The State of IT Microsegmentation in Europe 2026

Paris, 13 October 2026 – A new study conducted by Censuswide for secure virtualisation specialist Kerys Software assesses the strategies that companies have put in place to integrate micro-segmentation inresponse to their security and compliance challenges. This approach, which involves partitioning an information system into isolated environments, has become established as a safeguard for data protection and infrastructure resilience. However, while a majority (86%) of European companies appear to have adopted it, motivations vary considerably from one country to another.

As a result, while some are driven primarily by regulatory requirements, others are motivated by internal or operational considerations, or by technological sovereignty. Sovereignty, however, appears to feature more in words than indeeds: 81% of the companies surveyed rely on non-European solutions, the vast majority by choice.

A mature European market, but fragmented implementation

Cybersecurity, compliance and sovereignty requirements are pushing European companies to rethink their IT architecture. While micro-segmentation is widely adopted,practice shows varied implementations: virtualisation (53%), VPN (52.5%) and dedicated physical workstations (50%) are the most commonly used methods.The Netherlands shows greater technological maturity, with strong adoption of virtualisation; France favours VPNs, and Germany dedicated physical workstations.

The reasons for such a fragmented approach do not seem to stem from a lack of cross-cutting solutions on the market, but rather from what companies believe they can deploy easily and affordably over the long term. In Germany, 62% of respondents cite, for example, IT administration complexity as the main obstacle to adopting new solutions – a statistic which, combined with the prioritisation of physical workstations, points to a certain lack of awareness of developments in the segmentation market.

Regulatory compliance: a driver in Germany, secondary in France

Segmentation strategies in Germany are strongly influenced by regulatory requirements,notably the GDPR (58%) and national regulations (43.5%). France, for its part, is the only country where internal strategic decisions come ahead of the GDPR as the main driver of segmentation (51% versus 43%). This data reflects a view of segmentation as one risk-management lever among others rather than a compliance tool.

Sovereignty: central in words, but not in deeds?

Respondents’ security priorities for the next twelve months are consistent: IT micro-segmentation (47%), technological sovereignty (46.5%) and workstation security (46%) rank highest regardless of country. However, while the United Kingdom, for example, places a high priority on micro-segmentation, France focuses more on other issues – chiefly workstation security (48%) and technological sovereignty (46%).

While sovereignty is therefore presented as a priority, 81% of the companies surveyed say they rely on non-European solutions to meet their security and compliance challenges.This dependence is particularly marked in Germany (88%) and in the Netherlands (86%). More than one in two French respondents (54%) say thatusing non-European solutions is a choice, and only 22% cite a lack of identified alternatives.

This contradiction between the perception of sovereignty as crucial and its translation into action is strikingly apparent in purchasing decisions: 51% of decision-makers surveyed believe that the European origin of a suitable alternative would have no influence on their decision (54% in France),while only 26.5% would consider it a decisive factor. Operational criteria such as ease of deployment, cost or ease of integration may help relegate sovereignty to the background.

“Our study shows a European market in transition towards a more mature approach to segmenting information systems, in order to protect sensitive data and strengthen business resilience,” says Thomas Girard, CEO and founder of Kerys Software. “While the relevance of micro-segmentation is well established,the adoption of modern solutions is still slow. Companies are not yet aware that more effective, easier-to-use and sovereign alternatives exist to move beyond traditional methods.”

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‍Methodology

The study was conducted by Censuswide for Kerys Software in August 2026 among a sample of 400 senior managers and executives (middle management and above), aged 21 and over, in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Germany(100 respondents per country). Respondents work in IT, cybersecurity,infrastructure, compliance or data protection roles at companies with 250 or more employees, with at least one year of tenure in their current position. The sectors represented include engineering, IT, finance, construction, defence,energy, healthcare, manufacturing, transport & travel, and the public sector.

About KERYS Software 

Kerys Software is the editor of YS::Desktop, a secure virtualisation solution that makes it possible to run several isolated environments on a single workstation. Based on a type-1hypervisor, it helps organisations strengthen the segmentation of their information systems and simplify the management of their IT estate by reducing the number of workstations to deploy and administer. This approach combines cost control, operational efficiency and compliance with French and European cybersecurity requirements (SecNumCloud, NIS2, etc.)

Kerys Software is a member of French Tech Paris-Saclay and of the FrenchTech 2030 cohort, and is incubated at IncubAlliance, the public incubator on the Saclay plateau. For more information, visit www.kerys.software.

Press contact: Red Lorry Yellow Lorry for KERYS Software – kerys@rlyl.com

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