CSPM defined
Cloud security posture management (CSPM) is the practice of continuously monitoring, detecting, and remediating security risks and compliance violations across cloud environments.
CSPM serves as a critical layer of security across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS environments by identifying misconfigurations, providing risk context, and automating remediation efforts.
CSPM tools are important because modern enterprises need to manage, operate, and protect complex and perimeterless multi-cloud IT infrastructures according to the shared responsibility model.
Why is CSPM important?
CSPM is important because it provides the continuous visibility and real-time risk context organizations need to secure complex cloud environments.
While this shift unlocks new possibilities for agility and innovation, it also opens the door to heightened security risks. CSPM tools have become indispensable to address the challenges associated with modern cloud environments:
1. Blind spots in complex multi-cloud environments
Cloud environments, particularly multi-cloud architectures, introduce complexity that can create significant visibility challenges or "blind spots" for security teams. These blind spots can result from the sheer volume of cloud resources, the use of various cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.), or dynamic environments where services, applications, and workloads are constantly being spun up or decommissioned.
CSPM tools consolidate this information, offering a unified view of all cloud assets, configurations, and security risks in a single dashboard, reducing the risk of missing critical issues.
2. Risk context and prioritization
Several cloud security solutions, including older iterations of CSPM tools, can identify misconfigurations in cloud environments. However, many misconfiguration identifications lack context, which is essential in perimeterless environments.
In your organization, you need a robust CSPM to provide context around identified misconfigurations so you can focus on those that pose a risk to your environment. CSPM can help you prioritize cloud misconfigurations and challenges so they’re easier to address.
Alert fatigue can slow down security teams. CSPM can help you reduce alert fatigue and only address legitimate cloud concerns.
3. Compliance requirements
Manual compliance processes of the past cannot keep up with rapidly scaling cloud architectures. Businesses require continuous compliance to avoid legal penalties caused by a breach in regulatory frameworks, including NIST CFS/SP/800-171/800-53, PCI DSS, SOC2, HiTrust, and CIS benchmarks for cloud vendors such as AWS, Azure, GCP, and Alibaba.
Breaching these regulations can have severe repercussions. Meta was fined $1.3 billion for compliance failures in 2023, Instagram was fined $445 million in 2022, and OpenAI was fined 15.58 million Euros in 2024.
CSPM tools provide capabilities to do this and automated mechanisms to assess your compliance posture and identify regulatory red flags.
4. Operational efficiency
The nature of traditional security tools can sometimes contradict developers' approaches in agile IT environments. Traditional identification and remediation of security risks can be slow and may struggle to keep up in a high-octane dev environment.
CSPM can help you bridge the gap between operational velocity and robust cybersecurity by baking in security earlier in the development lifecycle (aka “shift left”). Suppose your security team can give developers the context, prioritization, and specific remediation guidance they need to fix issues independently. In that case, you get to have your cake and eat it too (shipping code fast and securely!).
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How do CSPM tools work?
CSPM is a robust cloud security solution that can provide companies with many advantages. But how does exactly it help secure cloud environments?
When describing how CSPM tools work, a typical approach can be broken down into several key steps:
1. Discovery and visibility
Asset discovery: The first step involves identifying and cataloging all cloud resources, services, and configurations within the environment. This covers everything from compute instances and databases to identity configurations and storage buckets. CSPMs pull data from AWS Config, Azure Policy, and GCP Cloud Asset Inventory to build a real-time resource inventory.
Real-time mapping: Continuous scanning ensures that newly created resources are automatically added to the inventory, creating a full, up-to-date map of all resources and security configurations.
End-to-end visibility: CSPM tools give a complete view of the cloud environment, allowing security teams to see how different services are connected and configured. This visibility helps detect misconfigurations, open ports, or unused services that might go unnoticed.
2. Risk assessment and prioritization
Risk identification: Once assets are discovered, the tool assesses their security posture by comparing configurations against established security policies and best practices.
Contextual risk analysis: Instead of treating every misconfiguration equally, a modern CSPM will assess risk based on factors like:
Exposure: Is the resource accessible from the internet?
Sensitivity: Does the resource contain sensitive data or critical services?
Potential impact: What would happen if this resource were compromised?
Risk prioritization: Issues are ranked based on the level of risk they pose to the organization, helping security teams prioritize what to address first. For example, an unencrypted public-facing storage bucket is flagged as a critical issue due to its exposure and attack path to sensitive data.
One example of implementing an improved risk assessment and prioritization plan is when Colgate-Palmolive adopted Wiz for multi-cloud security. Alex Shuchman, CISO, emphasized how his team needed alerts and insights to proactively identify and prioritize risk. Shuchman said:
Wiz has helped build credibility for risk remediation, because it has such a low level of false positives. I don’t think we’ve ever had a false positive for a critical or high-risk. That’s not true for other CSPM solutions, even though they have access to the same data.
Alex Shuchman, CISO, Colgate-Palmolive
3. Remediation
Remediation guidance: After identifying risks, CSPM solutions provide detailed recommendations on how to fix them. For example, it might suggest tightening IAM permissions, closing open ports, or applying encryption to sensitive data.
Automated remediation: Most solutions allow for automated fixes, where security configurations can be adjusted without manual intervention. For instance, automating the closing of open security groups or enforcing encryption standards can greatly reduce the risk window.
Integration with DevOps: CSPMs can also integrate with DevOps workflows, ensuring that insecure configurations, like misconfigured infrastructure-as-code templates, are identified and remediated before deployment.
With Wiz, developers have the solutions they need to understand and address issues promptly. We can remediate issues within three days.
Andy Yap, Senior Cyber Security Engineer, OFX
4. Compliance and reporting
Compliance audits: CSPM tools help organizations maintain compliance by regularly checking cloud configurations against regulatory standards such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, or internal security policies. Most will automatically identify areas where the environment is non-compliant, reducing the burden on manual audits.
Customizable compliance policies: Organizations can tailor policies to specific regulatory requirements or industry standards. This allows for flexibility depending on regional or business-specific compliance needs.
Automated reporting: Security tools generate detailed reports that show compliance levels and the steps taken to address violations. CSPM dashboards provide a snapshot of the security posture, compliance status, and risk mitigation efforts.
Audit trail: Many tools also provide an audit trail, documenting security changes and remediation actions for future reference, and are useful for compliance or incident investigations.
5. Continuous monitoring
Real-time threat detection: Continuous monitoring ensures that new issues or misconfigurations are immediately detected once all critical issues have been addressed. This includes monitoring for unauthorized changes, newly introduced vulnerabilities, or deviations from established security baselines.
Alerting and notifications: When an issue is detected, the tool sends real-time alerts to security teams, ensuring that threats are addressed promptly. Alerts are prioritized based on the severity of the issue and potential risk to critical assets.
Wiz came into the picture to allow us to feel secure and confident in how fast we’re moving, even as our cybersecurity challenges keep changing.
Melody Hildebrandt, CISO, Fox
6. Integration with broader security stack
Unified security management: Cloud security tools often integrate with broader security solutions, such as cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP), to provide a unified approach to securing your entire cloud ecosystem. Your security team gains a more holistic view by combining security information from multiple tools (e.g., workload protection, identity management, and vulnerability scanning).
Identity-centric security: Most CSPMs integrate with cloud identity and access management (IAM) solutions to manage and reduce identity risks, such as over-permissioning or identity sprawl. This is particularly important as misconfigured identities are often a leading cause of cloud breaches.
Automation across tools: These solutions integrate with other cloud security tools (e.g., DevSecOps pipelines, SIEM systems) to ensure automated detection and remediation across the entire cloud environment. For example, a detected misconfiguration can trigger automated actions in other security systems to minimize exposure.
Comprehensive cloud protection: When integrated into a broader CNAPP framework, the tool covers not only cloud infrastructure but also workloads, containers, and serverless functions. This allows you to secure cloud-native applications at every layer.
These steps showcase how a well-designed CSPM can provide continuous visibility, risk assessment, automated remediation, and compliance management. When integrated with a broader security stack, these tools contribute to a unified, automated, and proactive security approach for cloud environments.
What are the benefits of CSPM?
The benefits may already seem clear as we've explored CSPM solutions and their challenges. But if you're still not sold, let's outline the key benefits of posture management tools:
1. Enhanced visibility
CSPM tools provide comprehensive visibility into cloud environments, helping organizations track and monitor cloud resources, configurations, and data flows. As cloud infrastructure grows more complex, visibility becomes essential for understanding how assets are deployed, interact, and where potential vulnerabilities lie.
With a clear view of your entire cloud architecture, your organization can quickly identify misconfigurations or risky practices, preventing breaches before they occur. This enhanced visibility also helps detect shadow IT and unauthorized use of cloud services, ensuring a more secure cloud infrastructure.
2. Reduced cloud risks
One of CSPM's core advantages is its ability to identify and mitigate security risks unique to cloud environments. By continuously scanning cloud configurations and analyzing them against security benchmarks and best practices, CSPM tools reduce the risk of misconfigurations, overly permissive access policies, and unprotected data storage.
Automated alerts and real-time monitoring allow organizations to quickly address potential threats before they become breaches. By actively managing and remediating these risks, CSPM significantly lowers the chances of costly security incidents in the cloud.
3. Improved compliance posture
CSPM helps you comply with regulatory requirements and industry standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc. Most teams struggle with changing frameworks manually. CSPM automates compliance audits and flags drift in real time.
Through continuous assessments, CSPM provides detailed audit trails and reports that simplify compliance audits and help you prove adherence to required standards. This proactive approach reduces the risk of fines and legal repercussions and strengthens customer trust by demonstrating a strong commitment to security.
4. Faster remediation
CSPM tools enable faster remediation through automated workflows when security issues or misconfigurations are detected. Rather than manually identifying and resolving every cloud security issue, CSPM can integrate with remediation workflows to quickly fix vulnerabilities or improper settings.
In some cases, CSPM can automatically revert cloud settings to secure configurations or alert security teams to take action immediately. This rapid response capability helps minimize the exposure window, drastically reducing the potential impact of a breach or attack.
The Definitive CSPM Buyer's Guide [RFP Template Included]
This buyer’s guide aims to help you understand current market offerings by evaluating the capabilities of legacy and modern CSPM tools, so you can improve your security posture by choosing the right CSPM solution for your organization.
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Modern vs. legacy CSPM
The evolution from legacy to modern CSPM reflects a shift from reactive, compliance-focused cloud security to a proactive, real-time, risk-based approach. The worrisome part? Many vendors still offer legacy CSPM tools focused only on compliance snapshots.
As cloud environments have grown complex and vital to business, CSPM has had to evolve.
The table below expands on the specific feature differences between modern and legacy CSPM tools:
| Features | Modern CSPM | Legacy CSPM |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance standards and custom frameworks | Yes | Yes |
| Near-real-time configuration evaluation | Yes | Yes |
| Agentless cloud workload scanning | Yes | No |
| Contextual cloud risk assessment | Yes | No |
| Offline workload scanning | Yes | No |
| Agentless and contextual vulnerability detection | Yes | No – requires an agent |
| Agentless and contextual secure use of secrets | Yes | No – requires an agent and cannot identify lateral movement |
| Agentless and contextual malware detection | Yes | No – requires an agent installed on the workload and manual correlation |
| Data security posture management | Yes | No |
| Kubernetes security posture management | Yes | No |
| Effective network analysis | Yes | No |
| Attack path analysis | Yes | No |
| Effective identity analysis | Yes | No |
| Multi-hop lateral movement | Yes | No |
| CI/CD scanning | Yes | No |
| Comprehensive RBAC support | Yes | No |
CSPM vs. other security solutions
Cloud security has become an alphabet soup of acronyms. It can be tough to remember what each stands for and how they differ. CSPM is one piece of a broader cloud security stack. Here’s how it compares to and complements other tools.
| Comparison | Explanation |
|---|---|
| CSPM vs. CASB | • CASB enforces policies. • CSPM fixes misconfigurations. |
| CSPM vs. CWPP | • CWPP protects workloads. • CSPM monitors configurations. |
| CSPM vs. Cloud security | • Cloud security is broad. • CSPM focuses on configuration posture. |
| CSPM vs. CNAPP | • CNAPP unifies tools. • CSPM is a component within CNAPP. |
| CSPM vs. CIEM | • CIEM manages identities. • CSPM focuses on misconfigurations. |
| CSPM vs. DSPM | • DSPM secures data. • CSPM secures infrastructure configurations. |
| CSPM vs. SIEM | • SIEM analyzes alerts. • CSPM monitors and remediates misconfigurations. |
What analyst firms say about CSPM
Gartner
Gartner's key strategic planning assumptions and market directions include the following:
Consolidation of CWPP and CSPM: In 2025, 60% of enterprises are expected to consolidate their cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) and CSPM capabilities to a single vendor, up from 25% in 2022. This trend reflects the need for integrated solutions that provide comprehensive security and compliance management.
Integrated CNAPP offerings: In 2025, 75% of new CSPM purchases will be part of an integrated CNAPP offering. CNAPPs provide a unified set of security capabilities, including CSPM, to protect cloud-native applications throughout their lifecycle.
Increased CSPM offerings: By 2027, 80% of vendors will include CSPM in cloud security platforms, compared to 50% in 2022. This signifies a clear necessity within the market for a unified solution that incorporates CSPM.
Enhanced attention to misconfigurations: By 2026, Gartner expects about 60% of companies will see cloud misconfiguration as a security priority (compared to 25% back in 2021).
Forrester
Forrester's stance on CSPM emphasizes its critical role in enhancing cloud security by detecting and responding to real-time configuration drifts and potential threats. They highlight CSPM as a dynamically evolving segment within the cloud workload security (CWS) space, essential for managing the security of compute, storage, and network resources across cloud environments.
Forrester Principal Analysts Tracy Woo and Lee Sustar also mention AI’s role in the cloud as a key trend. They say, “Cloud strategies are evolving as a result to address new concerns in governance, risk, and security, and face challenges in procurement and vendor management.” That’s why finding a unified cloud security platform that can meet today’s needs but proactively meet evolving threats will be critical for a strong CSPM.
KuppingerCole
Cloud services are dynamic and a traditional static approach to security is not effective.
Mike Small, Senior Analyst, KuppingerCole
KuppingerCole's view of CSPM emphasizes the importance of continuous monitoring and automation to manage cloud security risks effectively. They highlight CSPM's role in providing visibility into cloud service configurations, identifying vulnerabilities, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and organizational policies. In their Leadership Compass for CSPM, KuppingerCole identified the leading vendors based on the strength of their products, market presence, and innovation.
Wiz's approach to CSPM
It can be overwhelming to navigate the cloud security solutions market and make the optimal choice. CSPM can provide numerous advantages, but you may be confused about whether it will suit your particular needs and use cases.
The Wiz CSPM solution offers real-time scanning to detect misconfigurations as soon as they occur. It identifies the event that triggered the misconfiguration and enables you to immediately trigger an automated remediation flow (such as automatically adjusting access control settings to restrict public access).
Ready to take control of your cloud security posture? Book a demo to see how Wiz combines deep context, automation, and full-stack visibility to help your team fix real risks faster.
Get the free The Definitive CSPM Buyer’s Guide [RFP Template Included] for more about CSPM.
