A Complete Guide to the Future of CNAPP

The Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) landscape is evolving rapidly, and CONDUCT.EDU.VN is here to guide you through it. Understand the history, challenges, and future trends of cloud security, and discover how to navigate this complex market with confidence and insights. This comprehensive guide will provide practical perspectives, industry insights, and actionable strategies for fortifying your cloud environments with modern and reliable solutions.

1. Introduction to Cloud Security

The pre-cloud security landscape mainly consisted of endpoint detection and response (EDR), formerly known as antivirus, and network security solutions like firewalls. Companies such as CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks pioneered these core technologies. While supplementary vendors existed for email security, vulnerability scanning, and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), EDR and firewalls formed the core of mass-market security.

In the early days of cloud adoption, vendors were quick to extend their existing solutions into this new environment. Palo Alto firewalls, for example, could be deployed as virtual appliances. However, forward-thinking experts realized that the cloud transition opened new security possibilities, particularly concerning the end-to-end configuration of resources. Security teams shifted their focus from simply running existing tools in the cloud to understanding what was happening in these environments. The needs for discovery and context became more crucial than merely porting traditional tools. Basic EDR functionality and network protection were now integral to cloud platforms like AWS via GuardDuty and Security Groups.

Comprehensive security solutions for cloud environments encompass various protection layers to safeguard data and applications.

2. Evolution of Cloud Security

The shift from traditional architectures to containers marked a significant evolution. Security teams were initially late to recognize that workloads in the cloud were transitioning from servers to containers. Legacy players, heavily invested in Windows protection, had minimal support for Linux, let alone container layers.

Innovators recognized opportunities in two key areas: access to cloud APIs for enhanced visibility and the imperative for container insights. Cloud security has significantly transformed over the past decade, driven by these innovations. Early Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) products quickly became commoditized, as querying cloud APIs for misconfigurations became accessible through open-source projects such as Prowler and ScoutSuite.

2.1 Pivotal Moments in Cloud Security

2.1.1 The Era of CSPM and the Shift to Cloud (2010-2014)

Dome9 (founded in 2010): Focused on compliance checks and governance solutions. Acquired by Check Point Software Technologies in 2018.
Evident.io (founded in 2013): Concentrated on compliance monitoring for public cloud infrastructure and detecting misconfigurations.
RedLock: Initially focused on VPN flow logs and network visualization but expanded to identify misconfigurations and manage compliance. Acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2018.
Qualys, Tenable, and Rapid7: Existing vulnerability management providers that extended services to the cloud. Tenable achieved early success through scalable network-based scanning via Nessus.

2.1.2 Innovations in Workload Security (2015-2018)

Twistlock (founded in 2015): Specialized in securing cloud-native applications, containers, and microservices. Acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2019.
Sysdig Security: Launched in 2015, focused on container runtime security, enabling monitoring and securing of cloud-native environments using an agent.
Aqua Security: Founded in 2015, with a similar vision to secure cloud-native applications, containers, serverless computing, and Kubernetes environments. Known for the open-source vulnerability scanner Trivy.

2.1.3 Synergies Around CNAPP (Post 2018)

First Cloud Security Consolidation: Palo Alto Networks’ acquisition of Twistlock and RedLock. This marked the first significant consolidation, creating an integrated cloud security offering (CNAPP).
Orca Security: Introduced agentless side scanning, providing deep visibility into cloud environments and workloads without agents.
Wiz: Enhanced agentless scanning, emphasizing the intuitive graphing of asset relationships and building its UX around this capability. Wiz’s ability to meet customers at the right time, introducing features as needed, has been pivotal to its success.

The cloud security evolution timeline showcases the progression of security solutions and vendors over the years.

2.2 Summary of the Evolution

Cloud security has evolved through distinct phases:

Cloud Posture and Misconfigurations (2010-2015): Focused on scanning cloud APIs for misconfigurations.
Runtime Experimentation (2013-2018): Containers and microservices grew in adoption.
Agentless Scanning and Consolidation (2019-2023): Consolidation of tools and increased focus on agentless solutions.

The future emphasizes addressing frustrations with too many tools that create noise rather than solving problems.

3. Deployment Options for Cloud Security: Agent vs. Agentless

The roles of agents and agentless solutions have been pivotal in the history of cloud security. Orca and Wiz launched agentless scanning, marking a turning point. Agentless scanning allows for quick visibility, but its benefits are often subtle and not immediately appreciated.

3.1 Understanding Agent and Agentless Basics

When organizations move to the cloud, their primary concern is visibility. AWS presents numerous EC2 instances without clear identification. To address this, organizations can choose between agent-based and agentless solutions for scanning vulnerabilities and gaining insights into workloads.

Agent-Based Solutions: Require installing software on each workload.
Agentless Solutions: Use cloud APIs to gather data.

The decision between agent and agentless involves complex trade-offs depending on workload types.

A visual comparing agent-based and agentless cloud security approaches, highlighting deployment methods and monitoring capabilities.

3.2 Evaluating Agent-Based Solutions in 2024

In 2024, agents have improved in performance, insights, and installation. Modern solutions use helm charts for quick installations or deployment via ArgoCD. eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter) is flexible but new, and agents will vary in performance and visibility.

3.2.1 Pros of Agent-Based Solutions

Real-Time Threat Detection and Mitigation: Useful for industries requiring rapid incident response.
Granular Data: Critical for reachability analysis and identifying non-human identities.
Deep Visibility and Control: Provides insights into runtime environments, configuration issues, and active threats.
Containers: Essential for securing containerized workloads.
Emergent Application Layer Detections: Innovative solutions offer deeper visibility into applications.

3.2.2 Risks of Agent-Based Solutions

Deployment Complexity: Traditional agents can be challenging to deploy and maintain.
Performance Concerns: Monitoring solutions rely on eBPF, leading to varied performance implications.
Workload Edge Cases: Agents may struggle with serverless and PaaS environments.
Response Anxiety: Concerns about automated response actions can create hesitation.

3.3 How Agentless Scanning Emerged

Orca launched agentless side scanning, followed by Wiz, making the experience more intuitive with graph visualizations. Agentless scanning can achieve a lot, and many security teams may already be overwhelmed.

3.3.1 Pros of Agentless Solutions

Quick Deployment and Rapid Time-to-Value: Easier to deploy without installing software.
Good Context Without an Agent: Able to build cloud attack graphs, look at network traffic, perform secrets scanning, and function as asset management systems.
Suited for Multi-Cloud and Multi-OS Environments: Provides a unified security posture view without managing agents across platforms.

3.3.2 Limitations of Agentless Solutions

Fundamentally Work Generators: Discover problems but don’t independently solve them.
Containers are Ephemeral: Insights are limited due to containers running for short durations.
Efficacy and High False Positives: Relies on data from cloud APIs, leading to inaccurate results.
Hidden Lack of Support: May not support all workload types.
Hidden Costs: Snapshot storage and network transfers can incur additional expenses.

In summary, CNAPP’s story is about security teams seeking agentless solutions before maturing to agent-based ones as they recognize the prevalence of containers.

4. Frameworks for Understanding Cloud Security Today

4.1 CNAPP by Gartner

CNAPP has evolved to the point of comical bloat, with enterprises pushing for an all-in-one security solution. CNAPP promises solutions that might be overly broad, leading to inefficiency.

4.1.1 Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

Identifies misconfiguration issues, gaps in security policy enforcement, and compliance risks. CSPM can be simplified to asset management and vulnerability scanning.

4.1.2 Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)

Functions as EDR for containers, with benefits like vulnerability scanning and network layer visibility. CWPP provides container visibility alongside cloud visibility from CSPM.

4.2 Limitations of CNAPP

CNAPP has become bloated, creating more problems than it solves. Developers and Security Operations teams have different needs. Developers want to see vulnerabilities in their code, while security operations teams live in the SIEM and respond to attacks.

4.3 The Future of CNAPP

CNAPP faces a serious breaking point, forcing providers to dive into runtime protection and ASPM simultaneously. The market may favor those who can satisfy both SOC and Developers with a cohesive UX.

4.4 How We Should Think of CNAPP

CNAPP can be viewed as a series of functionalities aligning to either vulnerability detections or runtime exploit detections. There are two fundamental capabilities: detecting vulnerabilities and responding to threats.

Posture and Vulnerability Scanning: Proactively identifies misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. Roles include developers, DevOps, cloud security, and product security.
Runtime Detection and Response: Monitors cloud workloads in real-time, detecting active threats and anomalies. Roles include threat hunters, detection engineers, and security researchers.

The CNAPP framework visually distinguishes between posture & vulnerability scanning and runtime detection & response categories.

5. Cloud and Application Security Sub-Markets

5.1 Posture and Vul Scanning

5.1.1 Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

Provides agentless visibility into cloud workload configuration and vulnerabilities.

5.1.2 Application Security Posture Management (ASPM)

Offers all the application security testing tools needed to thoroughly test and secure applications.

5.1.3 Unified Remediation

Provides guidance, de-duplication, and data enrichment to make fixing and tracking vulnerabilities easier.

5.1.4 Cloud Identities: CIEM (Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management) & Non-Human Identities (NHI)

Focuses on tracing permissions and what they can do in the cloud, differentiating into APIs, SaaS, and workload identities.

5.1.5 Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

Provides insights into data platforms, from object storage like S3 to relational databases like RDS.

5.2 Runtime Detection & Response

Focuses on monitoring cloud environments and workloads while they are running to detect active threats, anomalies, or attacks in real-time.

5.2.1 Traditional EDR

EDRs that run in the cloud, focusing on static servers and file-based detections.

5.2.2 Cloud Detection & Response (CDR)

Detection and response built for the cloud, including container security.

5.2.3 Application Detection & Response (ADR)

An emerging market with a ton of hype, expanding outside of just the container, into application context more holistically.

6. Vendor Landscape & Ecosystem Discussions

Different vendors represent different components of the market. The vendor list is based on market traction and growth.

6.1 Major Vendors

The major players in the market, including Wiz, CrowdStrike, and Palo Alto Networks, have significant revenue metrics.

A graph illustrating the revenue metrics of major cloud security vendors, including Prisma Cloud, CrowdStrike, and Wiz.

7. Key Cloud Security Vendors

7.1 Wiz

Wiz launched in 2020, addressing the need for cloud visibility via agentless vulnerability scanning. Wiz has a clear understanding of cloud security issues, prioritizing visibility.

7.1.1 Product Advantages

Graph User Experience: Allows security teams to understand complex relationships in an efficient way.
Evolving Beyond Agentless Scanning: Has expanded beyond agentless solutions to include an agent, GitHub integrations, and enhanced DSPM capabilities.
Attack Path Analysis: Supports attack path analysis, prioritizing risks by evaluating the context of vulnerabilities.
Effective Prioritization Engine: Ranks vulnerabilities, helping enterprises prioritize the most critical issues.
Customization and Ease of Collaboration: Allows security teams to quickly prioritize critical issues and create common dashboards with engineering teams.
Branding: Has built a strong brand by delivering real value and defining the conversation.

7.1.2 Areas to Watch

Depth of Agent-Based Capabilities: Must fully match the deep workload visibility and runtime protection of their competitors.
ASPM and Code Scanning: Should continue to develop SCA and SAST scanning.
Serving Multiple Personas: Must address the needs of both cloud security engineers and security operations teams.
Pricing: Should remain competitively priced for midmarket teams.

7.1.3 Future Trends and Directions

Wiz has made strategic moves to maintain its competitive edge by expanding capabilities beyond agentless scanning. The company must adapt to new security challenges in areas like API security, identity, runtime protection, and DSPM.

7.2 Crowdstrike

Crowdstrike launched its cloud security solution in October 2020, generating over $515M ARR. CrowdStrike began as an EDR provider, expanding into cloud environments by installing its Falcon sensor.

7.2.1 Product Advantages

Windows-Based Environments: Advantages for security teams that falsely assume existing CrowdStrike licenses can easily be expanded into the cloud.
Threat Detection and Response: Able to detect and respond to behaviors that indicate advanced attacks.
Discounting: Offers flexible licensing options.

7.2.2 Areas to Watch

Doesn’t Meet Cloud Engineer Goals: The UI doesn’t measure up to CSPM’s asset context, ASPM’s developer insights, or Kubernetes providers.
Overhead Around Agents: Reliance on agent-based solutions can increase operational complexity.
Limited Cloud Coverage: Supports only AWS and Azure.
Onboarding Process: Can be complex and time-consuming.

7.3 Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud

Palo Alto had the first vision of CNAPP, acquiring RedLock and Twistlock to create an end-to-end vision of cloud security. They also acquired Bridgecrew, Dig Security, and Cider to expand capabilities.

7.3.1 Product Advantages

Comprehensive Solution Set: Offers security coverage across multi-cloud environments, containers, workloads, and code security with both agent and agentless solutions.
Agent-Based Scanning: The architecture provides deeper security insights into running workloads.
RedLock Query Language (RQL): Enables users to create custom queries and rules for compliance and vulnerability detection.

7.3.2 Areas to Watch

Lacking An Integrated and Outcome Driven Vision: Lacks a fully integrated risk view and has higher false positive rates than competitors like Wiz and Orca.
Customization Comes at a Cost: The reliance on manual rule-based configurations makes it more resource-intensive.
Higher False Positives: Has a higher false positive rate than solutions like Wiz or Orca.

7.4 Orca

Orca Security introduced its patented agentless SideScanning technique in 2019, providing workload visibility without needing agents.

While Orca’s advantages in agentless remain a key strength, it also has shown some limitations as cloud security teams start looking for more runtime data and visibility into their workloads.

Orca’s biggest challenges are twofold: brand and sales related. As the emphasis continues to shift to cloud detection and response capabilities and containerized workloads, we believe Orca’s most immediate challenge is the lack of an in-house agent.

7.5 SentinelOne

By acquiring PingSafe, SentinelOne is stepping into CNAPP with a big bet. SentinelOne and CrowdStrike have the same potential growth opportunities in the cloud, but the same difficulties as well. Both have powerful EDR platforms with massive install bases. If the PingSafe data can get fully integrated, SentinelOne has the potential for a truly innovative end to end data driven solution.

7.6 Sysdig

Sysdig has long been a go-to tool for DevOps engineers and enthusiasts. Sysdig’s real advantage lies in its real-time contextual monitoring. As the market shifts its focus from endless scanning to actively stopping attacks, Sysdig finds itself at a critical juncture.

7.7 Upwind

Upwind was founded in 2022, with its value proposition centered on providing real-time cloud security that leverages runtime data for threat detection and response. They excel in environments running containers and Kubernetes. Upwind offers both agentless and agent-based solutions, allowing them to cater to diverse customer needs. The next key question will be derived on how well they can execute on their GTM within the mid-market.

7.8 Sweet Security

Sweet Security focuses on cloud-native runtime security. Their key offering utilizes an eBPF sensor designed to help organizations detect and respond to active cloud threats in real-time. At the core of Sweet’s security platform is the bet that runtime is a better way to do cloud security.

7.9 Example of Code to ASPM: Jit

Jit is an ASPM platform designed to empower developers to own the security of their code. A key differentiator is that Jit does not extract customers’ source code from their SCM environment.

7.10 Cloud Detection & Response (CDR)

Cloud Detection and Response tools detect malicious activities in common cloud workloads (containers & Kubernetes) and contextualizes them with other cloud services to create a single attack path across cloud environments.

7.10.1 Armo

ARMO provides protection from cloud runtime threats with both posture and runtime detection solutions. One core value proposition is utilizing their container insights to inform the posture findings.

7.10.2 Rad Security

Rad continues to expand their cloud runtime protection abilities, while maintaining the Kubernetes innovations that DevOps teams have long loved them for.

7.11 Application Detection & Response (ADR)

Application Detection and Response (ADR) offers security teams visibility, detection, and response across their applications.

7.11.1 Miggo

Miggo is one of the only offerings in the ADR space to look at applications holistically by leveraging distributed tracing.

7.11.2 Oligo Security

Oligo Security took an elegant approach to extend detection capabilities into applications, without requiring any app-level instrumentation.

7.12 Remediation

7.12.1 Dazz Security

While many companies have invested heavily in Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP), they often struggle to manage the flood of alerts and issues generated by cloud logs or the security tools themselves. Dazz offers a vendor-agnostic platform designed to map code-to-cloud pipelines, correlate security data, and drive remediation seamlessly within the developer’s workflow.

8. Concluding Thoughts

The conversation around CNAPP will continue to evolve over the next few years, and the goal of this report was to help frame those future developments. CNAPP continues to dominate the cyber conversation, despite tinges of frustration: Security teams are saying they want less tools while they complain how noisy those giant bloated platforms are. The large CNAPPs have the money and distribution, but startups have the innovation.

Moving forward we believe there are some critical questions for the industry.

Are security teams truly ready to move beyond “just visibility?”
Can you make a UX for developers and the SOC in the same platform?
Lastly, the discussion around platform consolidation continues to evolve.

Ultimately, the vendors that solve these questions for customers will continue to win the market.

Navigating the cloud security landscape can be challenging, but resources like this guide and the expertise available at CONDUCT.EDU.VN can help. For more detailed guidance and solutions tailored to your specific needs, visit CONDUCT.EDU.VN at 100 Ethics Plaza, Guideline City, CA 90210, United States. You can also contact us via Whatsapp at +1 (707) 555-1234.

9. FAQ on Cloud Security

What is CNAPP?
CNAPP (Cloud Native Application Protection Platform) is an integrated security solution that combines multiple cloud security capabilities to protect cloud-native applications.
What are the key components of CNAPP?
Key components include CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management), CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platform), ASPM (Application Security Posture Management), and more.
What is the difference between agent-based and agentless cloud security solutions?
Agent-based solutions require installing software on each workload, while agentless solutions use cloud APIs to gather data.
What are the advantages of agentless scanning?
Advantages include quick deployment, rapid time-to-value, and suitability for multi-cloud environments.
What are the limitations of agentless scanning?
Limitations include generating work without solving problems, difficulty with ephemeral containers, and higher false positives.
What is CSPM?
CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) helps identify misconfiguration issues, gaps in security policy enforcement, and compliance risks in the cloud.
What is CWPP?
CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platform) functions as EDR for containers, providing vulnerability scanning and network layer visibility.
What is ASPM?
ASPM (Application Security Posture Management) offers all the application security testing tools needed to thoroughly test and secure applications.
What are the key factors to consider when choosing a cloud security vendor?
Key factors include integration with existing tools, scalability, ease of use, and the vendor’s focus on innovation and customer satisfaction.
What is the future of cloud security?
The future of cloud security emphasizes addressing frustrations with too many tools that create noise, innovating in runtime protection, and developing unified UX for developers and SOC teams.

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of cloud security’s evolution, challenges, and future trends. For further assistance and tailored cloud security solutions, visit conduct.edu.vn today.