Microsegmentation vs Flat VLANs – TCO

PoCLAB Cost Studio

Microsegmentation vs Flat VLANs TCO

Inputs & Assumptions

Microsegmentation / zero-trust vs flat VLANs

Compare a flat VLAN + perimeter firewall model against microsegmentation / zero-trust across your internal workloads, including software, infrastructure and operations. This focuses on hard TCO, not the full risk model.

Scenario A: Flat VLANs + perimeter NGFW

Scenario B: Microsegmentation on workloads

Modeled per workload / segment, no sites

Workloads / segments e.g. 1,000 workloads

Time horizon (years) 3–7 typical

Flat VLAN + Perimeter Firewall Model

Perimeter FW & network security / year ($) hardware refresh, support, IDS/IPS, etc.

Flat network ops FTE ACLs, VLANs, firewall policies

Microsegmentation / Zero-Trust Model

Microseg / workload / month ($) agent + platform

Microseg infra & platform / year ($) controllers, collectors, infra

Microseg ops FTE policy design + operations

Ops Cost (Shared)

Ops cost / FTE / year ($) fully loaded engineer

5-Year TCO Comparison

Flat VLANs Perimeter-only

$0 / workload / month

Microseg / zero-trust Workload-level

$0 / workload / month

Relative 5-Year TCO –

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Microsegmentation is neutral vs. flat VLANs in this model.

Adjust FTE, infra and license assumptions to explore upside.

This calculator focuses on hard TCO (licenses, infra, ops). It does not model breach probability or blast radius reduction. Use it to support the business case, then layer in qualitative risk benefits.