Divide AND Protect Your Network with Secure, Automated Microsegmentation

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Divide AND Protect Your Network with Secure, Automated Microsegmentation

Originally published on ZeroNetworks.com on May 07, 2025 and written in collaboration with Albert Estevez Polo.

Modern enterprise networks span data centers, clouds, branch locations, remote endpoints, and everything in between – a complex, ever-shifting web of workloads, devices, and identities. While perimeter defenses remain critical, modern threats demand a defense-in-depth strategy to swiftly contain threats and block lateral movement. This is achieved through integrated best-in-class protections across network boundaries and data center environments, augmented by granular access controls. 
  
Palo Alto Networks and Zero Networks have partnered to deliver a unified solution combining Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) with automated secure microsegmentation. Together, we strengthen each layer of the security stack to deliver true defense-in-depth, empowering organizations to block threats at the edge, eliminate lateral threat movement, and enforce Zero Trust principles across all environments.   

Modern Security Requires a Paradigm Shift: How Adding Automated Microsegmentation to NGFWs Simplifies Network Complexity  

Gaps in visibility, slow incident response, and unchecked lateral movement leave organizations exposed to ransomware and advanced threats. Achieving effective microsegmentation requires a layered approach to firewall deployment, extending beyond the traditional perimeter firewall. While perimeter NGFWs provide critical internal and external perimeter defense, combining them with inspection of lateral traffic provides secure microsegmentation that fundamentally changes this paradigm.   

By continuously discovering assets, dynamically generating policies based on real-time traffic patterns, and automatically steering critical traffic to NGFWs for deeper security inspection, secure microsegmentation delivers granular, scalable security controls that add an extra layer of inspection within NGFW perimeters. This transforms network defense to a proactive, resilient strategy – enabling organizations to rapidly isolate threats, contain breaches, and significantly reduce risk.

Achieving Defense-in-Depth with a Layered, Holistic Solution  

The integration of Palo Alto Networks ML-powered NGFWs and Zero Networks’ automated microsegmentation creates a self-defending ecosystem that adapts to modern threats. Here’s how it delivers layered, resilient security across every network dimension:  

• Automated Asset Discovery and Dynamic Policy Orchestration: Zero Networks continuously discovers and classifies devices, workloads, and identities across hybrid environments, while shared dynamic address groups sync with Palo Alto Networks NGFWs to enforce granular, least-privilege policies to inspect traffic at scale.  
• Swift, Accurate Threat Containment: This integration enables customers to scan internal east-west traffic with Palo Alto Networks NGFWs, including workloads governed by dynamic address group policies. Zero Networks microsegmentation complements this by isolating and containing breaches within seconds, preventing lateral movement and ransomware spread through automated centralized policies that dynamically adapt to evolving network changes. 
• Achieving Zero Trust Cyber Resilience: The integration enforces MFA and least privilege at the workload level, protects multi-vendor cloud/OT environments, and simplifies compliance through centralized policy management using common constructs – operationalizing Zero Trust principles across hybrid networks.  

As John Grady, Principal Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, explains:  

“Zero Networks’ automation streamlines microsegmentation, while Palo Alto Networks NGFWs delivers deep inspection. This combination reduces attack surfaces and accelerates time to value.”  

Proactive, Precise Protection: Delivering Adaptive Security for Modern Networks  

The partnership between Palo Alto Networks and Zero Networks redefines defense-in-depth for today’s sprawling, multi-layered networks. By combining Palo Alto Networks ML-powered best in class NGFWs with Zero Networks’ automated microsegmentation, organizations gain a self-adapting security posture that swiftly contains threats and blocks lateral movement—delivering rapid implementation, proactive cyber resilience, and operationalized Zero Trust without added complexity.  

The result is a resilient, self-defending architecture that reduces risk, simplifies compliance, and accelerates incident response while minimizing operational overhead. This integration sets a new standard for adaptive defense, evolving as fast as networks do to anticipate, isolate, and outmaneuver attacks.  

Explore our integration guide or watch the integration showcase to see how you can deploy comprehensive, adaptive security across your environment.

Zero Networks deploys in one hour and automatically discovers and tags applications, then synchronizes this metadata with Palo Alto Networks management console to generate and enforce dynamic address group (DAG) policies in real time.