Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms

‍As the adoption of cloud-native applications continues to grow, businesses face the challenge of selecting the best cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPPs) to safeguard their digital assets. 

These tools are essential in ensuring the security, scalability, and efficiency of cloud-native environments. This guide will provide insights into cloud-native applications, their benefits, examples, and the best practices for securing them with CNAPPs.

What is a Cloud-Native Application?

A cloud-native application is software designed to run and scale efficiently in cloud environments. These applications are built and deployed using cloud-native principles such as microservices architecture, containers, and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD). 

The core idea of cloud-native development is to fully leverage the advantages of cloud computing, including scalability, elasticity, and resilience, to drive business value faster.

Cloud-native applications differ from traditional monolithic applications because they are broken down into independent, manageable services that can be developed, deployed, and scaled individually. This enables faster innovation, increased agility, and rapid response to changes in the business environment.

Examples of Cloud-Native Applications

• Netflix: A prime example of a cloud-native application. Netflix relies on a microservices architecture to deliver content to millions of users worldwide. Each function, such as recommendation engines, user accounts, and streaming services, is a separate microservice that can be updated independently.
• Uber: Uber’s platform operates on a cloud-native infrastructure, using microservices and APIs to connect drivers and passengers in real time.
• Airbnb: Leveraging the cloud for global scalability, Airbnb’s platform is based on microservices that enable quick scalability, support high traffic, and offer enhanced fault tolerance.

What are cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP)?

A Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) is a comprehensive security toolset designed to protect cloud-native applications throughout their lifecycle. CNAPPs integrate security across different layers—workloads, containers, serverless functions, and infrastructure—ensuring that cloud-native environments are secure from development through to deployment and beyond.

Products you can expect to find within a reliable CNAPP include:

• Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP)
• Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
• Cloud Service Network Security (CSNS)

Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP)

CWPPs scan workloads to help ensure your IT infrastructure can handle all requests without slowing runtimes considerably or, much worse, failing. CWPPs benefit from cloud-based applications because they can tap into additional computing resources as needed. For example, the CWPP might respond to a sudden increase in users by recruiting help from virtual machines, Kubernetes, other containers, additional cloud server space, and physical machines.

A great CWPP will also improve performance and runtime visibility. For instance, a graphics-based dashboard might show you a timeline of increased usage and notify security leaders to pay close attention.

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

CSPM solutions automate key tasks associated with identifying and remediating cloud-native application risks. For example, a reliable CSPM might keep applications running by:

• Finding and fixing misconfigurations that could stunt performance and give hackers access
• Detecting threats from suspicious activities and vulnerable code components
• Monitoring the cloud environment for general and specific issues

Cloud Service Network Security (CSNS)

Cloud technology relies on dynamic network perimeters that can adjust to changing needs. CSNS helps ensure that scaling happens without putting applications in harm’s way.

For example, we typically see CSNS tools that use:

• Load balancers to prevent servers from getting overburdened
• SSL/TLS inspection to scan for suspicious packages
• Next-generation firewalls that control exterior access
• Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) protection that spots and blocks potential threats

What does a CNAPP security platform do?

Gartner security leaders Dale Koeppen, Charlie Winckless, and Neil MacDonald published a highly influential report about cloud-native application protection platforms.

If you want to take a deep dive into their research, read their publication, "Gartner® Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms."

In the meantime, we’ll distill the opinions of Gartner and its researchers into a few critical points.

According to this Gartner research, attackers have several opportunities to exploit the risk surface area of cloud-native applications. Third-party API endpoint services and SaaS API endpoint services stand out as two of the most prevalent threats.

A runtime cloud-native application risk boundary helps prevent users from attacking systems on the other side of that boundary, including:

• Cloud Identity Services
• Cloud Secrets Management
• Serverless PaaS
• Virtual Machines
• Host operating systems
• VM image libraries
• Kubernetes and managed Kubernetes.

Other key findings from the Gartner report include:

• In-workload scanning tends to work better than agentless workload scanning.
• Few CNAPP solutions have all of the features security teams need.
• Developers need to prioritize security, even if they see it as an obstacle to product development.
• Cloud-native applications have growing attack surfaces, often because of software supply chains and cloud infrastructure misconfigurations.

If for no other reason, we recommend using a CNAPP solution to protect these and other assets. Doing so should also help you address other cloud security challenges, including misconfigurations, regulatory compliance, and complex cloud migrations.

CNAPP representative vendors to consider

Clearly, CNAPP solutions will play an ongoing role in cloud security. But which one should you choose? Here are some stand-out options worth considering.

Wiz

Everyone’s use cases differ, but Wiz really does a great job for most organizations that want to embrace CNAPP technology. It has an extremely easy-to-use interface with clear diagrams. It’s agentless, so it doesn’t care what containers, virtual machines, buckets, or databases it encounters.

Wiz also does a great job prioritizing risks so it can nip the worst ones in the bud first. Is a workload balance issue slightly disrupting your app performance while a DDoS attack pummels your website? Wiz knows enough to focus on the DDoS attack first.

Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud

Prisma Cloud comes with practically everything you could want to secure your cloud-native applications. That’s because Palo Alto Networks rolled some of its top-performing security tools into Prisma Cloud, including features for:

• DevSecOps
• Cloud security posture management
• Cloud workload protection
• Cloud infrastructure entitlement management

What do we think Palo Alto Networks could improve on? It might help if it automatically integrated new features. We’ve seen ingestion errors occur because a new feature got rolled out without our knowledge.

Sysdig Secure

Sysdig Secure is a no-brainer when it comes to container security. It also has a ton of features to protect your whole cloud infrastructure and performance. Users love that Sysdig Secure:

• Gives admins an overhead view of application performance
• Comes with runtime protection and a vulnerability runtime scan
• Combines CSPM, CWPP, and CSNS into one security platform

Of course, Sysdig Secure isn’t perfect for everyone. It doesn’t have the most user-friendly dashboard, especially for non-technical users. It can also consume a lot of resources, which can stress your on-site and cloud-based networks.

Key Features to Look for in a CNAPP

When selecting a CNAPP, it's essential to consider various features that align with your business needs. Some key functionalities to prioritize include:

• Unified Security Across the Entire Stack: Look for platforms that provide comprehensive coverage from the infrastructure to the application layer. This includes protecting containers, serverless functions, and APIs.
• Automation and AI-Powered Insights: Automated tools that utilize AI for real-time threat detection and anomaly detection can significantly enhance your application’s defense mechanisms.
• Seamless Integration with CI/CD Pipelines: Ensure that the CNAPP you choose integrates seamlessly with your existing DevOps and CI/CD pipelines, enabling security at every stage of the development lifecycle.
• User-Friendly Dashboards: The ability to visualize security risks, compliance metrics, and performance insights in an intuitive dashboard will make it easier for your team to manage security across the cloud-native environment.

Conclusion

Cloud-native applications offer businesses significant advantages, from scalability to increased innovation, but they also come with unique security challenges. 

To ensure these applications remain secure and compliant, investing in a robust cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) is essential. A CNAPP helps secure every aspect of your cloud-native infrastructure, allowing you to focus on innovation without compromising on security.

By selecting the right CNAPP for your business and following cloud-native security best practices, your organization can confidently leverage the cloud for its applications while mitigating security risks. In today’s ever-evolving tech landscape, where agility and speed are critical, maintaining a secure cloud-native infrastructure is key to long-term success.

At Adservio, we specialize in guiding businesses through their cloud-native journey, helping them select the most suitable cloud-native application protection platforms, and ensuring that their applications remain secure, scalable, and efficient. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support your organization in securing its cloud-native future.