The most dangerous part of a breach isn’t the break-in — it’s what comes after.Once inside, attackers don’t need brute force. They simply walk through the network, aided by over-permissioned identities and flat infrastructure that wasn’t designed to stop them.This reality is driving a quiet resurgence in a technology that once seemed too complex to scale: microsegmentation.(Editor's Note: For a transcript of the interview above please scroll to the bottom of this article)After years of false starts and high-friction implementations, microsegmentation is finding its footing in an era of zero-trust urgency, identity sprawl, and cloud-native chaos. A wave of next-generation solutions is transforming what used to be a multi-year architectural overhaul into a manageable, even automated, security layer. And the message behind this shift is clear: containment is no longer optional.The renewed focus on microsegmentation isn’t just strategic — it’s being reinforced by significant market momentum. The global microsegmentation market is expected to grow from $8.17 billion in 2025 to $41.24 billion by 2034, according to a report by Exactitude Consultancy. That fivefold increase reflects the urgent need to contain lateral movement in hybrid environments, protect machine identities, and meet stricter compliance and cyber insurance requirements.
In this edition of SC Insider Insights, SC Media’s Tom Spring speaks with Chris Boehm, field CTO for the Americas at Zero Networks, to unpack why microsegmentation is having a moment. The two discuss the company’s recent $55 million Series C funding, the increasing role of identity (human and non-human) in lateral movement attacks, and why simplicity and automation may be the keys to modern segmentation success.Tom Spring:
Microsegmentation isn’t new. But it seems like the urgency around it is growing. What’s driving that?Chris Boehm:
Compliance and cyber insurance, mostly. But when CISOs and IT leaders see what modern microsegmentation can actually do — and how easy it can be with the right tooling — it clicks. They stop asking “Why?” and start asking “How soon?”Tom Spring:
And how does Zero Networks differentiate itself? Are you host-based, network-based, cloud-native?Chris Boehm:
We’re SaaS-based. We deploy a segment server in your environment — cloud or on-prem — and learn from your local infrastructure. Windows, Linux, OT — it doesn’t matter. We generate policies automatically. Identity segmentation, MFA, microsegmentation—it’s all handled without massive configuration changes.Tom Spring:
Identity access management is a huge piece of Zero Trust. But once credentials are compromised, it can feel like segmentation doesn’t help much. What’s your take?Chris Boehm:
We microsegment identities themselves — users, service accounts, everything. Even if someone has a stolen credential, they’re blocked unless that identity has access rights. We manage credential policies tightly, and our system enforces them automatically.Tom Spring:
There’s been a stat floating around that 70% of identities are non-human — APIs, AI agents, IoT, and so on. How do you handle those in a segmented environment?Chris Boehm:
You're right—that number’s only growing. Our approach uses contextual awareness and machine learning to understand what those non-human entities are doing. And we’re agentless. No agents on endpoints. That makes deployment and management simple, which is why we’re seeing fast adoption.Tom Spring:
Let’s talk about what makes your model different from traditional segmentation — VLANs, static IPs, rule-based systems.Chris Boehm:
Legacy segmentation is static, brittle, and requires big teams to manage. We use machine learning to adapt to your environment in real time — what apps talk to what, what services run where. Our system learns that and creates policies to enforce it, automatically.Tom Spring:
So why has microsegmentation gotten a bad reputation?Chris Boehm:
Because in the past, it required a lot of manual work and didn’t adapt to change. Businesses evolve fast — new apps, new services, new users. If your segmentation can’t keep up, it breaks things. Ours learns and adjusts continuously, without requiring a dedicated team.Tom Spring:
Let’s wrap with your elevator pitch. You’re in front of a board or CIO — why should they rethink segmentation now?Chris Boehm:
Attackers will get in. Even with strong perimeters, they’ll get in. Then what? Microsegmentation prevents them from moving laterally. And it shouldn’t create friction. It should just work — seamlessly. We give you that, while helping with compliance and lowering cyber insurance premiums.Tom Spring:
Chris, thank you. Great insights on how microsegmentation is evolving. For more, visit ZeroNetworks.com. I'm Tom Spring with SC Media. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time.(Editor’s Note: A portion of this content used a large language model to distill a single source of original content, such as a transcript, data, or research report. This content was conceived, crafted and fact-checked by a staff editor, and any sourced intellectual property used is clearly credited and disclosed.)
From promise to necessity
Microsegmentation, the practice of dividing networks into granular, isolated zones, has always made sense on paper. It restricts lateral movement, limits blast radius, and enforces least-privilege access — core tenets of zero trust.But traditional implementations often fell flat. VLANs, static firewall rules, and IP-based segmentation couldn’t adapt to modern environments. “Most microsegmentation projects failed because they were too slow, too brittle, and too dependent on legacy infrastructure,” said Bryan Holmes, VP of IT at Andelyn Biosciences, who shared his company’s migration story at RSAC 2025.Andelyn initially tried a traditional NAC-based approach, but after two years of poor scalability and operational drag, pivoted to an identity-based model using Elisity. “We needed microsegmentation that didn’t break our network or disrupt critical research,” Holmes said.They aren’t alone. Comcast has spent the past six years building a homegrown microsegmentation framework to protect tens of thousands of internal tenants, rolling out zero trust controls that define not just what traffic is allowed — but who owns it, who’s asking for it, and whether the request is legitimate. “Most tenants don’t need access to most services,” said Comcast engineers Todd Outten and Jeff Stoklosa. “We built a framework that assumes that from the start.”Identity: the segmentation battleground
One reason microsegmentation is suddenly relevant again? Identity. Human users are no longer the majority on enterprise networks. Machine identities — service accounts, API tokens, automation agents, AI workloads — now make up more than 70% of networked identities, according to recent analyst research.“Identity is the new perimeter, but most networks were never designed to handle identity as a segmentation boundary,” said Chris Boehm, field CTO for the Americas at Zero Networks. His company, which just raised $55 million in Series C funding, is part of a new crop of vendors pushing for agentless, identity-first segmentation. Others include Illumio, Akamai Guardicore, ColorTokens, TrueFort, Ordr, and Elisity — each bringing different approaches to automating access policies and enforcing them in real time.These newer platforms don’t rely on VLANs or static ACLs. They use behavioral analytics, API integrations, and context-aware controls to map communication patterns across all identities — human and machine — and enforce segmentation down to the workload level.“Attackers don’t need admin credentials to move laterally,” Boehm said. “They just need a foothold. The key is limiting what they can reach next.”From compliance checkbox to cyber insurance mandate
Microsegmentation is no longer just a best practice. In many sectors, it’s becoming a compliance requirement and a cyber insurance expectation. Frameworks like NIST SP 800-207 emphasize network-level segmentation as a foundational element of zero trust architecture. Healthcare organizations are increasingly expected to segment medical devices to protect patient data and operational resilience.“Security teams that once considered segmentation a nice-to-have are now realizing it’s table stakes,” said a senior risk advisor familiar with multiple cyber insurance assessments. “If you can’t contain the attacker, you’re not insurable at the same rate.”And insurers aren’t alone. Enterprise boards are starting to ask tougher questions about internal protections — not just perimeter defense. That includes whether the company can audit access flows, identify over-permissioned assets, and segment high-value systems from general-purpose infrastructure.Automation makes the difference
Where legacy segmentation often failed was in execution. The mapping of dependencies, creation of access policies, and enforcement across hybrid environments was notoriously labor-intensive. That’s changing.At Comcast, internal automation tools now allow teams to model access policies visually and deploy changes in minutes, not weeks. More than 90% of policy changes are approved automatically, the company said during its RSAC presentation, thanks to strong identity data and a shared responsibility model between platform owners and cybersecurity teams.Similar automation is now common in commercial solutions. Illumio has added incident response integrations and risk-based segmentation triggers. Akamai Guardicore has folded microsegmentation into its broader zero trust access suite. Zero Networks offers just-in-time multifactor authentication for privileged ports and default-deny policies on internal traffic — without requiring endpoint agents.The common thread: fast time to value, low friction for IT, and policy enforcement that can keep up with dynamic environments.The road ahead: from containment to resilience
Despite recent momentum, widespread adoption remains a work in progress. Most organizations are still early in their segmentation journey, and many struggle with legacy system constraints, visibility gaps, or cultural resistance.Still, the direction of travel is clear. In a world where breaches are inevitable, segmentation is no longer about prevention. It’s about survivability.“We’re at the point where not having internal segmentation is like not having seat belts in a car,” Boehm said. “You might not crash today. But if you do, the damage will be total.”The technology has caught up. The urgency is there. For many organizations, the only thing left is execution.Interview with Chris Boehm, Field CTO, Americas, Zero Networks
In this edition of SC Insider Insights, SC Media’s Tom Spring speaks with Chris Boehm, field CTO for the Americas at Zero Networks, to unpack why microsegmentation is having a moment. The two discuss the company’s recent $55 million Series C funding, the increasing role of identity (human and non-human) in lateral movement attacks, and why simplicity and automation may be the keys to modern segmentation success.Tom Spring:
Microsegmentation isn’t new. But it seems like the urgency around it is growing. What’s driving that?Chris Boehm:
Compliance and cyber insurance, mostly. But when CISOs and IT leaders see what modern microsegmentation can actually do — and how easy it can be with the right tooling — it clicks. They stop asking “Why?” and start asking “How soon?”Tom Spring:
And how does Zero Networks differentiate itself? Are you host-based, network-based, cloud-native?Chris Boehm:
We’re SaaS-based. We deploy a segment server in your environment — cloud or on-prem — and learn from your local infrastructure. Windows, Linux, OT — it doesn’t matter. We generate policies automatically. Identity segmentation, MFA, microsegmentation—it’s all handled without massive configuration changes.Tom Spring:
Identity access management is a huge piece of Zero Trust. But once credentials are compromised, it can feel like segmentation doesn’t help much. What’s your take?Chris Boehm:
We microsegment identities themselves — users, service accounts, everything. Even if someone has a stolen credential, they’re blocked unless that identity has access rights. We manage credential policies tightly, and our system enforces them automatically.Tom Spring:
There’s been a stat floating around that 70% of identities are non-human — APIs, AI agents, IoT, and so on. How do you handle those in a segmented environment?Chris Boehm:
You're right—that number’s only growing. Our approach uses contextual awareness and machine learning to understand what those non-human entities are doing. And we’re agentless. No agents on endpoints. That makes deployment and management simple, which is why we’re seeing fast adoption.Tom Spring:
Let’s talk about what makes your model different from traditional segmentation — VLANs, static IPs, rule-based systems.Chris Boehm:
Legacy segmentation is static, brittle, and requires big teams to manage. We use machine learning to adapt to your environment in real time — what apps talk to what, what services run where. Our system learns that and creates policies to enforce it, automatically.Tom Spring:
So why has microsegmentation gotten a bad reputation?Chris Boehm:
Because in the past, it required a lot of manual work and didn’t adapt to change. Businesses evolve fast — new apps, new services, new users. If your segmentation can’t keep up, it breaks things. Ours learns and adjusts continuously, without requiring a dedicated team.Tom Spring:
Let’s wrap with your elevator pitch. You’re in front of a board or CIO — why should they rethink segmentation now?Chris Boehm:
Attackers will get in. Even with strong perimeters, they’ll get in. Then what? Microsegmentation prevents them from moving laterally. And it shouldn’t create friction. It should just work — seamlessly. We give you that, while helping with compliance and lowering cyber insurance premiums.Tom Spring:
Chris, thank you. Great insights on how microsegmentation is evolving. For more, visit ZeroNetworks.com. I'm Tom Spring with SC Media. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time.(Editor’s Note: A portion of this content used a large language model to distill a single source of original content, such as a transcript, data, or research report. This content was conceived, crafted and fact-checked by a staff editor, and any sourced intellectual property used is clearly credited and disclosed.)
