Comparing the Benefits of Microsegmentation vs. VLANs
Executive summary
The main cybersecurity benefit of segmenting networks is that it limits lateral movement of malicious actors and malware in the event of a security incident.
Microsegmentation and virtual local area networks (VLANs) are two key network architecture strategies, each with their own benefits and distinctions.
A VLAN is a network architecture approach that enables grouped network devices, like servers and computers, to operate as a local area network.
Microsegmentation offers organizations more robust security features — and more control over those features — than VLANs do.
You should choose the network segmentation approach that best fits your organization’s needs.
Microsegmentation and virtual local area networks (VLANs) are two key network architecture strategies that can improve security by controlling and isolating all network traffic. Both approaches focus on network segmentation — the process of dividing a network into subnetworks or smaller parts.
As you consider whether to use microsegmentation or VLANs, it’s helpful to compare the benefits, limitations, and complexities of managing each technology — this way, you can choose the approach that best fits your organization.
Microsegmentation vs. VLANs
The biggest security benefit of network segmentation is that it limits lateral movement of malicious actors and malware during security incidents.
In typical network security scenarios, threat actors who’ve gained access to one part of a network can communicate with other machines in the network and move around freely and surreptitiously to compromise their victim.
Traditional firewalls are of little help here — they’re primarily configured to manage traffic between clients and servers, or north-south traffic, rather than traffic between servers and devices, or east-west traffic.
As such, organizations have turned to software-defined segmentation to improve their network security (Figure).
Before and after segmentation (Source: Akamai)
In the past, many companies looking to segment their networks employed VLANs, a solution that seems affordable and simple to deploy. However, many modern organizations are now turning to a more granular form of software-defined segmentation: microsegmentation.
This robust security approach helps organizations:
Divide their networks into more segments, with greater control over each one
Keep pace with the explosion of network traffic, security breaches, and data breaches that threaten today’s enterprise data centers
Address the recent spike in IT network complexity due to increasing containerization, software-defined networking (SDN), and multicloud infrastructure, as well as the exponential growth of mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) devices deployed across organizations
How VLANs work
A VLAN is a network architecture approach that allows a group of network devices, like servers and computers, to operate as a local area network regardless of whether the VLAN’s devices are in the same physical location.
VLANs also let network administrators divide or partition a physical network into multiple logical network environments, circumventing certain physical limitations. Each VLAN has a distinct broadcast domain and operates as its own virtual network, and multiple VLANs may coexist on the same physical infrastructure.
The advantages of VLANs
By implementing a VLAN, your organization can:
Enhance overall security. By creating subnets with virtual boundaries that can be accessed only by routers, VLANs let you implement Layer 3 router-based security measures to restrict traffic and block some cyberattacks.
Improve network performance. VLANs reduce the amount of traffic that any given network endpoint must see and process, thereby reducing network congestion and latency. By minimizing the size of broadcast domains, VLANs also reduce the number of other hosts on a network segment, enabling each host or device to solely devote resources to relevant traffic.
Simplify network administration. VLANs allow your administrators to group devices in more strategic ways, streamlining overall network administration.
Scale networks. VLANs can help secure, optimize, and simplify administration for your organization’s networks, giving you more leeway to scale your organization’s new and existing networks with fewer errors and difficulties.
How microsegmentation works
In addition to dividing networks into smaller parts, microsegmentation helps organizations take a more nuanced, security-minded approach to network implementation and administration. With microsegmentation, you can segment entire IT environments, applications, virtual machines (VMs), and even individual workloads, all without the need to configure any underlying network equipment.
Microsegmentation security rules can be dynamic; i.e, adapt to changing application requirements and network conditions. Your organization’s network security policies determine the way your applications and workloads communicate, and microsegmentation can serve as critical Layer 7 protection that limits the type of traffic that can move across your network.
This level of granular control can be particularly effective at blocking malicious lateral movement of cyberattackers and malware to prevent threat actors who have accessed data in one part of your network from accessing data elsewhere.
The security benefits of microsegmentation
By choosing microsegmentation as your network segmentation approach, you get greater control over your organization’s network. Benefits include:
Reduced attack surfaces. By creating smaller, more controlled segments and implementing strong access control for workloads and individual processes, microsegmentation greatly reduces your overall attack surface.
Precise, application-aware security policies. Since policies can be applied at the individual workload level, microsegmentation allows for more tailored security measures specific to each workload or application’s requirements, as well as the needs of the business — a significant advantage over VLANs.
Enhanced organizational compliance. Microsegmentation techniques let you isolate and secure sensitive data, as well as enforce specific security controls, which helps your organization better comply with a variety of regulatory frameworks like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) or the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
Improved threat detection. Leading microsegmentation security solutions let your teams easily monitor traffic and activity at the most granular level, providing greater visibility into potentially suspicious and unwanted network activities.
Greater flexibility. As your network grows, leading microsegmentation solutions enable your administrators to deploy and automate dynamic security policy enforcement to meet your evolving needs.
Support for Zero Trust security. Microsegmentation is essential to the Zero Trust security model, in which users, devices, and applications must be authenticated and validated for every resource access request.
Microsegmentation vs. VLANs: Which is the right solution?
Although both microsegmentation and VLANs can improve network security, they differ in some key areas:
Granularity. VLANs improve network organization and reduce the size of network segments, but don’t offer nuanced policy control for your network traffic. Microsegmentation excels here, enabling you to create isolated security perimeters for every individual workload or application, which significantly reduces the overall attack surface.
Ease of use. While VLANs can be used for segmentation, managing VLAN configuration in growing networks is cumbersome and costly, preventing organizations from simply and securely scaling their networks. Leading microsegmentation solutions allow for more adaptable security configurations, making it easier to securely scale.
Flexibility. VLANs are inherently limited and cannot be extended to the cloud, containers, and other emerging technologies. Microsegmentation can easily be used to improve security in these areas.
Visibility. VLANs can’t provide full, real-time visibility into application dependencies and other east-west traffic — but leading microsegmentation solutions can.
Auditability. Complying with audit requests and demonstrating compliance with regulatory environments is difficult and time-consuming with VLANs. Leading microsegmentation solutions can significantly reduce the time, cost, and complexity of complying with audit requests.
Though microsegmentation offers clear benefits over VLANs, choosing the right technology isn’t always an either/or situation. Sometimes, a holistic, multilayered approach to network security means employing a combination of these technologies.
But, at the end of the day, only one approach offers the flexibility your organization needs to overcome evolving security threats — and that’s microsegmentation.
Learn more
Now that you understand the differences between VLANs and microsegmentation — and why microsegmentation is key to securing your organization — learn more about Akamai Guardicore Segmentation, our industry-leading solution for microsegmentation and application segmentation.
Then, discover how Akamai Enterprise Application Access can help your organization align with the latest Zero Trust Network Access policies by offering greater permissions and authentication control for your applications — all to help improve your security posture at scale.
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