Elisity Commissioned Omdia Survey Reveals 90% of Organizations Falling Behind on Microsegmentation Despite Near-Universal Demand

New study of 352 healthcare and manufacturing security leaders finds 99% want microsegmentation deployed, yet only 9% have protected more than 80% of critical systems

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Omdia survey, commissioned by Elisity, finds that 99% of security leaders want microsegmentation deployed, yet over 90% have protected fewer than 80% of their critical systems. Nearly half experienced lateral movement attacks in the past year. Across 352 U.S. cybersecurity decision makers in healthcare and manufacturing, the data tells a consistent story: organizations want modern microsegmentation and aren't getting it done.

Key Survey Findings:

• 99% of organizations are implementing or planning microsegmentation, yet only 9% report that more than 80% of their critical systems are protected. Over 90% are falling behind.
• Nearly 1 in 2 security leaders experienced a lateral movement attack in the past year, even as 57% rank microsegmentation as their top initiative to stop it.
• 44% cite comprehensive device visibility as their most critical capability gap; 69% demand identity-based controls in any modern solution.
• Microsegmentation ranks toward the bottom at 24% among currently deployed Zero Trust initiatives, despite ranking first among planned priorities.
• 32% cite cyber insurance requirements as a direct business driver for pursuing microsegmentation.
• 62% say today's solutions are easier to deploy than those from five years ago. Most teams are still running on legacy methods.
• Only 22% have hands-on experience with modern microsegmentation, pointing to an awareness gap as much as an execution gap.

A Say-Do Gap Rooted in Legacy Architecture
Organizations still lean on VLANs, ACLs, and agent-based tools that require constant rework and leave east-west exposure wide open. 68% are pursuing microsegmentation as part of a Zero Trust strategy, and 60% cite regulatory compliance as a driver. First-generation tools built around network location rather than identity have slowed real progress to a crawl.

Modern, identity-based microsegmentation works differently. Policy enforces directly on existing network switches, with no agents, no hardware changes, and no VLAN reconfiguration. Organizations can contain ransomware and lateral movement across IT, IoT, OT, and IoMT environments in weeks, not years.

"Microsegmentation has matured, but many organizations still carry the scars of earlier, complex approaches. What's changed is the architecture. Identity-based microsegmentation lets teams enforce precise policy on the switches they already run, so security becomes an enabler rather than a gate."
James Winebrenner, CEO, Elisity

"Our data shows the shift is on. Enterprises intend to deploy microsegmentation, and many now see modern solutions as easier and more effective."
Hollie Hennessy, Principal Analyst, Omdia 

Vertical-Specific Findings

Healthcare organizations rank SIEM, EDR, and SOAR integration as their top challenge with previous microsegmentation efforts. Visiting clinicians (74%) and clinical staff (72%) require the most granular policy attention, given the mix of managed and unmanaged devices moving through clinical environments.

Manufacturing runs on zero-downtime requirements and legacy OT systems that make agent-based approaches a non-starter. Remote engineers top the segmentation priority list at 70%, and ICS and building management system integration ranks as the second most common challenge.

Customer Quotes

"We looked into different NAC technologies, things like that to partially solve the picture, but it really wasn't until Elisity came along that we found a product that checked all the boxes. Something easy to manage, easy to maintain. You could get in it quickly."
Nathan Phoenix, Information Security Officer, Southern Illinois Healthcare

"We assumed someone's going to get in, we assumed someone's going to get access through malware or other means, and we wanted to know that we had a way to quickly, in an automated way, stop that lateral movement so that they couldn't move across through a plant or even between plants."
Max Everett, CISO, Shaw Industries

Resources
See a preview and download the full survey analysis: http://www.elisity.com/omdia-microsegmentation-report

Download the microsegmentation survey infographic: http://www.elisity.com/infographics/elisity-omdia-microsegmentation-survey

Schedule a demo: elisity.com/demo

About the Survey
Omdia surveyed 352 U.S. cybersecurity decision makers (CISOs, security architects, and IT and network security leaders) across healthcare and manufacturing. All respondents work at organizations with 1,000 or more employees. Omdia conducted the survey in 2025, commissioned by Elisity.

About Elisity
Elisity is an identity-based microsegmentation company that helps enterprises stop lateral movement, prevent ransomware spread, and meet compliance and cyber insurance requirements across IT, OT, and IoT environments. The Elisity platform discovers every device on an organization's network, enforces least-privilege access policies through existing network infrastructure, and delivers full microsegmentation in weeks—without agents, additional hardware, or network re-architecture. Elisity is trusted by Fortune 500 healthcare systems, global manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies including GSK, Main Line Health, Shaw Industries, and St. Luke's University Health Network. Founded in 2019, Elisity is headquartered in San Jose, California. Learn more at elisity.com.

About Omdia
Omdia is a global technology research firm with more than 400 analysts covering 150 markets. Born from the research divisions of Informa TechTarget and the IHS Markit technology portfolio, Omdia publishes over 3,000 research reports annually and serves more than 14,000 subscribers. Learn more at omdia.com.

Media Contact
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SOURCE Elisity