Ever stop to wonder what cloud security is going to look like in a few years? By 2024, you’ll likely use a cloud-native application protection platform to secure your cloud workloads. As more companies move their infrastructure and applications...
Ever stop to wonder what cloud security is going to look like in a few years? By 2024, you’ll likely use a cloud-native application protection platform to secure your cloud workloads. As more companies move their infrastructure and applications to the cloud, the demand for robust yet easy-to-use cloud security solutions will skyrocket.
Gartner predicts that the CNAPP market will reach USD 4.2 billion by 2024, up from USD 2.4 billion in 2023, representing a remarkable 75 percent year-over-year growth. These platforms will give companies a simple way to gain deep insights into cloud infrastructure and workloads, detect threats, and automatically mitigate risks — all without slowing down development teams or hindering business innovation.
Read on to learn why this sector is booming, how it can help businesses and key trends that will shape the future of cloud-native application protection platforms.
Key factors driving CNAPP’s growth
The CNAPP market has grown tremendously due to several reasons. These include:
Rapid cloud adoption
As many as 89 percent of companies use a multi-cloud approach. While 80 percent take a hybrid approach. As more businesses move their operations and applications to the cloud, the demand for effective cloud security solutions is increasing. CNAPP steps in to provide specialized security, keeping these apps safe. So, the more companies move to the cloud, the more they need CNAPP to secure their cloud-based apps.
Increased security threats
Unfortunately, as companies have moved to the cloud, cybercriminals have followed. Cloud-native applications written in containers and microservices are vulnerable to attacks like injection flaws, API exploits, and lateral movement. Traditional security tools are often unable to detect and mitigate these modern threats that’s why companies seek out purpose-built cloud security solutions like CNAPPS to detect and stop these attacks.
Compliance requirements
Regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA set the bar for how companies should protect data. CNAPPs ensure compliance in the cloud by controlling access, monitoring workloads, and detecting risks. CNAPPs often integrate encryption and other security protocols to safeguard data as it moves through the cloud. They also help companies keep track of what’s happening and make reports that show they’re following the rules when they get checked during audits.
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Shift to DevSecOps
The DevSecOps model, which integrates security into development and operations, is becoming mainstream. CNAPPs provide the visibility, automation, and integration that DevSecOps requires to enable secure innovation at speed in the cloud. Moreover, CNAPPs are super adaptable to the changing needs of cloud-based apps, this way, they stay secure without slowing down development.
CNAPP Features and Functionalities
With the increasing adoption of cloud-native applications, organizations are realizing they need specialized protection. And CNAPPs can help in the following ways:
Workload discovery and inventory
Workload discovery involves identifying all cloud resources, including containers, functions, and virtual machines. An inventory of workloads forms the basis for security controls. Discovery examines workload attributes, connections, dependencies, and relationships across environments. This gives organizations visibility into their cloud-native application infrastructure.
Vulnerability scanning and management
CNAPP scans cloud-native applications and workloads to detect known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in code, containers, or infrastructure. It identifies security loopholes that cybercriminals target. Scanning provides recommendations to remediate issues and tracks their resolution over time. Some platforms can even suggest fixes for certain vulnerabilities.
Misconfiguration detection and remediation
CNAPP detects insecure container, Kubernetes, and microservices configurations. It alerts organizations to issues like open ports or permissions and can automatically remediate some misconfigurations. In some cases, the platform offers guidance to fix issues. This feature acts as a proactive measure to prevent security breaches and maintain the overall integrity of the application.
Security posture management
CNAPPs excel in maintaining and overseeing the overall security stance of an organization’s cloud environment. It monitors for risks, ensures compliance, and helps reduce the attack surface. Some security protocols in this process include assessing access controls, data encryption, identity management, and so on.
Threat detection and response
CNAPP uses behavioral analytics and machine learning to detect anomalies that could indicate threats. It monitors network traffic, workload activity, user behavior, and more to detect targeted insider, and APT threats directed at cloud-native applications. When the system detects a threat, CNAPP can automatically respond to contain the incident.
Key Trends to watch in the CNAPP market in 2024
Here are some of the key trends shaping the CNAPP market in 2024 and beyond:
Increased adoption of open-source CNAPP solutions
Open-source CNAPP solutions will see rising adoption in 2024 due to their flexibility, customizability, and cost-effectiveness. Enterprises are leaning toward these open-source options that they can host themselves and mold to match their unique requirements. And guess what? These open-source CNAPP platforms are only getting better to compete with proprietary vendors.
Integration with other security tools
CNAPP solutions will also integrate more tightly with other security tools as part of a zero-trust architecture. They will connect with cloud security posture management (CSPM) solutions to get a bird’s-eye view of cloud risks. This tighter integration across security tools means companies can build an even stronger defense strategy for their cloud apps. Connecting CNAPP with IAM, CSPM, and SIEM platforms will streamline operations and give security teams a single pane of glass for monitoring and responding to risks.
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Focus on AI and machine learning
Artificial intelligence and automation will play a much bigger role in CNAPP solutions. Things like anomaly detection, risk analysis, and policy recommendations will be automated using AI. This means security teams won’t be slogging through endless manual reviews. Instead, they’ll be tackling the top-priority threats head-on. AI can also help identify zero-day threats and other sophisticated attacks that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Growth of container security
The global container security market volume was about $571 million in 2020 and is expected to reach $7.57 billion by 2030, at 29.2 percent annually from 2021 to 2030. As container adoption accelerates, CNAPP solutions will place more emphasis on container security. Vulnerabilities and malware within containers can spread quickly, so detection and response capabilities for containers will be crucial. CNAPP vendors will likely build more container security features natively into their platforms or partner with specialized container security providers.
Expansion of the CNAPP market to new use cases
The use cases for CNAPP solutions will likely expand beyond the initial focus on container and Kubernetes security. CNAPP providers will look to address a wider range of cloud workloads and applications running on serverless, functions-as-a-service, and microservices architectures. We’ll likely see expanded serverless application protection, functions-as-a-service security, and security for PaaS resources. CNAPPs may even evolve to provide visibility, monitoring, and protection for individual microservices and APIs.
Strengthen your cloud security with reliable CNAPP solutions
The future of cloud security is bright. As more companies go “all-in” on the cloud, the need for purpose-built cloud security will continue to grow. The days of cobbling together point solutions to secure cloud workloads will be behind us. Instead, we’ll rely on integrated platforms that provide threat detection, compliance management, and data protection across environments.
The shift to the cloud has opened up a world of opportunity. But with opportunity comes risk, and companies will invest in solutions that help them navigate the shared responsibility model of the cloud.
Featured image credit: Freepik.