1. The Divide Between AppSec and CloudSec
AppSec and CloudSec teams are ultimately trying to do the same thing: keep systems secure. But too often, they work in parallel rather than together.
This disconnect is especially painful in cloud-native environments. With more tools, faster development cycles, and increasingly complex infrastructure, security responsibilities tend to get scattered. Teams duplicate work, operate on incomplete context, and lose time just figuring out who’s responsible for what.
The result? Issues get flagged—but not always fixed.
Security today isn’t just about tooling. It’s about how well teams can coordinate around shared context and shared action. In short: security is a workflow problem.
2. Workflow Breakdown in the Age of AI
Most security incidents don’t stem from a lack of alerts. They happen because teams aren’t aligned when it counts.
Take a common example: AppSecAppSec flags a hardcoded secret in a code scan. Later, CloudSec detects an exposed resource tied to that same secret. But without a shared understanding of ownership—or the ability to trace the full exploit path—nothing gets remediated. It lingers until it becomes a real incident.
This breakdown is magnified by the rapid adoption of AI. Developers are moving faster than ever, thanks to GenAI and coding copilots—but so are the risks.
Wiz’s State of AI in the Cloud 2025 report shows just how quickly things are evolving. Self-hosted AI model adoption jumped from 42% to 75% in a single year. Teams want more control and flexibility, but that also means more third-party code, more complex infrastructure, and more potential for misconfiguration.
And the challenge isn’t just technical—it’s operational. A survey of nearly 100 organizations found that:
87% are already using AI services like OpenAI and Amazon Bedrock.
Only 13% have adopted AI-specific security posture management (AI-SPM).
31% cite lack of AI security expertise as their top challenge.
Worse, 25% of security leaders don’t even know what AI services are running in their environment.
Shadow AI isn’t a concern from the future—it’s already here.
We’ve seen this play out firsthand. The Wiz Research team has uncovered critical AI vulnerabilities, from exposed DeepSeek databases leaking sensitive data, to RCE flaws in open-source infrastructure like Ollama, to a CVE in NVIDIA’s AI stack affecting over a third of cloud environments.
The takeaway: AI is accelerating everything—development, deployment, and complexity. But security practices haven’t kept up. Teams are flying blind, and even the best detection tools won’t help if ownership is unclear or workflows are broken.
To address this, we need more than another tool. We need a platform that connects the dots across teams and environments—a shared operating model for modern security. That’s the role of ASPM (Application Security Posture Management): a system that helps teams not just see risk, but act on it together.
3. Why AppSec + CloudSec Collaboration Matters More Than Ever
Cloud-native apps don’t map neatly to org charts. They’re assembled and shipped by cross-functional teams—but the way they're built often blurs traditional boundaries between code and infrastructure. And modern attack paths follow that same pattern.
A single exploit can travel from a vulnerable dependency to an over-permissioned role to a misconfigured storage bucket. If AppSec and CloudSec are only looking at their piece of the puzzle, they won’t catch the full risk.
Fixing issues in isolation is inefficient at best—and dangerous at worst. Shared context is the only way to prioritize what matters and respond with confidence.
4. Making Them BFFs: What Good Looks Like
a. Shared Context (Backend to Frontend Flow)
Start at the foundation: a unified graph database that connects code, cloud, identity, runtime, and beyond.
Add graph APIs and a Security Graph that maps risks across the environment—like tracing a leaked secret in a repo to an exposed production service.
Then surface that context through role-specific dashboards. Whether it’s a Code Security board for AppSec or a Data Security board for CloudSec, everyone gets the view they need—rooted in a single source of truth.
b. Shared Workflows
Throwing tickets over the wall isn’t working. Real progress comes from automated ownership mapping, root cause analysis, and fixes that land directly in developer workflows—whether it’s a PR, an IDE, or Slack.
It’s not about alert volume. It’s about shortening the time between detection and resolution.
c. Shared Policies
Guardrails only work when they’re applied consistently across teams and environments.
That means embedding checks for things like secrets, IaC misconfigs, and exposed endpoints directly into CI/CD pipelines—without slowing developers down. Good guardrails guide, not block.
5. How Wiz Code Bridges the Gap
Wiz Code brings AppSec and CloudSec together with a shared understanding of risk—from source to runtime. It gives teams:
Code-to-cloud visibility, so issues can be traced back to their source.
Automated root cause analysis (RCA) and ownership assignment, so the right person gets the right context without delay.
Fixes delivered directly into existing workflows, so remediation happens faster.
Wiz Code reflects a shift from passive visibility to proactive action—helping teams reduce real risk and prevent issues from reaching production.
6. Outcomes: Speed, Trust, and Safer Releases
When AppSec and CloudSec teams are aligned on a shared platform:
Critical issues get fixed faster.
Ownership is clear by default.
Handoffs and confusion disappear.
Teams move from reacting to preventing.
That kind of collaboration builds trust—not just between teams, but across the business. And it leads to faster, safer, more reliable software delivery.
