the map represent detected traffic flows between workloads. Illumio colors the lines red and green to indicate if the connection is allowed or blocked by micro-segmentation policy. A green line means a policy has been written to allow the connection. A red line means no policy exists and the connection will be blocked when moving into enforcement mode.

Red and green lines make it incredibly easy to visualize your segmentation policy and policy violations. However, red and green lines are problematic for people who suffer from color deficiency or color blindness. About 8 percent of men and 0.5 per cent of women have some form of red-green color deficiency.

Below is a common test to diagnose color deficiency. With a properly configured computer displays, people with normal vision should see the number "74". Many people who are color blind see it as "21", and those with total color blindness may not see any numbers at all.

To address this accessibility problem, Illumio ASP provides users with a Color Vision Deficiency option. When this option is enabled, green (allowed) traffic displays as blue in Illumination and the App Group Map.

Wondering how often this comes up? In a recent meeting with a prospective customer, I encountered an individual who could not distinguish the red and green lines on our vulnerability map. When I switched on the Color Vision Deficiency option in the UI, they were both incredibly surprised (because many startups do not address accessibility) and incredibly happy that we had built this feature into the product.

If you have any questions about our Color Vision Deficiency feature, contact us today.