As cloud infrastructures grow and threats become more sophisticated, organizations need a cloud security posture management (CSPM) solution to defeat threats and meet compliance requirements. Choosing the right tool, however, isn’t easy when you have an existing cloud infrastructure and unique needs.
Learn more about CSPM, the many solutions you can choose from, and why a unified cloud security platform might be your best choice.
A refresher: What exactly is CSPM?
A CSPM solution is a crucial tool that bridges the gap between cloud infrastructure management and security operations. This allows you to maintain a robust security posture across your multi-cloud environments, which ensures that your team can focus on strategic security initiatives rather than manual configuration checks.
According to Gartner, “The core of CSPM applies common frameworks, regulatory requirements, and enterprise policies to proactively and reactively discover and assess risk/trust of cloud services configuration and security settings.”
CSPM uses a set of processes to identify and prevent misconfigurations and security policy enforcement gaps, which stops data and infrastructure breaches and regulatory non-compliance before they happen.
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Below are four specific cloud computing challenges that CSPM tools address, how they affect cloud security, and what you can do about them.
| Challenge | Solution |
|---|---|
| Misconfigurations | The cloud’s complexity—driven by organizations using a mix of solutions—makes misconfigurations a common and dangerous risk, often exploited by cybercriminals as entry points for disruption. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tools address this by automatically detecting and remediating issues like publicly accessible S3 buckets, helping prevent data leaks and securing environments at scale. |
| The shared responsibility model | Major cloud providers follow a shared responsibility model, but many organizations struggle to understand which security tasks are theirs versus the provider’s. CSPM solutions clarify these roles by highlighting gaps in security posture and clearly outlining which controls are managed by the cloud provider and which require customer oversight. |
| A wide attack surface | The explosion of cloud-connected endpoints—from laptops to smart devices—brings both convenience and risk, as each can become a potential entry point for cybercriminals. CSPM tools help mitigate this by continuously monitoring cloud assets for suspicious behavior, such as unrestricted ports or packet sniffing, and alerting security teams to take immediate action. They also integrate with SIEM and SOAR tools to streamline incident response and reduce both detection and response times. |
| The cloud's size and complexity | The cloud’s vast size makes it incredibly complex, and its scope complicates the granular coverage of all ports, endpoints, components, and APIs. To combat this, CSPM solutions automate coverage via scans, simplifying cloud governance. This frees up your security team to focus on more complex, strategic tasks that require human expertise. |
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What makes good CSPM software?
Effective CSPM software should provide comprehensive visibility, agentless and AI-powered risk detection, DevOps and CI/CD pipeline integrations, automated compliance and governance, and contextual security insights. These tools should also provide the latest technologies to quickly adapt to new threats.
Below are specific features and functionalities that the best CSPM tools offer:
Key features of modern CSPM tools
Automation and AI-driven analysis: A modern CSPM tool should automate security checks and detect anomalies and misconfigurations. It should also allow you to configure security policies and automate enforcement. To help with this, leverage AI-driven analysis to add context for decision-making during remediation.
Agentless scanning and detection: Leading CSPM tools eliminate the need for software agents. Agentless scanning ensures full coverage across all cloud resources, including virtual machines, containers, and serverless environments, without disrupting host functions.
Integration of DSPM and KSPM: Effective CSPM solutions combine data security posture management (DSPM) with Kubernetes security posture management (KSPM). DSPM strengthens data security, while KSPM safeguards Kubernetes, a key platform for large-scale deployments. A CSPM tool that integrates both ensures comprehensive protection.
CI/CD scanning and attack path analysis: Seamless CI/CD pipeline integration enables early detection of security issues, such as code misconfigurations and vulnerable third-party dependencies. A robust CSPM solution continuously scans throughout the software development lifecycle.
Contextual reporting and analytics: Useful reporting prioritizes vulnerabilities by severity and provides actionable remediation guidance, such as configuration changes, policy enforcement, and best practices, to mitigate risks.
Compliance and governance: An ideal CSPM tool assesses compliance with security regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS. It should also generate audit-ready compliance reports and integrate with compliance frameworks and tools.
User-friendly interface and centralized reporting: Deploying and managing CSPM tools shouldn’t be complex. Leading solutions simplify setup and offer intuitive interfaces that non-technical users can navigate. They also provide unified dashboards that consolidate scan results across multi-cloud environments into clear, graphical reports.
Optimal solutions also include tools (such as graph-based algorithms) for scanning possible attack paths. These solutions should swiftly track, report, or remediate lateral movement or suspicious activity in the cloud environment.
The table below summarizes CSPM’s evolution and the differences between modern and legacy CSPM tools:
So which CSPM tool works best for your security needs? Let’s take a look at six solutions.
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What are the most popular CSPM tools?
This list uses G2 ranks for CSPM vendors in the order of their scores. Read on to learn about their features, compatibility with cloud platforms, user-friendliness, and other crucial capabilities:
1. Wiz
G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5 ⭐ (698 reviews)
About Wiz:
After their founding in 2020, Wiz quickly gained traction with the Wiz platform, a unified, agentless solution that consolidates the following into a single intuitive interface:
Wiz takes a smarter approach to CSPM by continuously scanning your cloud environment without agents and mapping risks through its Security Graph. Instead of flooding teams with alerts, it connects the dots across misconfigurations, exposed secrets, and identity issues to highlight what’s actually exploitable—so you can focus on what matters.
It goes beyond basic posture checks by tying in runtime context, IaC scans, and compliance rules across 150+ frameworks. The result: a clear, prioritized view of risk that helps security teams move fast, stay proactive, and reduce noise.
Today, Wiz secures half of the Fortune 500, fast-growing startups, and leaders like Slack, BMW, DocuSign, Mars, Salesforce, and Priceline. Its focus on visibility, automated risk reduction, and developer-friendly security has driven it to a $32 billion valuation with the recent Google acquisition, cementing its leadership in cloud security.
CSPM capabilities:
Unified security platform
AI-driven attack path analysis
Context-sensitive monitoring and alerting
Integrated security stack
User-friendly interface
Best for: Organizations that need a comprehensive, unified cloud security platform that covers all security needs
2. Microsoft Defender for Cloud
G2 rating: 4.4 out of 5 ⭐ (302 reviews)
About Microsoft Defender for Cloud:
Microsoft Defender for Cloud emerged in 2015 as Azure Security Center, and it initially focused on securing Azure resources. In 2017, Microsoft expanded the service’s capabilities in response to increasing multi-cloud adoption and rebranded it as Microsoft Defender for Cloud. This shift marked a broader vision: providing unified security management and advanced threat protection across hybrid and multi-cloud workloads.
Defender for Cloud continuously expands its reach as cloud security challenges become more complex. It now offers native CSPM capabilities for Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, which allows SecOps teams to manage security across multiple cloud providers from a single pane of glass while supporting threat protection across these platforms.
CSPM capabilities:
Real-time monitoring and visibility
Integrated security stack
Vulnerability scanning
Machine learning capabilities
Multi-cloud and hybrid security
Quick threat detection and response
Unified security management
Regulatory compliance
Best for: Companies that have already invested in the Microsoft Azure ecosystem
3. Trend Micro’s Hybrid Cloud Security
G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5 ⭐ (175 reviews)
About Trend Micro:
Trend Micro built Hybrid Cloud Security on its established strength in on-premises security. As cloud adoption grew, Trend Micro strategically acquired cloud security expertise, and it then launched Hybrid Cloud Security in 2015 to unify its on-premises and cloud protection services. Since then, the platform has significantly evolved, adding advanced threat detection, centralized management, and flexible deployment options.
Today, Hybrid Cloud Security provides comprehensive security for hybrid environments, cloud workload protection, data security, and more.
CSPM capabilities:
Complete visibility
Continuous attack surface checks
Consolidated native tools
Threat intelligence
Security policy management
Unified security for hybrid clouds
Best for: Companies with a sizeable on-premise infrastructure that are looking to grow their cloud infrastructure
4. Check Point’s CloudGuard
G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5 ⭐ (155 reviews)
About CloudGuard:
Check Point created CloudGuard to unify the security of all cloud-native endpoints. It supports all cloud areas, such as infrastructure, native services, serverless architecture, Kubernetes, IAM, and networks. One of its best features is that it provides a set of predefined policies based on different regulatory standards.
CSPM capabilities:
Unified security for multi-cloud environments
Automated DevSecOps
Visibility and intelligence
Threat prevention under one platform
Automated detection
Best for: Companies that need a tool that strongly focuses on threat prevention with automated DevSecOps
5. Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex Cloud
G2 rating: 4.1 out of 5 ⭐ (63 reviews)
About Cortex Cloud:
Cortex Cloud is a CSPM tool that provides proactive security and compliance management for cloud environments. It continuously scans your cloud environment for misconfigurations like overly permissive IAM roles or unencrypted data stores in real-time.
The tool offers continuous security monitoring, compliance checks, and automated remediation across public and private clouds. It also shows compliance and alerts with extreme detail and supports most security standards while providing automatic remediation.
CSPM capabilities:
Cloud asset inventory
Continuous visibility for assets
Configuration state tracking
Misconfiguration detection
Compliance monitoring and reporting
Network flow visibility
Quick remediation
Best for: Large enterprises that deal with complex cloud environments and need a mature security tool
6. Rapid7’s InsightCloudSec
G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5 ⭐ (1 review)
About InsightCloudSec:
Rapid7’s InsightCloudSec, formerly DivvyCloud, identifies several cloud challenges, such as misconfigurations, policy violations, and IAM challenges. As a native, no-code automation solution, it also helps organizations streamline the remediation process and offers solutions to fix compliance drift immediately.
CSPM capabilities:
Real-time visibility
Context-driven risk management
Cloud compliance management
Agentless vulnerability management
CIEM and CDR
IaC security
Kubernetes security guardrails
Best for: Organizations that need a context-driven risk management cloud solution
7. CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5 ⭐ (69 reviews)
About CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security:
CloudStrike Falcon Security is part of the Falcon platform, which secures cloud environments and protects AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. The platform also provides a unified view of cloud security posture, workload protection, and threat detection.
CSPM capabilities:
Continual cloud configuration monitoring and assessment
Cloud workload protection
Identity-based cloud security
Real-time threat detection
Best for: Organizations that are already using the CrowdStrike ecosystem for a unified security solution
8. Orca Security
G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5 ⭐ (218 reviews)
About Orca Security:
Orca Security provides side-scanning tech for agentless visibility of cloud workloads and configurations. The platform also spots vulnerabilities, malware, misconfigurations, and key risks without agents or network scanners.
CSPM capabilities:
Agentless visibility
Vulnerability management
Misconfiguration detection
Compliance monitoring
Risk prioritization
Best for: Organizations that prioritize rapid deployment and visibility across different cloud environments without the overhead of agent management
9. SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security
G2 rating: 4.9 out of 5 ⭐ (107 reviews)
About SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security:
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security secures multi-cloud infrastructure and containerized environments. The tool also provides runtime protection, vulnerability management, and compliance features.
CSPM capabilities:
Cloud workload protection
Vulnerability management
Cloud data loss prevention
Compliance monitoring
Best for: Security teams that need robust, AI-driven cloud security tools with enhanced threat detection and response features
How to implement CSPM in the context of broader cloud security
CSPM provides a broader, more foundational layer of protection for your entire cloud infrastructure for a more holistic, unified experience.
Choosing to implement a CSPM offers several benefits:
Holistic visibility: CSPM provides a rounded video of your cloud environment and identifies issues and gaps like misconfigured security groups.
Top security: CSPM tools enforce best practices like encryption at rest and least privilege for IAM. It reduces breach and access risk with strong foundational controls.
Proactive mitigation: With CSPM, you can continuously monitor for misconfigurations like public buckets or open networks. You can remediate the issues early to prevent breaches.
Compliance reinforcement: When implementing a CSPM, you can leverage templates for government standards like HIPAA and PCI, automating checks and reducing your audit prep time.
When you implement CSPM solutions in the DevOps process, you can ensure that security becomes part of the application by shifting left from the start, not at the end. This helps you ensure that you’re producing a safe application from the ground up, both for your users and your data security.
You can use your CSPM solution to its full potential by practicing the following steps:
Automate your security checks with CI/CD integration: Embed CSPM scanning for misconfigurations before deployment. For example, set up automated checks for insecure default configurations in cloud services like S3 buckets or Kubernetes clusters.
Use agentless scanning for coverage: Capture complete visibility by covering all cloud assets, such as VMs, serverless functions, and containers, without interfering with functions. Agentless scanning also removes friction from manual tasks, which makes it easier to deploy and maintain. Additionally, you can implement policy as code to define policies and enforce protocols, which helps with regulations like HIPAA, GDR, and more.
Contextualize findings: Find risks based on priority ranking and complement them with actionable insights using the right CSPM.
Automate remediation: Implement automated remediation workflows for common issues. For instance, you can automatically revoke overly permissive IAM permissions or enforce encryption for data at rest and in transit.
Improve clarity and collaboration: Adopt a shared responsibility approach by integrating a unified platform that provides dashboards and insights to streamline the developmental and security processes.
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Upgrade your cloud security posture management with Wiz
Though the cloud security landscape changes quickly and always faces new threats, the right CSPM can protect your organization through essential security management, detection, and compliance.
Wiz, the industry-leading CSPM, delivers clear visibility, automation, and contextual risk management. As a cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP), it’s an all-in-one solution that addresses all security needs for unified posture management.
Wiz’s agentless, unified approach provides security solutions like:
Full-stack security
Agentless architectural
AI-powered risk prioritization
Automated compliance and governance
Seamless DevOps integration
Enterprise-grade scale and adoption
When you choose a CSPM like Wiz’s, you get a holistic cloud security solution that gives your company both real-time visibility and the confidence that you can manage, access, and protect your data with robust security protections. Get the demo today to learn more.
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