Why should we invest in a Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)


A cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) replaces and consolidates multiple cloud security platforms into one solution. Providing comprehensive, end-to-end cloud-native security through a CNAPP is crucial to today’s DevSecOps teams who depend on containerized applications, microservices, and hybrid or multi-cloud environments. Our last piece [LINK] defined and outlined CNAPP, its functions and capabilities. Here, we explore the top benefits of a cloud native application protection platform.

CNAPP benefit #1: Streamlining and consolidating cloud security

The most important benefit of a cloud native application protection platform is that it provides a holistic security solution across cloud-native workloads and disparate environments. The platform eliminates the need for disjointed point solutions, providing visibility and the capacity to prioritize and remediate risk throughout the CI/CD pipeline.

CNAPP benefit #2: Providing a single source of truth and action

As an end-to-end cloud security platform, a CNAPP digests multiple sources of data and provides a cohesive and prioritized view of threats, vulnerabilities, and compliance issues. This level of summarized detail gives DevSecOps teams the ability to maintain a security orientation throughout the product lifecycle, eliminate gaps between point solutions, and quickly hone in on high-priority risks.

CNAPP benefit #3: Lower cloud security overhead and complexity

Another benefit of a cloud native application protection platform is that it’s one platform encompassing cloud security posture management (CSPM), cloud workload protection platform (CWPP), cloud service network security (CSNS), and cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM). It provides an economy of scale not found through a patchwork of individual solutions. Less disjointed effort cuts needed staff time, rework, and hunting down logs for comparison, which translates into less operational overhead and more time for security priorities.

CNAPP benefit #4: A platform that aligns tightly with CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps

Enabling a continuous integration continuous development pipeline or evolving from DevOps into DevSecOps is not only a philosophical and cultural shift but also a process and practical transition. Because a CNAPP encompasses scanning, monitoring, and mitigating risks and compliance issues across cloud-native, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, it provides a DevSecOps-friendly tool that brings everyone together and gives them equal visibility across all development phases.

CNAPP benefit #5: Tighter end-to-end cloud security controls

Common risks and human errors can plague traditional cloud security solutions. This benefit of a cloud native application protection platform provides proactive cloud security through automated monitoring, detection, and remediation, thereby securing workloads, applications, configurations, data repositories, and infrastructure. Because it’s integrated and encompasses the major areas of cloud-native security, a CNAPP can provide tighter oversight of entitlements and permissions, balancing a need for distributed access.

The benefits of a cloud native application protection platform don’t end there

The development of CNAPPs meets the growing need for end-to-end cloud-native security that seamlessly addresses security concerns in one source of truth. And, as DevOps and DevSecOps teams are called upon to create and engage cloud-first strategies, leveraging the benefit of a cloud native application protection platform provides consolidated and comprehensive cloud security solutions critical to long-term viability and innovation.

[CTA] Modern Cloud-native security relies on Panoptica

Cisco’s Emerging Technologies and Incubation (ET&I) team is paving the way with “DevOps-friendly” cloud-native security solutions that fundamentally simplify conventional offerings. Built from the ground up to meet the needs of mission-critical modern applications, our Panoptica solution simplifies cloud-native application security, making it easy to embed into the software development lifecycle. Panoptica protects the full application stack from code to runtime by scanning for security vulnerabilities in the cloud infrastructure, microservices (Containers or Serverless), the software bill of materials, and the interconnecting APIs. And best of all, it integrates with the tools that your application development and SecOps teams are already using.