Case Study: Dutch Municipality achieves Zero Trust segmentation and multimillion-euro savings with Illumio

Dutch Municipality Bolsters Defense-in-Depth With Illumio

This major Dutch municipality, responsible for protecting sensitive resident data and critical municipal services, faced a dangerous “flat” network that would allow unfettered lateral movement if an attacker gained access. A security audit showed segmentation was essential, but a firewall-based plan would have taken 4–5 years, required 12 new hires, and cost millions of euros — so the city sought a more effective, less costly approach.

The city deployed Illumio Core and used the Illumination map to gain unprecedented visibility into ~2,000+ workloads and application flows, collaborating with app owners to design policies. Using Illumio’s label-driven, Zero Trust (default-deny) segmentation and policy automation — first in visibility mode, then enforced — they implemented micro-segmentation in a fraction of the time, avoided tens of millions in firewall spend and extra headcount, and dramatically reduced lateral-movement risk while preserving application availability.