What does 'north/south' traffic refer to in Illumio's context?

In the context of Illumio, 'north/south' traffic specifically refers to the flow of data entering or leaving a data center. This terminology helps categorize the types of network traffic based on its direction in relation to the data center boundary.

When discussing north/south traffic, one is typically referring to the interactions between internal data center resources and external entities, which may include user requests from outside the data center or data exchange with public-facing services. This distinction is important for understanding how to secure those ingress and egress points, as they are often targeted by threats and require specific security measures to protect sensitive data and maintain system integrity.

In contrast, traffic between workloads generally refers to 'east/west' traffic, which is more focused on communications occurring within the data center itself. Internal data center communication can encompass both east/west and some aspects of north/south traffic but lacks the ability to specify the critical boundary that defines outside interactions. Communication with external users also touches on elements of external data interactions; however, it lacks the specificity of the term 'north/south,' which has a defined meaning related to the overall flow of data into and out of the data center.