Organizations have embraced public clouds for their agility, scalability, and continuous innovation. But securing cloud environments required a new approach—one that Wiz pioneered with agentless scanning to deliver full visibility and risk context, without slowing teams down.
But for most organizations, the story doesn’t end in the cloud. They’re hybrid.
Critical workloads still run on-premises—for performance, compliance, or data sovereignty reasons. AI workloads are adding new pressures, while edge environments introduce even more complexity.
The result? Hybrid is the norm.
Organizations now operate across a patchwork of cloud, private cloud, on-prem, and edge environments.
And yet, security tools remain fragmented.
The Hybrid Security Problem: Fragmented Tools, Fragmented Risk
Securing hybrid environments often means cobbling together a set of disconnected tools:
A vulnerability scanner for on-prem workloads, an EDR agent for endpoints, an asset inventory agent, a compliance tool, and a cloud-native security platform.
Each of these tools works in isolation, offering only a narrow view of risk. But in a hybrid world, nothing is isolated. Workloads, data, and attack paths flow freely between environments.
For example:
A vulnerable on-prem virtual machine stores cloud API keys locally. A bad actor exploits that VM, gains access to the credentials, and uses them to breach your cloud environment—exposing sensitive data across both domains.
A container in a private Kubernetes cluster exposes a vulnerable API. That API connects to a cloud-hosted frontend—and to an on-prem database holding sensitive financial data. An attacker exploits the API and pivots between environments, moving from cloud to on-prem, undetected.
In another case, a misconfigured agent used to manage hybrid infrastructure lets an attacker run code on-prem. They escalate privileges and establish persistence in the connected cloud environment—bridging both sides of the hybrid stack.
But the tools designed to protect these environments don’t talk to each other. This disconnect forces teams to manually stitch together findings, navigate duplicated alerts, and, too often, miss the bigger picture. It slows down patching, increases operational overhead, and ultimately increases risk.
Worse, many scanners treat every CVE as equally critical. Without runtime validation, teams drown in noise—chasing irrelevant vulnerabilities instead of focusing on real, exploitable risks.
Introducing Sensor Workload Scanner for Private, Hybrid, and Multi-Cloud
Yesterday, we announced Wiz Sensor Workload Scanner as part of Wiz for Exposure Management. Now, let’s explore what it enables in hybrid environments:
Enables scanning across Linux and Windows* (Coming soon) virtual machines in private cloud environments like VMware, OpenStack, and more
Extends coverage to include self-hosted Kubernetes clusters (e.g., OpenShift)
Reaches bare metal and edge workloads, wherever your infrastructure lives
But what truly makes this powerful is the runtime context. Unlike traditional tools, Wiz validates vulnerabilities against what’s actively running—not just what’s installed. All of this is powered by the unified Wiz policy engine and security graph.
How Wiz Solves the Hybrid Visibility Gap
Securing hybrid infrastructure requires more than just extending existing tools. It demands a new approach that connects workload insights with broader infrastructure context, all in real-time.
Remember that example from earlier: a publicly exposed, vulnerable container running in the cloud provides an entry point for attackers. Behind that container lies a connection to on-prem systems housing sensitive financial data. With fragmented tools, this hybrid path goes unnoticed — until it’s too late.
Here’s how Wiz delivers the end-to-end visibility and protection needed to stop these hybrid threats:
Runtime-aware workload scanning - Wiz Sensor doesn’t just inventory—it inspects running workloads. It builds SBOMs and validates vulnerabilities in memory, spotlighting real exploitable risks instead of outdated code.
Platform context via APIs - By integrating with VMware, Kubernetes, OpenStack, and similar platforms, Wiz layers in posture details like network exposure, identity access, and compliance status—giving you context, not just checkpoints.
Correlation through the Wiz Security Graph - Every finding becomes part of a bigger story. Wiz links vulnerabilities to whether the asset is internet-exposed, stores sensitive data, or is part of a threat path, turning findings into actionable, prioritized insights.
Unified policy enforcement across environments - Whether it’s cloud, private workloads, or container clusters, Wiz applies the same posture and compliance rules, eliminating fragmented tools and ensuring consistent governance.
Real Outcomes for Hybrid Security Teams
Adding coverage for hybrid environments isn’t just a checkbox. It drives meaningful outcomes that transform how teams operate and reduce real business risk.
Wiz enables hybrid security teams to move faster and smarter by solving four of their biggest challenges:
Cut Through the Noise and Focus on What Matters - By validating findings at runtime, Wiz filters out irrelevant vulnerabilities that aren’t loaded in memory or exposed. Teams can focus their efforts on real, exploitable risks, accelerating response and avoiding wasted cycles on false positives.
One Platform, Unified Experience Across Environments - Hybrid teams often juggle a patchwork of tools for cloud, on-prem, and edge environments, each with its own workflows. Wiz consolidates this into a single, unified platform where Security, ITOps, and Platform Engineering teams can collaborate with shared context and clarity.
End-to-End Risk Visibility Across the Entire Stack - Wiz doesn’t just show you isolated workload vulnerabilities—it reveals how they connect to broader attack paths. For example, you can see how a vulnerability in an on-prem server could impact a cloud-connected service. This full lifecycle visibility empowers teams to anticipate and mitigate risk before it becomes an incident.
Simplified Compliance and Governance - With Wiz, policies and compliance checks are applied uniformly across hybrid environments. Whether you’re enforcing CIS benchmarks on cloud workloads or hardening on-prem systems, Wiz ensures consistency, simplifies audit preparation, and streamlines governance processes.
Turn Visibility into Action, Everywhere You Run
Security isn’t about discovering more vulnerabilities. It’s about knowing which ones matter and having the clarity to act.
With Sensor-Based Workload Scanning, Wiz brings runtime context to both cloud and on-prem environments, with virtually no performance impact. Our lightweight sensor is optimized for resource efficiency, making it a great fit for even the most constrained on-prem systems. It unifies teams, prioritizes what’s truly risky, and speeds up remediation while simplifying compliance.
No more stitching together disconnected tools. No wasted cycles chasing irrelevant findings. Just clear, actionable security wherever your workloads live.
Ready to see how it works? You can learn more about Wiz Sensor-Based Workload Scanning (login required) and sign up for the public preview through the Preview Hub.
