What is CSPM?
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) helps to automate security governance in cloud environments. CSPM solutions monitor configuration settings and security posture across multi-cloud environments, enabling organizations to enforce consistent security and respond quickly to any potential issues.
CSPM solutions can identify and correct a variety of different issues in cloud environments, including security misconfigurations, deviations from security best practices, and potential non-compliance with regulatory requirements and applicable frameworks. They also can provide an organization with greater visibility into its current cloud security posture with centralized dashboards and monitoring tools.
The Need for CSPM
As companies adopt larger, multi-cloud environments, cloud infrastructure is growing more complex. In these environments, companies need to configure a wide range of security settings, which vary from one cloud provider to another. This requires specialized security expertise, and security teams may not be able to keep up with their rapidly-expanding responsibilities.
CSPM simplifies security management in the cloud by automating the process of identifying potential misconfigurations and other issues. They also enable security personnel to monitor their cloud security posture from a single dashboard and remediate issues from there, reducing the need for context switching and the potential for security gaps.
Without CSPM, security teams may be unable to effectively monitor their growing cloud deployments for potential security issues. This could leave them vulnerable to attacks exploiting misconfigurations or other potential vulnerabilities.
What is CNAPP?
A Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) is a solution designed to address the unique security challenges of cloud-native applications and includes CSPM. These solutions combine a range of cloud security capabilities into a single solution, offering threat prevention, risk management, and risk scoring functionality. By unifying security in the cloud, CNAPP reduces load on security personnel and enables them to achieve more comprehensive visibility and respond more quickly to threats in complex cloud environments.
Key Components of CNAPP
CNAPP is designed to offer an integrated solution for cloud security. Some of the key components of a CNAPP solution include:
- CSPM: CSPM is a vital component of a CNAPP solution. With CSPM, CNAPP can identify security misconfigurations, compliance gaps, and more in cloud environments.
- Cloud Service Network Security (CSNS): Traditional, perimeter-focused network security solutions don’t work well in the cloud. CSNS provides enterprise-grade security monitoring and threat prevention capabilities in the perimeterless cloud.
- AI-Based AppSec: Application Security (AppSec) solutions enable organizations to identify and fix vulnerabilities in cloud-based apps or block attempted attacks against them. Integrating AI provides broader, faster protection against a wider range of potential threats.
- Cloud Workload Protection (CWP): Cloud-based workloads are developed and deployed rapidly, and oversights could lead to dangerous vulnerabilities or misconfigurations. CWP helps to identify and report on these potential issues in large-scale cloud environments.
Advanced CNAPP solutions offer additional capabilities. Some examples include cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM), agentless workload posture management, and pipeline security capabilities.
The Need for CNAPP
Companies are increasingly making the move to the cloud, and a major component of this shift is adopting cloud-native application design. These applications are designed to run in cloud environments and often take advantage of the cloud’s capabilities by leveraging new design patterns such as microservices.
However, while a microservices architecture supported by the cloud can dramatically improve application flexibility and scalability, it also comes with its downsides. One of the most significant of these is that these applications are more distributed and complex. As a result, they can be more difficult to secure due to the sheer number of independent, moving parts.
CNAPP helps organizations address these security risks by offering security designed for cloud-native applications. With CNAPP, organizations can achieve comprehensive, centralized visibility into their cloud-native applications and can manage them from a single dashboard, supported by AI-based risk scoring and remediation advice. As a result, security teams leveraging CNAPP can more quickly and correctly respond to evolving security risks or security incidents, reducing the potential threat to the organization.
Difference Between CNAPP and CSPM
CNAPP and CSPM are both security solutions designed to enhance an organization’s visibility and security in cloud environments.
As mentioned previously, CSPM focuses on security posture management in the cloud. This includes identifying potential misconfigurations or non-compliance and enabling security teams to correct these issues and enforce consistent policies from a single, centralized dashboard.
CNAPP combines various cloud security functions into a single solution, and this converged security architecture includes CSPM functionality. CNAPP offers an all-in-one solution for securing cloud environments with a focus on securing cloud-native applications.
CNAPP and CSPM with CloudGuard
CNAPP and CSPM are both powerful cloud security solutions that can help organizations to manage potential vulnerabilities in their expanding cloud environments. To learn more about the benefits of CNAPP and how to choose the right solution, check out the Ultimate Cloud Security Buyer’s Guide.
Check Point CloudGuard offers enterprise-grade CNAPP and CSPM capabilities that integrate with an organization’s security architecture and was recognized as a leader by GigaOm in their CSPM survey. Learn more about why CNAPP is the right choice for your organization in the 2023 Gartner Market Guide for CNAPP.
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