Edgewise Networks

Edgewise Networks provides software-based microsegmentation and zero trust security for protecting application-to-application communication in enterprise and cloud environments.

• Microsegmentation platform for securing east-west traffic in data centers and cloud (network security)
• Zero trust application communication controls based on software identity rather than IP addresses (zero trust security)
• Policy automation using Machine Learning (ML) to model and enforce permitted application paths (security analytics)
• Visibility into workload communication patterns across hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures (observability)
• Integration with existing network and security stacks for host-based enforcement without network redesign (infrastructure security)

More About Edgewise Networks

Edgewise Networks focuses on securing lateral communication between applications and services inside enterprise data centers and public cloud environments by applying zero trust principles at the workload level.

The company’s core offering is a microsegmentation platform (network security) that enforces communication policies based on software identity, such as process, cryptographic attributes, and verified workload characteristics, instead of traditional network constructs like IP addresses and ports.

This identity-based approach allows policies to follow workloads across on-premises (on-prem), virtualized, and cloud infrastructures, which supports environments where IP addressing, network paths, and underlying infrastructure change frequently.

Edgewise Networks commonly positions its technology within the broader categories of zero trust security, workload protection, and east-west traffic control in modern architectures, including virtualized data centers, container platforms, and multi-cloud deployments.

The platform uses ML and analytics (security analytics) to observe existing communication flows, build an allowlist model of legitimate application-to-application dependencies, and generate recommended policies that restrict communication to only what is required.

These capabilities are intended to reduce attack surface for lateral movement by limiting which workloads can talk to each other, even when attackers bypass perimeter defenses.

From an architectural perspective, Edgewise Networks typically deploys as host-based enforcement software that resides on servers or workloads, intercepting and validating connections according to centrally defined policies; management and analytics are delivered through a central controller or management console that processes telemetry and policy data.

The platform aligns with zero trust networking concepts by treating every connection as untrusted by default and requiring authenticated identity-based authorization before allowing communication, which differs from traditional network segmentation based on VLANs, firewalls, or Software Defined Networking (SDN) security groups.

For enterprise stakeholders, Edgewise Networks is generally evaluated alongside other microsegmentation and zero trust workload protection solutions, with directory placement under categories such as network security, zero trust security, workload and application security, and cloud security controls.

Typical use cases include protecting critical applications in data centers, securing hybrid cloud migrations, enforcing least-privilege communication between services, and complementing perimeter firewalls and intrusion detection systems with granular east-west controls.