Modern cloud environments are incredibly dynamic, characterized by real-time resource scaling, microservices, containers, and API endpoints. To effectively manage and secure these rapidly evolving components throughout the development and deployment life cycle, your organization needs a unified and comprehensive security solution.

In the world of cloud security, there are countless tools and acronyms to navigate. Among the most common ones you've likely encountered are the cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) and cloud workload protection platform (CWPP). Though CNAPPs and CWPPs are both critical to cloud security, they serve distinct purposes and shouldn't be conflated. In this article, we'll delve into the specific roles and applications of CWPPs and CNAPPs and explore how a solution like CrowdStrike Falcon® Cloud Security seamlessly integrates both to provide comprehensive protection.

Understanding CNAPPs

A CNAPP is an all-encompassing platform for cloud security and compliance that helps teams build, deploy, and run secure cloud-native applications and address threats and vulnerabilities. Within the cloud-native application stack, various types of workloads and policies have unique needs in development, deployment, and production. Securing the entire environment requires specialized tools that address the individual requirements, such as workload monitoring, compliance auditing, and identity management. 

Key components in a CNAPP

A CNAPP comprises various components, removing the fragmentation that often leads to blind spots and gaps in security coverage. By combining multiple tools into a comprehensive solution,  a CNAPP aims to minimize complexity and streamline operations for DevOps and DevSecOps teams.

Cloud security posture management (CSPM)

CSPM continuously monitors cloud environments to identify and remediate misconfigurations as well as security and compliance risks. By ensuring that cloud infrastructure aligns with best practices and regulatory requirements, CSPM helps maintain a secure environment. When CSPM detects noncompliant resources, it alerts security teams and offers guidance on how to mitigate the issue effectively.

Pre-runtime/“shift left” security

Pre-runtime security, often referred to as “shift left” security, involves identifying and addressing code issues before they reach the runtime stage. This approach leverages infrastructure as code (IaC) templates to ensure consistent and repeatable infrastructure deployments. However, without adequate security measures, IaC templates themselves can introduce vulnerabilities, potentially compromising the entire cloud environment. To prevent this, IaC security tools scan configuration files early in the development cycle, detecting compliance risks, network exposures, and violations of the principle of least privilege, thereby proactively mitigating security risks.

CWPP

A CWPP operates as part of a CNAPP to protect cloud workloads—such as VMs, databases, containers, and Kubernetes clusters. 

Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM)

Because traditional identity and access management (IAM) solutions struggle in dynamic cloud environments, security teams increasingly lean on CIEM. CIEM solutions manage and secure identities, permissions, and access controls within cloud environments. They prevent unauthorized access and minimize the risk of privilege escalation by detecting violations and reporting them to the security team for prompt resolution.

Application security posture management (ASPM)

As applications become more complex, organizations find it challenging to implement consistent security practices, understand each application’s risk posture, and maintain compliance. ASPM addresses these challenges by providing continuous visibility and monitoring of application security, identifying and addressing vulnerabilities throughout the application life cycle. ASPM helps organizations protect sensitive data, prevent breaches, and comply with industry regulations. 

The benefits of a CNAPP

 A CNAPP is a powerful cloud security solution that provides numerous benefits due to its inclusive integration approach. 

• Comprehensive security: A CNAPP protects all types of cloud resources — including containers, databases, VMs, and APIs — from development to production. It safeguards running workloads and addresses network misconfigurations, IaC code vulnerabilities, and access violations.
• Integration with DevSecOps: CNAPP solutions integrate seamlessly into continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, ensuring security is embedded throughout the development process. This integration helps with identifying and mitigating security issues early in the application life cycle.
• Unified visibility: CNAPPs enable teams to use a comprehensive  solution for all security aspects, providing unified visibility across the entire cloud environment. A unified solution reduces complexity for DevOps and DevSecOps teams, improving their efficiency and allowing them to manage security more effectively.

Understanding CWPPs

A CWPP is a solution for continuously monitoring cloud workloads — such as VMs and containers — and delivering real-time threat detection and response. This is critical for cloud security because active workloads are prime targets for attacks; protecting them helps prevent breaches and downtime. 

CWPPs provide security teams with several benefits as they aim to secure their cloud environments. They primarily focus on:

• Pre-runtime protection: CWPPs secure cloud workloads before they’re deployed, ensuring identification and mitigation of vulnerabilities early in the CI/CD pipeline. This includes techniques such as image assessment and IaC security.
• Runtime protection: These solutions prevent unauthorized activities and breaches as they occur. CWPPs continuously analyze workloads to identify anomalies and enforce security policies, blocking suspicious actions in real time.
• Threat detection and response: CWPPs scan for threats, vulnerabilities, and anomalies, providing guidance to remediate issues. They can also automatically respond to certain threats by isolating compromised workloads, blocking attack traffic, and applying security patches, allowing teams to focus on issues that require human intervention.
• Visibility into workloads and containers: CWPPs offer comprehensive insights into workload activities, allowing teams to track performance, detect suspicious behavior, and effectively enforce security policies. 

Comparing CNAPPs and CWPPs

CNAPPs and CWPPs both protect cloud environments, but their scopes differ significantly. A CNAPP provides broad security across the application life cycle, whereas a CWPP specializes in runtime protection, focusing specifically on the security of active workloads and containers.

Scope of coverage

• CNAPP: Covers the complete life cycle of workloads — including development, CI/CD, and production — across various security domains. A CNAPP also incorporates components such as CIEM, ASPM, data security posture management (DSPM), and CSPM to provide broader, more comprehensive security.
• CWPP: Delivers continuous visibility, threat detection, and automated protection across virtual machines, containers, and serverless environments, ensuring a consistent security posture regardless of where the workloads are deployed.

Integration and automation

• CNAPP: Integrates with existing CI/CD workflows and DevSecOps tools — including CWPPs — to enable protection throughout the development life cycle and streamline operations.
• CWPP: Provides runtime protection for workloads, ensuring operational security of the deployed resources in the cloud environment. 

Primary focus

• CNAPP: Provides security to all aspects of the cloud environment, including IaC security, compliance monitoring, and identity management. 
• CWPP: Secures workloads during execution by providing real-time threat detection and response for running applications and microservices.

CWPP as a part of CNAPP

CNAPPs provide comprehensive security to your cloud-native applications by bundling together multiple security tools underneath the umbrella of a single platform. A CNAPP’s threat detection and response capabilities are enabled in part by a CWPP, which powers the continuous monitoring for vulnerabilities and unusual activities. This enables alerting and real-time responses to remediate potential threats.

CNAPPs focus on an integrated security approach that covers all domains, from development to production. Part of that scope is the pre-runtime and runtime protection of cloud workloads to ensure operational efficiency. This falls under the purview of a CWPP, which is a critical component in a CNAPP.

A CWPP is a specialized solution that enables protection for running applications by providing real-time threat detection. A CNAPP, on the other hand, is a unified solution that addresses multiple aspects of cloud security by unifying key components such as CSPM, CIEM, ASPM, and a CWPP.

Benefits of leveraging a CNAPP that includes a CWPP

CNAPPs and CWPPs each provide cloud security based on different use cases. CrowdStrike Falcon® Cloud Security is a CNAPP that includes CWPP capabilities, helping organizations achieve greater comprehensive security coverage with real-time threat detection, continuous monitoring, and automated response. As a unified platform, Falcon Cloud Security offers complete protection from code to cloud. To learn more, test out an interactive demo or contact our team of experts today.