Many companies have opened up to the cloud in a bid to improve the effectiveness of their operations. In fact, according to some estimates, over 90% of enterprises are integrating multi-cloud strategies. But as this growth happens, there is always the challenge of remaining steadfast against cyber criminals.
Just recently, a study was released claiming that 80% of companies had encountered cloud security incidents. Traditional safety infrastructures are falling short, and the need to ensure more robust measures has become very apparent. In this article, we will explore how CNAPP, short for cloud-native application protection platform, can help overcome the challenges of traditional measures, among other things.
CNAPP explained
During the early days of the cloud, organizations relied on specialized products like cloud security posture management to improve security. While these tools helped address specific security objectives, they had the challenge of operating independently, which resulted in fragmented security efforts.
Realizing this, we started shifting to a more convergent solution, CNAPP, that combined these safety products. With its comprehensive, integrated solution, CNAPP eases cloud security by providing a more unified answer to the complex demands of modern security.
This way, businesses are able to:
- Identify and handle the gravest safety issues
- Minimize time-to-remediation
- Access more informed intelligence across several cloud technologies and providers
Regardless of the cloud service provider, this contemporary security infrastructure streamlines operations through continuous monitoring and governance. It eliminates the gap between development, operations and security, ensuring effective risk management.
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This is without mentioning how CNAPP uses proactive protection strategies, like infrastructure as code security (IaC) and reactive security, to improve its effectiveness. By combining these two capabilities, it helps maintain app security, even as applications evolve.
The growing need for integrated security measures in the cloud
Seeing many enterprises open up to CNAPP shouldn’t actually be surprising. And looking at the statistics, Market Research Future expects its market size to hit $10.74 billion in 2025 and climb to $59.88 billion within the next few years. As if that’s not enough, Uptycs claims that 85% of organizations already recognize the value of implementing this security infrastructure.
According to Gartner, companies that will not have deployed a unified CNAPP by 2029 may not have comprehensive visibility into the cloud attack surface, which could prevent them from achieving their desired zero-trust goals. On the other hand, Cloud Security Alliance released a report claiming that 75% of companies were planning to implement CNAPP in their cloud security strategies. And, of course, it can’t be that many organizations intend to adopt it if it isn’t relevant.
Remember, we said that the number of cyberattacks is expected to increase, and you don’t want to be a victim. With IBM approximating the cost to recover from such incidents to be about $4.88 million, you don’t want to turn a blind eye to cloud security even for a minute. And besides incurring financial costs, attacks can really injure your reputation.
Of course, no one wants to interact in an environment that seems insecure or could expose them to attacks. And at a time when acquiring new customers is becoming super expensive, you want to take advantage of security infrastructures like CNAPP to appeal to security-conscious individuals.
Plus, through automating compliance and monitoring, this safety approach can help organizations adhere to regulations and industry standards. For development and security teams, CNAPPs help achieve better communication and partnership, allowing quick responses to attacks. They can also help ensure secure app development as they integrate seamlessly with DevSecOps practices.
Components of CNAPP
Cloud security posture management (CSPM)
This component continuously checks for common vulnerabilities to reduce the cloud attack surface. Here is how it works:
- Continuous monitoring of cloud infrastructure to identify risks before they can be exploited
- Compliance and misconfiguration checks to ensure that organizations comply with frameworks like CIS and NIST
- Automated remediation capabilities, as manually addressing misconfigurations can be tedious and labor-intensive. Automation comes in very handy as it ensures quick and consistent mitigation
Cloud workload protection platform (CWPP)
This works well for containers and serverless functions. The shift from traditional to cloud environments makes workloads more dynamic, so CWPP proves very helpful for guaranteeing real-time visibility and protection.
It also assesses unusual behavior, allowing for more prompt action against risks. By prioritizing vulnerabilities within workloads, CWPP allows security teams to implement patches without affecting operations.
Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM)
To address insider threats across your cloud services, you must have a way of managing access and permissions. And this is where CIEM comes in. It helps achieve this by:
- Managing identity and access in the cloud so that only the right persons access sensitive aspects
- Identifying and managing excessive permissions that accumulate unnecessary privileges over time
- Enforcing the principle of least privilege, where you only access what is necessary for your role
There are several other components of CNAPP that are changing things in cloud security, including:
- Data security posture management (DPSM)
- Kubernetes security posture management (KSPM)
- AI security posture management (AI-SPM)
- DevSecOps integration
The need for robust safety measures in the cloud has become quite apparent, especially with the rising cybersecurity incidents. As more people turn to the cloud, traditional security methods are proving insufficient. As such, the appeal for more effective ones like CNAPP has been increasing, explaining their growing popularity.
