Illumio vs Asimily:
2026 Comparison

Introduction

Segmentation is a stated priority that many programs have not finished. In Cisco’s 2026 Segmentation Report, 79% of respondents called segmentation a priority and only 33% had fully implemented it (<a href=”https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/security/hypershield/segmentation-report-2026.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Cisco</a>). Illumio and Asimily approach the gap from different assets. Illumio starts from workloads that run its agent, and for devices that cannot, it brings in data from partners such as Armis and Claroty, ingests firewall flow logs, and offers a gateway-hosted agent. Asimily starts from its own inventory of every connected asset, ties risk to exploitability, and enforces through the NACs and firewalls already in place.

Illumio at a Glance

• Product: a workload-first microsegmentation platform that enforces through host agents
• Verifiable strength: host-agent segmentation across data centers, cloud, containers, and endpoints, with ACL generation for Cisco Nexus and Arista switches
• Dated fact: VEN on IoT Gateway documented August 29, 2026, extending policy to IoT devices behind supported gateways (Illumio Administration Guide 26.x, New and Enhanced in Segmentation)

1. Inventory and Visibility

Asimily provides a complete, agentless, and non-disruptive inventory across an entire cybersecurity tech stack, functioning as a single source of truth for assets, services, apps, workloads, and middleware. It combines deep packet inspection, AI and ML classification against a library of well over 10,000,000 observed devices and profiles, active querying, flow data, and correlation with over 150 different sources, such as Active Directory, CMDB, NAC, DHCP, vulnerability scanners, Mobile Device Management, EDR, and Threat Intelligence. Active methods suit only devices that tolerate the traffic, so Asimily pairs them with passive collection. Users can expect nearly 100% of their connected assets, such as IoT, OT, IoMT, and IT devices, workloads, services, applications, middleware, and AI chatbots, to be identified with 98% or higher accuracy. Illumio analyzes workload traffic and network flows, including NetFlow, sFlow, and flow logs from FortiGate and Palo Alto Networks firewalls. For devices that cannot run its agent, Illumio relies on other data sources: its integration release notes describe bringing in device data and OT and IoMT flow data from partners, and its August 2026 documentation adds a gateway-hosted agent (“VEN-on-IoT-Gateway“) that classifies IoT device types.

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Illumio column: public Illumio documentation as of November 2026.

2. Exposure Management

An excellent and detailed asset inventory feeds exposure analysis, and both platforms strive to deliver that. Illumio’s Vulnerability Map overlays scanner data on its dependency map, scores exposure by how many workloads can reach a vulnerable port, and recommends segmentation policy that lowers the score. Asimily ranks vulnerabilities by impact and likelihood to get from theoretical risk to true risk for an actual asset with its own configuration and network neighborhood in context. This, aided by Asimily Labs’ ATT&CK Analysis tests whether each vulnerability is in fact exploitable on a specific device in the here and now, so teams work from a shorter list of the riskiest devices. Asimily also recommends mitigations when no vendor patch exists, its risk analysis draws on manufacturer security disclosures and software bills of materials (SBOMs), and Risk Simulator models how a fix or a segmentation change would alter a device’s risk score before anyone acts. Illumio’s public documentation describes segmentation policy as its remediation. Asimily also offers options beyond segmentation, such as patching or configuration changes, which can be quicker for some devices.

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Illumio column: public Illumio documentation as of November 2026.

3. Threat and Response

Both platforms detect anomalous behavior and can contain it. Illumio’s Insights Agent flags anomalies, maps suspicious behavior to MITRE ATT&CK framework, and can quarantine a workload or flow. Asimily’s anomaly policies alert or quarantine devices through NACs and supported firewalls when a policy is violated. Users can set specific rules as needed, and custom rules need no coding. For incident response, Asimily can record packets from any monitored device, on demand or when a policy is violated, so responders start with the traffic itself and not only an alert. Illumio’s Insights Agent works from flow data, and Illumio’s public documentation does not describe packet capture.

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Illumio column: public Illumio documentation as of November 2026.

4. Risk Mitigation

Illumio enforces mainly through a host agent that programs each workload’s native firewall, and through network enforcement where an agent can’t run. Its Network Enforcement Node generates switch ACLs, and for Check Point customers, its Check Point integration writes firewall rules. Its FortiGate and Palo Alto Networks integrations ingest firewall logs for visibility, and its integration release notes list no NAC integration. Illumio’s policy guide states that unmanaged workloads, including those managed through Network Enforcement Nodes, cannot use selective enforcement. Asimily’s Segmentation Orchestration creates conflict-free policies from observed device behavior, simulates them against live traffic with Policy Simulation, and lets administrators review and adjust each step in an Enforcement Plan before commit, rather than asking users to hope that it all works out. Asimily then applies policy through existing NACs and firewalls, so enforcement lands on existing switch infrastructure via the commands pushed down from the NAC or firewall. Continuous Segmentation applies policy to new devices that match, to get the most out of customers’ existing NAC and firewall investment. Asimily also provides IoT Patching and password management for supported IoT device types.

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Illumio column: public Illumio documentation as of November 2026.

5. Governance, Risk, and Compliance

Asimily’s Configuration Control captures configuration snapshots of IoT, OT, and IoMT devices to establish a known good state, detects configuration drift, and gives teams a reference for recovery after an accidental or malicious change. Public Illumio documentation does not describe device configuration snapshots. Ask each vendor how audit records and policy change history reach auditors.

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Illumio column: public Illumio documentation as of November 2026.

6. Sample Integrations

Both platforms integrate across the security stack. Illumio’s integration documentation lists Check Point, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, ServiceNow, Splunk, Armis, and Claroty, among others. Asimily correlates network, identity, vulnerability, endpoint, and service management data into one record per device, so ATT&CK Analysis of vulnerabilities works best with the fullest context, and applies policy through supported NACs and firewalls. Key integration categories and sample products include:

• AI & LLM Providers: Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, others
• Network Traffic Sources: NetFlow, SNMP, sFlow
• Identity & Access Management (IAM): Active Directory/LDAP, Azure SSO, Okta
• DHCP & DNS: Infoblox, BlueCat, EfficientIP
• Network Access Control (NAC): Cisco ISE, Aruba ClearPass, Forescout
• Firewalls & Network Infrastructure: FortiGate, Arista Agni, Juniper
• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): CrowdStrike, SentinelOne
• CMMS / ITSM: ServiceNow Service Graph, EQ2

Not a complete list; integrations are added regularly.

7. Deployment Considerations

Asimily collects data from network traffic and integrations through the Asimily Edge collector software, which runs on a dedicated appliance, on a virtual machine, or as an app on supported Cisco switches that support application hosting, and it does not install software on monitored devices. Asimily offers cloud and on-premises deployment, including for air-gapped and internet-restricted networks. Illumio’s policy engine is delivered as SaaS or on premises, and a host agent enforces on each managed workload; devices that cannot host an agent are modeled as unmanaged workloads, handled through a Network Enforcement Node or a gateway-hosted agent.

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When Illumio Fits Better

Illumio is the closer fit when the main goal is segmenting servers, virtual machines, containers, and cloud workloads: general-purpose systems that can run an agent, rather than specialized IoT, OT, or IoMT devices. Illumio’s August 2026 announcement says Forrester named it a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Microsegmentation Solutions, Q3 2026, a vendor-reported result that credits its range of supported workloads. Illumio also generates ACLs for Cisco Nexus and Arista switches, a switch-level path Asimily does not provide because Asimily enforces through existing NACs and firewalls. For IoT devices behind AWS IoT Greengrass or Azure IoT Edge gateways, Illumio’s gateway guide describes label-based policy through a gateway-hosted agent. Many teams could run both: agent-based segmentation for workloads from Illumio, and agentless inventory, exposure analysis, and segmentation for devices from Asimily.

Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications.

The Bottom Line

Illumio: Illumio is a workload-first microsegmentation platform and an excellent host-based option. It enforces label-based policy through host agents across data centers, cloud, containers, and endpoints, generates ACLs for Cisco Nexus and Arista switches, and extends policy to IoT devices through a gateway-hosted agent, drawing IoT and OT device data from partners such as Armis and Claroty. It suits teams whose main task is segmenting workloads that can run an agent.

Asimily: Asimily treats microsegmentation as one of many features for asset security. It builds the inventory first, covering IoT, OT, IoMT, and IT devices plus software, services, applications, and middleware, then analyzes exploitability on each device with ATT&CK Analysis, then creates, simulates, and continuously maintains segmentation policy that existing NACs and firewalls enforce. This can result in more intelligent segmentation that understands risk. Apart from discovery and network segmentation, Asimily adds IoT Patching, password management, and Configuration Control.

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