The Digital Big Bang

8SEGMENTATION

“A well-segmented network is an invisible masterpiece of teamwork and collaboration.”

Colin Anderson, Levi Strauss & Co.

“Key benefits to segmentation are cleaner environments, better ease of management, and improved security.”

Hussein Syed, RWJBarnabas Health

Agile macro- and micro-segmentation have replaced boundary defense as the preeminent cybersecurity strategy. Such segmentation places security where it is most needed: around the assets themselves. Segmentation makes it far more difficult to compromise a specific asset and greatly limits the damage of a breach if threat actors manage to succeed.

Looking back, vast, complex, and highly interconnected networks existed long before the digital revolution. Although digital innovators often train their focus forward, there are powerful and valuable lessons to be learned from history's accounts of the rise and fall of even the most ancient systems of power, structure, and connectivity.

At the height of its preeminence, in the mid-second century, the Roman Empire spanned more than 3 million square miles, with a population of more than 60 million in a world of just 300 million people. The empire was connected by 250,000 roads—more than 50,000 of which were paved—transforming Europe with the extraordinary innovations of Rome's engineers. The Roman army covered land and sea, with a fighting force of nearly ...