Go Beyond the Audit: Achieve Continuous Compliance with Illumio + ServiceNow

A few years ago, managing cybersecurity risk meant managing a spreadsheet: column after column of risk scenarios, labeled red, amber, or green.  

It was a game of color-coding our way to comfort. If there were too many reds, we focused there. If things turned green, we checked the box and moved on.  

That was how governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) operated. It was abstract, subjective, and completely detached from the real-time state of the environment.

Fast forward to today, and that approach no longer holds up.

Cyber risk has outpaced static methods. Cloud workloads spin up and down by the minute. Attack surfaces shift daily. Regulations demand not just intent but continuous proof.

In our recent webinar, I joined Miles Davis and Rik Burgering from DXC Technology to discuss how Illumio, DXC, and ServiceNow can help organizations move toward a modern, dynamic model of cyber resilience that prepares organizations for ongoing compliance.

Why compliance is not enough (but still necessary)

Compliance frameworks like DORA, HIPAA, and PCI DSS play an important role in setting baselines. But they're just that: baselines.  

They’re not enough to fully secure your network against today’s fast-moving, sophisticated breaches.

Most compliance efforts fall into one of two traps:

1. They’re too narrow. Teams try to minimize the scope of what’s “in compliance” and ignore the rest. This is a problem because everything is connected in today’s networks. An attacker doesn’t care what’s compliant in your network. They’ll find the unprotected test system connected to it. ‍
2. They’re too reactive. Many organizations only scramble to prove compliance at audit time, treating it as a point-in-time exercise. But modern threats don’t wait for your annual review.

Modern cyber resilience means going beyond compliance checklists. You have to integrate compliance into your operational fabric, so that policy enforcement, visibility, and evidence collection are baked into daily workflows.

That’s where a risk-based, continuously updated approach to microsegmentation comes in.

Segmentation is foundational to resilience and compliance

Cyber resilience is the ability to continue operating through an attack.

It requires limiting lateral movement, which is the primary way attackers spread inside an environment once they breach the perimeter.  

It’s no longer enough to prevent attackers from breaching your network. You have to be prepared to contain them when (not if) they get in.

Microsegmentation is how you contain the blast radius. But legacy segmentation is notoriously difficult to manage.  

Static firewall rules, IP-based access controls, and brittle zoning models were not built for dynamic hybrid environments. Traditional segmentation models break easily, are difficult to scale, and require far too much manual upkeep.

Illumio addresses this challenge by delivering policy-driven microsegmentation that is:

• Dynamic: adapts to workload changes, cloud migrations, and application evolution ‍
• Context-aware: driven by labels, metadata, and business logic, not IPs ‍
• Risk-aligned: focuses enforcement where it matters most — on high-value, high-risk assets

With Illumio, segmentation becomes continuous, automated, and enforceable at cloud scale.

Illumio + ServiceNow: turning context into control

Most organizations already have rich asset and environment data in ServiceNow via their configuration management database (CMDBs), risk modules, and workflows.

The problem is that this data often sits idle, disconnected from actual security controls.

The Illumio + ServiceNow integration changes that. Using the Illumio Service Graph Connector, you can:

• Ingest CMDB data directly into Illumio: automatically label workloads based on metadata like application, owner, environment, and compliance scope. ‍
• Map traffic flows with context: see how workloads interact across zones, clouds, and business functions, and identify what shouldn’t be talking to what. ‍
• Write policy based on labels, not IPs: segment production from development, isolate payment processing systems, or enforce least-privilege access between business units. ‍
• Create a two-way feedback loop: enrich CMDB records with real-time connectivity and security data from Illumio to improve data accuracy and governance.

During the webinar, we showed the transformation from what we call a “spaghetti map” — a chaotic tangle of undifferentiated connections — to a segmented, risk-aware visual model of your environment.

With ServiceNow data powering labels in Illumio, you can instantly organize your network traffic based on:

• Environment (production vs. development)
• Cloud provider (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Operating system (OS) type (Windows, Linux, etc.)
• Regulatory scope (e.g., HIPAA, SWIFT, PCI)
• Business function (HR, Finance, Engineering)

This allows teams to zoom in on high-risk areas, build precise policies, and prove compliance in seconds, not days.

It also means you can start small, focusing segmentation efforts on high-value systems like databases, operational technology (OT) networks, or critical workloads — and expand as needed.  

With Illumio and ServiceNow, your security posture and compliance posture are aligned and dynamically updated.

And with Illumio integrations to other context sources, such as vulnerability scanners (Tenable, Qualys), cloud security tools (Wiz), or Zero Trust network access (ZTNA) solutions (Appgate), you can enrich Illumio even further. The more context you have, the more precise your segmentation becomes.

Making cybersecurity everyone’s job

Perhaps one of the most important cultural shifts we talked about is that security can’t be siloed.

The moment we treat cybersecurity or compliance as “just the security team's job,” we lose. Infrastructure teams, app owners, compliance leads all need to share a common operating picture.

Everyone can engage in the conversation when cyber terms are put into business-friendly labels, visibility is enriched with ServiceNow context, and policies are written in natural language terms.

Security becomes part of operations instead of an afterthought. It’s part of how things are designed from day one.

Don’t wait for the next audit — or breach — to start segmentation

That red-amber-green spreadsheet from five years ago wasn’t incorrect, just incomplete.

Today, real risk management requires real-time visibility, dynamic context, and enforceable control.

Cyber resilience depends on it. The next breach won’t wait until your next audit, and it won’t announce itself politely. You need to be able to contain it fast.  

That’s where segmentation, powered by Illumio, enriched by ServiceNow, and supported by the team at DXC, gives you a decisive advantage.

Ready to move beyond manual risk tracking? Explore the Illumio + ServiceNow integration.