A Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) is an integrated security solution designed to protect cloud-native applications throughout their lifecycle, from development to runtime. CNAPPs combine multiple security functions, including vulnerability management, compliance monitoring, workload protection, identity management, and runtime threat detection, into a unified platform.

These platforms provide organizations with visibility and control over their cloud environments, enabling proactive identification and mitigation of risks such as misconfigurations, insecure APIs, and software vulnerabilities. By addressing security challenges in a holistic manner, CNAPPs help streamline operations, reduce complexity, and improve the overall security posture of cloud-native applications.

CNAPP FAQs

What is CNAPP?

CNAPP is a comprehensive security solution that focuses on safeguarding cloud-native applications. It integrates various tools and technologies into a single platform to address security across the entire application lifecycle—development, deployment, and runtime.

Key Features of CNAPP

Key features of CNAPP typically include:

Unified Security Platform: Combines multiple security capabilities into a single interface for streamlined operations and visibility.

Vulnerability Management: Scans for and identifies vulnerabilities in code, containers, and infrastructure components. Provides actionable insights to remediate risks during the development phase.

Configuration and Posture Management: Detects misconfigurations in cloud services, infrastructure, and applications. Ensures compliance with industry standards and best practices (e.g., CIS benchmarks, GDPR, HIPAA).

Workload Protection: Protects workloads such as virtual machines, containers, and serverless applications from unauthorized access and attacks.

Identity and Access Security: Secures identity and access management (IAM) by monitoring permissions and preventing privilege escalation.

Runtime Threat Detection and Response: Monitors cloud environments in real-time for suspicious activity, including runtime attacks and anomalous behavior. Enables automated threat responses to reduce the time to contain incidents.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security: Analyzes IaC templates (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation) to detect and fix security risks before deployment.

Data Security and Compliance: Identifies sensitive data in cloud environments and monitors access to it. Provides compliance dashboards and reporting to meet regulatory requirements.

DevSecOps Integration: Integrates with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps tools to embed security into the development process.

Cloud-Native Focus: Specifically designed to address the unique challenges of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures.

Why CNAPP is Important

1. Comprehensive Security for Cloud-Native Architectures: Modern applications often rely on containers, microservices, and serverless functions, making traditional security tools inadequate. CNAPP is designed to secure these dynamic and distributed environments.

1. End-to-End Visibility and Protection: CNAPP provides a unified view of the entire application lifecycle—from development to runtime—enabling proactive risk identification and remediation.
2. Simplifies Security Management: Consolidates multiple security tools into one platform, reducing operational complexity and providing a cohesive approach to securing applications, workloads, and infrastructure.
3. Prevention of Misconfigurations: Cloud misconfigurations are a leading cause of breaches. CNAPP continuously scans for and helps remediate these misconfigurations to prevent potential vulnerabilities.
4. Enhanced Threat Detection and Response: With real-time monitoring and automated threat responses, CNAPP reduces detection and response times for cloud-specific threats, including runtime attacks.
5. Supports DevSecOps: CNAPP integrates with CI/CD pipelines to embed security into the development process, ensuring that vulnerabilities are identified and addressed early.
6. Regulatory Compliance: Provides tools to ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations, such as GDPR, PCI DSS, and HIPAA, through continuous monitoring and reporting.
7. Cost-Effective: By unifying tools and automating processes, CNAPP reduces the cost and effort associated with managing separate security solutions.
8. Scalability and Adaptability: Designed for dynamic, scalable cloud environments, CNAPP ensures security adapts as applications grow and change.
9. Protects Business Continuity: By mitigating risks like data breaches, misconfigurations, and runtime threats, CNAPP helps ensure uninterrupted business operations and protects sensitive data.

CNAPP VS CSPM

The key difference between CNAAP and CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) lies in their scope and focus within the realm of cloud security:

Key Features

CNAPP

• Protects cloud-native workloads (e.g., containers, Kubernetes, serverless functions).
• Offers runtime protection for applications.
• Ensures secure configurations during DevSecOps pipelines.
• Addresses application-layer vulnerabilities and compliance.

CSPM

• Continuous monitoring of cloud services for misconfigurations.
• Policy enforcement for regulatory and internal compliance.
• Provides visibility into multi-cloud environments.
• Detects issues such as open S3 buckets or misconfigured IAM roles.

Scope

CNAPP: Offers end-to-end security for cloud-native applications, spanning their entire lifecycle—from development to deployment and runtime.
CSPM: Focuses specifically on the security posture of cloud infrastructure and services.

Aspect	CNAAP	CSPM
Focus	Application and workload security	Cloud environment configuration
Target	Applications, microservices	Infrastructure, cloud resources
Integration	DevOps/DevSecOps pipelines	Post-deployment monitoring
Examples of Use	Securing Kubernetes workloads	Preventing open storage buckets
Real-Time Protection	Yes	No

Use CNAAP if your primary goal is to secure applications and workloads in a cloud-native architecture and CSPM if you aim to maintain secure and compliant cloud infrastructure configurations.

CNAPP VS CWPP

The difference between CNAAP and CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platform) lies in their scope, focus, and the specific layers of cloud security they address:

Key Features

CNAPP

• Includes CWPP functionalities but extends to runtime protection, compliance, and security for serverless functions.
• Integrates security into DevOps pipelines.
• Protects cloud-native architectures, such as containers, Kubernetes, and serverless environments.
• Offers end-to-end visibility across applications and workloads.

CWPP

• Provides runtime protection for workloads.
• Protects workloads across multiple environments, including on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud.
• Focuses on vulnerabilities, malware, and runtime threats specific to workloads.
• May include workload-specific scanning for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.

Scope

CNAPP: Broader, incorporating features from multiple cloud security solutions like CWPP, CSPM, and more.
CWPP: Narrower than CNAAP, focusing specifically on workloads rather than the full application lifecycle.

Aspect	CNAAP	CWPP
Focus	Comprehensive application and cloud security	Workload-specific security
Target	Applications, workloads, DevSecOps pipelines	VMs, containers, serverless workloads
Integration with DevOps	Strong (shifts security left)	Limited (focuses more on runtime)
Runtime Protection	Yes	Yes
Examples of Protection	End-to-end: applications, workloads, and pipelines	Workloads: VMs, containers, serverless
Scope	Broader (includes CWPP)	Narrower (focused on workloads)

CNAAP provides a holistic approach, making it ideal for securing cloud-native applications end-to-end, while CWPP focuses on securing workloads at runtime and in different environments, whether on-premises or in the cloud, making it essential for protecting compute infrastructure.

CNAPP VS CASB

While both CNAPP and CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) aim to enhance security in cloud environments, they address different challenges and use cases:

Key Features

CNAPP

• Protects cloud-native workloads (e.g., containers, serverless, and Kubernetes).
• Integrates with DevSecOps pipelines to shift security left.
• Provides runtime protection for applications and workloads.
• Offers vulnerability management and compliance enforcement.

CASB

• Provides visibility into cloud application usage.
• Enforces data loss prevention (DLP) policies.
• Monitors and controls user activity to prevent insider threats.
• Detects and prevents shadow IT (unauthorized cloud app usage).
• Encrypts sensitive data stored in cloud services.

Aspect	CNAAP	CSPM
Focus	Protecting applications and workloads	Securing access and usage of cloud services
Target	Application vulnerabilities and runtime threats	Data protection, compliance, and access control
Integration with DevOps	Strong (shifts security left in DevSecOps)	Post-deployment monitoring
Runtime Protection	Securing Kubernetes workloads and CI/CD pipelines	Preventing data leaks in SaaS platforms
Examples of Protection	Developers, DevSecOps, application architects	IT, security teams, and cloud administrators
Scope	Workloads, applications, runtime threats	User activity, data governance, compliance

Many organizations use both solutions to ensure comprehensive cloud security, where CASB secures access to cloud services and governs data usage and CNAAP protects the applications and workloads running within those cloud environments.

How Does AppOmni Approach CNAAP?

AppOmni doesn’t directly fall under the CNAAP umbrella, but it complements CNAAP by securing a different part of the cloud ecosystem: SaaS applications. In a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud strategy, organizations often use CNAAP for applications and workloads and AppOmni for SaaS security, together ensuring end-to-end cloud security.