The move to the cloud and the resulting changes in how applications develop and deploy necessitated the development of new security tools. One of the product categories that has emerged to meet this need is the cloud workload protection platform (CWPP). It intends to safeguard software operating in hybrid cloud setups that incorporate public clouds and in-house data centers.
The platform is intended to provide a standard method of monitoring and controlling workloads throughout the whole environment, regardless of where the workloads place. Let’s see what is CWPP and how it safeguards workloads.
What Exactly Is CWPP?
Cloud workload protection solutions are security technologies that safeguard workloads deployed across numerous cloud environments and corporate data centers, regardless of where they locate. A CWPP should enable secure system monitoring and management across applications, operating in container or virtualization software (VMs), cloud platform, or on conventional physical servers.
CWPPs include namespaces, vulnerability scanners, proper security assurance, and application security and allow listing, behavioral monitoring, and malware scanning to safeguard workloads during runtime. They assist in keeping workloads up with the most recent security updates and prevent unwanted access to workloads. CWPPs also examine the development pipeline for strain vulnerabilities.
What Is the Difference Between Workload Protection and Application Security?
The distinction between application security (AppSec) and workflow protection is becoming increasingly hazy. AppSec has traditionally focused on finding flaws in the code that developers write. Today, apps might contain code from various sources since developers construct applications by integrating freshly created code with many existing components. CWPPs scan whole cloud application workloads for security flaws, from the virtualization to the application level. AppSec tools mainly check for vulnerabilities inside the application layer, including newly developed code and other components the application may employ.
AppSec is approached in different ways:
- Dynamic application security testing (DAST): Conduct security testing on a java program to identify security flaws and misconfigurations. DAST is a critical security tool for both application and production.
- Software composition analysis (SCA): Identifies open-source components used by a program and determines if they are known to be susceptible.
- Static application security testing (SAST): Examines static source code, bytecode, or binary code for vulnerabilities.
- Interactive software security testing (IAST): Interact with and watch a running application in real time. IAST assists in identifying security flaws in application code.
What Is the Significance of Cloud Workload Protection?
Because of two parallel trends, the migration to hybrid environments and the rising speed of application development, cloud workload security has become critical for many enterprises. Over the last decade, enterprises have shifted from monolithic apps operating on in-house servers to cloud computing. Many businesses today have a hybrid cloud system using services from different public clouds while keeping some on-premises equipment.
Applications in this environment often comprise various workloads, which may disperse over multiple public clouds and on properties. Some workloads may be transient, appearing only for a few seconds or minutes to execute a function. Even so, each of these workloads can attack. Thus it’s critical to be able to safeguard workloads wherever they run.
