Wherever your data, networks, and devices are—on-prem, cloud, or a hybrid—your team needs strategies and tools that fit each environment's unique security challenges. Tools that once kept you safe in your on-premises environment won't always work effectively in the cloud. For instance, whitelisting an IP in a firewall secures an on-prem database. In the cloud, IPs are often dynamic, which could deny access.
On-premises tools are inadequate for the cloud for other reasons too: They don't scale to large cloud workloads, are often perimeter-based, and can't handle the cloud's frequently changing, distributed nature. Shifting to cloud-based tools can simplify security by offering a more robust, scalable approach, especially for cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) controls.
Ultimately, keeping your organization, assets, employees, and customers safe is your responsibility, regardless of where your assets and resources are. So let's compare on-premises and cloud security, examine their differences, and explore key cloud-specific security concepts to help you choose the best approaches to security for your entire organization.
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Fundamental differences between on-prem and cloud environments
The biggest difference between on-premises and the cloud: On-premises, you run everything on your own hardware, usually on your local network. This means a big upfront cost for equipment and software (CapEx). Your IT team is also fully responsible for all maintenance and infrastructure management.
This approach has drawbacks. Resources can't quickly adjust to demand—for instance, your site might crash during a big sale unless you buy extra servers. But buying extra servers is a waste of money and maintenance efforts if demand isn't consistently high.
With on-prem hardware, you could also lose data if hardware fails. To avoid this, your team has to handle backups, including off-site storage, as well as other disaster recovery measures. Another complication? Hardware and software constantly need updates and maintenance by IT staff, which gets more complex if your team works remotely.
In cloud-based environments, you use infrastructure owned and managed by a cloud provider (like Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure). The cloud operating model means no big upfront investment; you pay ongoing expenses based on use (OpEx). This frees your IT team from managing the infrastructure itself, and cloud resources are easily available from anywhere, anytime.
Cloud's big advantage? Scaling up is simple. You just create new instances identical to existing setups. But cloud costs can spin up just as easily—many organizations are surprised by inflating cloud bills. And things that drive up costs can also compromise security, like overprovisioned cloud instances running idle, overly permissive access roles, or misconfigured storage. To understand how these affect security, let's look at key security concepts unique to the cloud.
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Key cloud security concepts that don’t exist in on-prem
The shared responsibility model
The cloud provider isn’t entirely responsible for security. Instead, your teams will share some of the responsibility—which is why it’s known as the shared responsibility model. The specific responsibilities of you and the provider will vary depending on the cloud service you're using:
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): The provider takes care of security for the foundational hardware and network. You handle the operating systems, applications, and data.
Platform as a service (PaaS): The provider takes care of hardware and network security and also secures the runtime environment. You manage the application logic, data, and user access.
Software as a service (SaaS): The cloud provider handles almost all security, from the application down. Your focus is on managing user settings and data privacy.
The shared responsibility model can make cloud security harder because many organizations assume that the cloud provider offers more security coverage than they've committed to—leaving critical coverage gaps wide open.
Ephemeral infrastructure
Cloud infrastructure is often ephemeral, meaning resources—like containers or Lambda functions—are created for seconds or minutes and torn down when no longer needed.
Because cloud resources appear and disappear dynamically based on demand, traditional monitoring and static configurations can’t always secure these environments. Instead, businesses need specialized cloud-native security tools that can adapt to continuous changes.
Multi-tenancy and isolation
Multi-tenancy in the cloud means that multiple customers share the same underlying hardware within a cloud provider's infrastructure. Think of it like different tenants living in the same apartment building.
Sharing hardware resources presents a security challenge: Providers need to ensure strict boundaries between customers to prevent data leakage or unauthorized access. It's a common mistake to assume the cloud provider's default isolation is always enough; you might need to add your own security measures for stronger protection.
Cloud identity and federated access
Federated access refers to managing user identities so people can use their existing login details from one place (like your company's network) to access various cloud resources. Connecting different identity systems is more convenient for users, who only need to log in once to access all necessary resources. Many organizations use platforms like Azure AD or Okta to support Single Sign-On (SSO) across cloud environments.
But cloud identity and federated access also present a challenge. Merging different trust systems, especially between on-premises and cloud environments, can be very complex. Poorly set up federation or overly broad identity and access management (IAM) roles can open up sensitive cloud resources to unauthorized access.
Infrastructure as code (IaC)
Infrastructure as code (IaC) means writing cloud configurations as code, rather than manually setting up cloud resources. The upside? Faster, more consistent, and automated management of your cloud environment.
On the other hand, IaC also makes cloud security more complex because any security flaws in the code can be deployed widely and quickly, potentially leading to massive problems at scale.
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Security challenges unique to on-prem
Next, let’s look at expert best practices that help you stay on top of the unique challenges of securing an on-premises environment.
Physical security of hardware
In on-prem systems, you're fully responsible for physical hardware security (unlike the cloud, where providers handle it). Protecting server rooms from unauthorized access or damage is entirely up to you.
Best practices
Implement strict access control, like keycard access, to server rooms.
Establish a regular schedule for replacing old hardware.
Manual patching and end-of-life risk
Old software can become a significant, unaddressed security risk. Cloud providers often automate patching for their infrastructure. Alternatively, keeping all systems updated is a major on-prem challenge because you manage every piece of hardware and software directly.
Best practices
Automate patching processes across all systems.
Develop a plan to upgrade or isolate outdated software.
Privileged access risks
People with high-level access inside your on-prem organization pose a greater risk. They often have direct physical access to local systems and data, unlike in cloud environments. This makes intentional or unintentional compromises harder to detect.
Best practices
Enforce the principle of least privilege for user accounts, giving only necessary access.
Regularly audit and monitor administrator activity.
Limited scalability
Scaling network security controls is tough for on-prem systems. It often means buying and installing more physical hardware to expand your network, which is expensive and time-consuming. In contrast, cloud scaling is typically configuration-based.
Best practices
Implement microsegmentation to isolate parts of your local network.
Use software-defined networking for more flexible controls.
Manual detection and response
Responding to security incidents can be slow in on-prem environments. Detection and response often rely on manual, time-consuming processes across disparate systems. Cloud platforms increasingly offer integrated, automated tools for faster threat containment.
Best practices
Develop and document clear incident response plans.
Establish automated tools for detection and response.
Security challenges unique to the cloud
The cloud has revolutionized how we work, but it’s also added complexities, including the scale and dynamic nature of any given cloud resource. Here are some of the top cloud security challenges, as well as cloud security best practices to help you quickly resolve them.
Misconfigurations and public exposure
Cloud services come with many settings, which is a significant challenge because even small mistakes can accidentally expose sensitive data publicly. For example, a storage bucket meant for private backups might be inadvertently set to allow public access.
Best practices
Integrate security controls directly into infrastructure provisioning processes.
Regularly scan for and fix misconfigurations.
Identity sprawl and excessive permissions
Managing numerous user roles across different cloud services often leads to granting more access than individuals actually need, creating potential security gaps. A developer, for instance, might receive unnecessary administrator rights across multiple services.
Best practices
Centralize identity management across all cloud accounts.
Enforce least privilege using granular identity and access management (IAM) policies.
Incomplete visibility
Gaining a full picture of your security posture is difficult in the cloud because organizations often operate across multiple regions and use a range of accounts and services, making it hard to see everything at once. Security logs, for example, might be scattered across different systems, complicating the detection of widespread attacks.
Best practices
Deploy cloud security posture management tools.
Implement centralized logging and monitoring.
Shadow IT
The term “shadow IT” refers to untracked cloud assets or unmanaged SaaS applications, such as when teams use cloud services without IT department knowledge. As the age-old principle goes, “You can’t secure what you don’t know about.”
Best practices
Discover and inventory all cloud resources using an automated, agentless tool.
Implement policies for approved cloud service usage.
Multi-cloud complexity
Because each cloud provider uses their own unique tools and techniques, it’s hard to apply consistent security across all your platforms. Implementing the same firewall rules, for instance, requires learning and managing separate tools for each cloud.
Best practices
Adopt consistent security policies and tools.
Utilize a unified cloud management platform.
Core capabilities for securing cloud environments
Early on in your organization’s cloud transformation, it’s a good idea to start building your cloud-native security capabilities. Here are a variety of tools that you’ll need to secure your cloud environments.
Cloud security posture management (CSPM) assesses configurations and identifies and helps remediate risks in the underlying cloud environment.
Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM) manages user identities and access to resources throughout your cloud environment.
Cloud detection and response (CDR) replaces the perimeter-based security of on-prem systems with the ability to detect, investigate, and respond to security threats in the cloud.
Data security posture management (DSPM) discovers, classifies, and protects sensitive information in the cloud to keep it safe at rest and in transit.
Cloud workload protection platforms (CWPPs) protect diverse cloud workloads such as virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions. (CWPP overlaps with DSPM by monitoring workload behavior related to data access.)
Navigating this forest of tools can be daunting and demand new skills from your team. Each tool requires training, and when it’s up and running, will trigger alerts for every single problem it encounters. This can lead to alert fatigue—a common source of burnout.
The Cloud is complex—but your security stack doesn’t have to be.
To cut through alert fatigue and streamline your response, many teams are adopting consolidated cloud-native platforms. A CNAPP offers all the tools and capabilities you need to secure your cloud with less effort.
As a leading CNAPP, Wiz consolidates CSPM, CIEM, DSPM, and more into a single platform—streamlining security with complete visibility and contextual intelligence.
Each alert provides full context about the problem and the data you need to resolve it fast. Plus, the Wiz Security Graph gives you an easy-to-understand visual representation that connects misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and identity risks to generate actionable insights.
This integrated approach offers:
Detection of toxic combinations: Wiz quickly finds security risk combinations that, when encountered together, could lead to severe breaches.
Attack path mapping: By visualizing potential attack routes, Wiz lets you proactively block or fix cascading vulnerabilities.
Context-rich alerts: Wiz provides you with detailed context, enabling faster, more accurate troubleshooting and incident response.
The result? Wiz minimizes noise, letting your security team focus on mitigating the most critical threats. Instead of juggling multiple point solutions, CNAPPs unify core capabilities—reducing tool sprawl and simplifying remediation across your cloud estate. From a single pane of glass, Wiz gives you end-to-end visibility across your entire cloud estate, no matter what's out there or how quickly it changes.
All components share data along with up-to-the-minute threat intelligence, quickly revealing genuine threats. With Wiz, there are no blind spots, helping you prioritize alerts intelligently according to your business’s needs and manage the true complexity of cloud security.
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