Why Network Segmentation Projects Fail
Abstract
Network segmentation is a foundational enterprise security control. Despite its recognized benefits, segmentation initiatives frequently fail in practice, and the field lacks a systematic empirical explanation for why these projects do not achieve their intended outcomes. This paper presents an empirical study of failed segmentation projects based on a survey of 400 U.S.-based\ network security practitioners. The survey was grounded in a two-part failure framework that separately measures general IT project failure factors and segmentation-specific technical and operational barriers. Clustering analysis of the responses reveals four distinct failure archetypes. Surprisingly, practitioners across all four archetypes propose general IT project management fixes over segmentation-specific fixes in the same ratio.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.08632,
title = {Why Network Segmentation Projects Fail},
author = {Rohit Dube},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.08632},
year = {2026}
}