---
description: |-
  Consul is a highly available and distributed service discovery and KV
  store designed with support for the modern data center to make distributed
  systems and configuration easy.
---

<div class='consul-connect'>

  <section class='g-hero'>
    <span>New Feature</span>
    <h1>Service segmentation made easy</h1>
    <p>Secure service-to-service communication with automatic TLS encryption and identity-based authorization</p>
    <div>
      <a href="#" class="g-btn download">
        <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="22" viewBox="0 0 20 22">
          <path d="M9.292 15.706a1 1 0 0 0 1.416 0l3.999-3.999a1 1 0 1 0-1.414-1.414L11 12.586V1a1 1 0 1 0-2 0v11.586l-2.293-2.293a1 1 0 1 0-1.414 1.414l3.999 3.999zM20 16v3c0 1.654-1.346 3-3 3H3c-1.654 0-3-1.346-3-3v-3a1 1 0 1 1 2 0v3c0 .551.448 1 1 1h14c.552 0 1-.449 1-1v-3a1 1 0 1 1 2 0z"/>
        </svg>
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      </a>
      <a href="#" class="g-btn dark-outline">Explore Docs</a>
    </div>
  </section>

  <section class='g-section'>
    <div class='g-container'>
      <div class='g-timeline no-intro'>
        <div>
          <span class='line'></span>
          <span class='line'>
            <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="11" height="15" viewBox="0 0 11 15">
                <path fill="#CA2171" d="M0 0v15l5.499-3.751L11 7.5 5.499 3.749.002 0z"/>
            </svg>
          </span>
          <span class='dot'></span>
          <h3>The Challenge</h3>
          <span class='sub-heading'>Securing service-to-service communication with firewalls doesn’t scale in dynamic settings.</span>
          <div id='segmentation-challenge-animation' class='g-animation-block'>
            <%= inline_svg 'consul-connect/svgs/segmentation-challenge.svg' %>
          </div>
          <p>East-west firewalls use IP-based rules to secure ingress and
            egress traffic. But in a dynamic world where services move across
            machines and machines are frequently created and destroyed, this
            perimeter-based approach is difficult to scale as it results in
            complex network topologies and a sprawl of short-lived
            firewall rules.</p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <span class='dot'></span>
          <h3>The Solution</h3>
          <span class='sub-heading'>Service segmentation for dynamic service authorization.</span>
          <div id='segmentation-solution-animation' class='g-animation-block'>
            <%= inline_svg 'consul-connect/svgs/segmentation-solution.svg' %>
          </div>
          <p>Service segmentation is a new approach to secure the service itself
            rather than relying on the network. Consul uses service policies to
            codify which services are allowed to communicate. These policies
            scale across datacenters and large fleets without IP-based rules or
            networking middleware.</p>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </section>

  <section class='g-section border-top'>
    <div class='g-container'>
      <div class='intro'>
        <h2>Features</h2>
      </div>
      <div class='g-text-asset large'>
        <div>
          <div>
            <h3>Service Access Graph </h3>
            <p>Define and enforce service to service communication with a simple Intentions configuration. Service based rules, instead of IP-based rules, make it easy to manage dynamic infrastructure with frequently changing machines and service locations.</p>
            <p>
              <a class="learn-more" href='/docs/connect/intentions.html'>Learn more<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="6" height="10" viewBox="0 0 6 10"><g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd" transform="translate(-6 -3)"><mask id="a" fill="#fff"><path d="M7.138 3.529a.666.666 0 1 0-.942.942l3.528 3.53-3.529 3.528a.666.666 0 1 0 .943.943l4-4a.666.666 0 0 0 0-.943l-4-4z"/></mask><g fill="#1563FF" mask="url(#a)"><path d="M0 0h16v16H0z"/></g></g></svg></a>
            </p>
          </div>
        </div>
        <div>
          <img src='/assets/images/consul-connect/ui-intentions-list.jpg' alt='Service Access Graph '>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </section>

  <section class='g-section border-top'>
    <div class='g-container'>
      <div class='g-text-asset reverse'>
        <div>
          <div>
            <h3>Secure services across any runtime platform</h3>
            <p>Secure communication between legacy and modern workloads. Sidecar proxies allow applications to be integrated without code changes and Layer 4 support provides nearly universal protocol compatibility.</p>
            <p>
              <a class="learn-more" href='/docs/connect/proxies.html'>Learn more<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="6" height="10" viewBox="0 0 6 10"><g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd" transform="translate(-6 -3)"><mask id="a" fill="#fff"><path d="M7.138 3.529a.666.666 0 1 0-.942.942l3.528 3.53-3.529 3.528a.666.666 0 1 0 .943.943l4-4a.666.666 0 0 0 0-.943l-4-4z"/></mask><g fill="#1563FF" mask="url(#a)"><path d="M0 0h16v16H0z"/></g></g></svg></a>
            </p>
          </div>
        </div>
        <div class='code-sample'>
          <div>
            <span></span>
            <div class='code'>
              <code class='keyword'>$ curl \</code><code>
  --request POST \
  --data \
'{
  "Name": "api",
  "Service": {
    "Service": "api",
    "Tags": ["v1.2.3"],
    "Failover": {
      "Datacenters": ["dc1", "dc2"]</code>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </section>

  <section class='g-section border-top'>
    <div class='g-container'>
      <div class='g-text-asset'>
        <div>
          <div>
            <h3>Certificate-Based Service Identity</h3>
            <p>TLS certificates are used to identify services and secure communications. Certificates use the SPIFFE format for interoperability with other platforms. Consul can be a certificate authority to simplify deployment, or integrate with external signing authorities like Vault.</p>
            <p>
              <a class="learn-more" href='/docs/connect/ca.html'>Learn more<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="6" height="10" viewBox="0 0 6 10"><g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd" transform="translate(-6 -3)"><mask id="a" fill="#fff"><path d="M7.138 3.529a.666.666 0 1 0-.942.942l3.528 3.53-3.529 3.528a.666.666 0 1 0 .943.943l4-4a.666.666 0 0 0 0-.943l-4-4z"/></mask><g fill="#1563FF" mask="url(#a)"><path d="M0 0h16v16H0z"/></g></g></svg></a>
            </p>
          </div>
        </div>
        <div class='logos'>
          <div>
            <img src='/assets/images/consul-connect/logos/vault.png' alt='Vault'>
            <img src='/assets/images/consul-connect/logos/spiffe.png' alt='Spiffe'>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </section>

  <section class='g-section border-top'>
    <div class='g-container'>
      <div class='g-text-asset reverse'>
        <div>
          <div>
            <h3>Encrypted communication</h3>
            <p>All traffic between services is encrypted and authenticated with mutual TLS. Using TLS provides a strong guarantee of the identity of services communicating, and ensure all data in transit is encrypted.</p>
            <p>
              <a class="learn-more" href='/docs/connect/security.html'>Learn more<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="6" height="10" viewBox="0 0 6 10"><g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd" transform="translate(-6 -3)"><mask id="a" fill="#fff"><path d="M7.138 3.529a.666.666 0 1 0-.942.942l3.528 3.53-3.529 3.528a.666.666 0 1 0 .943.943l4-4a.666.666 0 0 0 0-.943l-4-4z"/></mask><g fill="#1563FF" mask="url(#a)"><path d="M0 0h16v16H0z"/></g></g></svg></a>
            </p>
          </div>
        </div>
        <div class='code-sample'>
          <div>
            <span></span>
            <div class='code'>
              <code class='keyword'>$ curl \</code><code>
  --request POST \
  --data \
'{
  "Name": "api",
  "Service": {
    "Service": "api",
    "Tags": ["v1.2.3"],
    "Failover": {
      "Datacenters": ["dc1", "dc2"]</code>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </section>

  <section class='g-section g-cta-section'>
    <div>
      <h2>Ready to get started?</h2>
      <a href="#" class="g-btn white download">
        <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="22" viewBox="0 0 20 22">
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      </svg>
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      </a>
      <a href="#" class="g-btn white-outline">Explore docs</a>
    </div>
  </section>

</div>