topic Use cases for TrustSec and Secure Workload in Network Security

Use cases for TrustSec and Secure Workload

ashflshtshfum — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 18:22:04 GMT

Hi,

i tried to get a grip of cisco's semgentation solutions. i'm a bit overwhelmed by the information and don't know what to make of it. could someone please explain to me in simple words what trustsec and secure workload are and what their primary use cases are? would you recommend to implement on of those if you already have aci in the data-center and ise/nac on campus, but no sda?

thank you all!!

Re: Use cases for TrustSec and Secure Workload

balaji.bandi — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 19:58:07 GMT

There are some good Presentation which explain you where you can advantage of trustsec (Hope that help you ?)

https://www.ciscolive.com/c/dam/r/ciscolive/global-event/docs/2022/pdf/BRKSEC-1773.pdf

Re: Use cases for TrustSec and Secure Workload

jorgquin — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 07:20:28 GMT

I came to this post late, and actually by chance but I can give you some insights.
In simple terms, is all about the use-case:

TrustSec is a concept to abstract the network layer by means of using tags, which you can use to create policy. Instead of using plain IP constructs, you can leverage now meaningful attributes for your segmentation policies (e.g finance users can talk to finance app but not to hr app). The main use-case for trustsec is campus/iot/ot segmentation.

Secure Workload on the other hand, focuses on DC and multi-cloud. It expands on the same concept of abstraction, but tailored for DC (e.g ability to have up to 32 labels, plus additional integrations with external systems).
The blurry line is always the possibilities of each product. For instance, you could ask - Can I extend trustsec into the DC? The answer is yes - but you need to consider a lot of factors (e.g switches support, integrations, switches limitations, etc), whereas CSW main focus to address the challenge is by using agents that are installed on the workloads.