What is Managed Cloud Security?
Managed cloud security is the practice of outsourcing key cloud protection functions—like threat detection, configuration auditing, compliance reporting, and incident response—to specialized third-party security providers. These services are typically delivered via cloud-native tooling and 24/7 monitoring across multi-cloud environments.
Today, it’s become a huge asset. After all, modern cloud environments evolve faster than most security teams can respond to. As organizations scale across cloud vendors, the challenge isn't just protecting assets—it’s also difficult to maintain visibility, reduce misconfigurations, and respond to threats in real time. Managed cloud security helps teams face these challenges head-on by outsourcing critical operations to providers with the tools and expertise needed to secure complex cloud environments at scale.
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These providers typically operate on a 24/7 model, delivering protection across hybrid and multi-cloud setups through cloud-native platforms. Many providers integrate with third-party CNAPP platforms—such as Wiz—to unify capabilities like CSPM, ASPM, container security, and code security into a single workflow.
This model emerged in response to the growing gap between cloud adoption and internal security capacity. According to Wiz’s 2023 Cloud Threat Landscape, 93% of organizations report at least one critical cloud risk every day. Gartner adds that through 2025, nearly all cloud breaches will stem from customer misconfigurations, not issues on the cloud provider’s end.
The bottom line? As organizations move away from on-prem, cloud security changes. Traditional tools are no longer effective, and security now depends on cloud-native context, automation, and a shift-left approach.
Read on to learn about the core services, engagement models, and considerations for outsourcing cloud security.
Core functions of managed cloud security
To better understand managed cloud security, let’s start with its core functions:
24/7 threat detection and response
Cloud-based threats can strike at any hour, making 24/7 monitoring a foundational requirement. Managed security providers maintain continuous oversight by collecting and analyzing telemetry from cloud workloads, network traffic, IAM events, and API activity.
Using SIEM, XDR, and behavioral analytics, they detect anomalies such as lateral movement, unauthorized privilege escalation, or data exfiltration attempts. Automated response mechanisms—often orchestrated via SOAR platforms—can isolate compromised resources, revoke credentials, or trigger alerts in real time. Threat intelligence feeds (e.g., MITRE ATT&CK, commercial IOCs) further refine detection logic.
These services operate under strict SLAs, often guaranteeing incident triage within minutes. Additionally, retrospective analysis ensures previously benign activity is re-evaluated as new threat intel becomes available, enabling proactive risk mitigation even for stealthy, long-dwell attacks that evade initial detection.
Vulnerability and patch management
Cloud environments are constantly changing. New services spin up, containers are rebuilt, and software packages are updated at a breakneck speed. Managed security services help keep pace by handling patches and by scanning infrastructure, containers, and code for vulnerabilities on a rolling basis.
Crucially, these findings are contextualized and factor in exploitability, exposure paths, and blast radius to focus attention where it matters most. These efforts often tie into broader CNAPP and ASPM strategies that consolidate risk from dev to production.
Compliance and reporting
Regulatory expectations don’t pause for development sprints. Managed providers automate the process of mapping cloud configurations to compliance controls. This capability is typically powered by CSPM tooling, which continuously audits infrastructure, flags drift from policy, and generates evidence for auditors. By eliminating manual spreadsheet-based audits, this function reduces overhead while improving audit readiness.
Security architecture design and hardening
While threat detection and response are crucial, many security issues can be prevented with better architecture. Managed security providers can offer guidance on identity policies, workload segmentation, network isolation, and encryption enforcement. These preventative measures limit the potential impact of vulnerabilities.
To further strengthen security, architecture reviews may include infrastructure-as-code (IaC) scanning, container security support, and shift-left practices, ensuring that security is integrated early in the development process.
Toolchain integration and platform coverage
Managed cloud security services must integrate seamlessly into an organization’s existing toolchain to be truly effective. This includes compatibility with cloud-native platforms such as CNAPP, CSPM, ASPM, and container or code security tools.
These integrations enable managed providers to ingest real-time telemetry, enforce security policies, and correlate risk across the development and production lifecycle. Another huge benefit? They integrate directly with developer workflows—like CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code (IaC), and version control systems—to enable shift-left security, where vulnerabilities and misconfigurations are caught before production. This ‘code-to-cloud’ visibility helps bridge development and security practices. This ensures that vulnerabilities and misconfigurations are surfaced directly in developers' workflows and that security incidents trigger the appropriate alerts, tickets, or playbooks.
The goal is full-stack visibility and synchronized remediation across teams, reducing friction and response time in dynamic, multi-cloud environments.
MDR vs. CNAPP vs. Managed Cloud Security
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is often confused with broader managed cloud security services. While MDR focuses on detecting and responding to threats—typically using XDR platforms—managed cloud security encompasses a wider range of services, including compliance enforcement, posture management, and DevSecOps integration. Many providers combine MDR-like capabilities with CNAPP platforms for a more holistic offering.
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Fully managed vs. co-managed security models
Managed cloud security isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Organizations can choose between fully managed and co-managed models depending on how much control they want to retain, the complexity of their environment, and the maturity of their internal security team.
Take a look at the table below to see the difference between the two models, their respective pros and cons, along with what type of organizations they’re optimized for:
| Fully Managed | Co-managed | |
|---|---|---|
| Model description | Provider handles all aspects of cloud security operations | Security responsibilities are shared between the provider and internal team |
| Pros |
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| Cons |
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Who should use which model?
Fully managed model:
Startups and SMBs: Smaller organizations often lack the resources and expertise for full-scale cloud security. A fully managed model gives them access to always-on protection, from posture management and vulnerability scanning to incident detection.
Fast-growing SaaS companies: As engineering teams scale quickly, security often lags behind. Fully managed models allow growing SaaS companies to enforce consistent controls—like identity guardrails, IaC scanning, and vulnerability remediation, without needing to grow the security team at the same rate.
Organizations new to cloud security: Businesses that are cloud-first but new to cloud security need help establishing a secure baseline. A fully managed model helps them ramp up quickly with out-of-the-box policies, automation, and context-driven prioritization. For example, Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, used Wiz to consolidate core cloud security functions into a single platform.
Digital-native teams without dedicated security hires: In product-led tech startups or teams focused solely on innovation (e.g., AI/ML or gaming), security isn’t always a core competency. A fully managed model ensures that critical protections—such as data loss prevention and workload isolation—are enforced without distracting developers from core product development.
Co-managed model:
Enterprises with internal security teams: Larger organizations often want to stay hands-on with incident response, policy enforcement, or architectural decisions, but they still need external support for scale or around-the-clock coverage. A co-managed model allows internal teams to retain strategic control while offloading high-volume tasks. For instance, an insurance company implemented a co-managed SIEM to receive real-time threat intelligence and monitoring, allowing their small IT team to focus on longer-term security planning.
Regulated industries: In sectors like government, finance, and healthcare, organizations must adhere to strict requirements for data handling, access control, and internal audits. Co-managed security services can help these organizations maintain compliance by automating tasks like vulnerability scanning, log ingestion, and alert correlation.
Organizations undergoing cloud transformation: Companies shifting from legacy infrastructure to modern cloud platforms often need hands-on guidance but don’t want to relinquish control. A legal firm working with Ntiva, a consulting company, used a co-managed model during their cloud migration, maintaining compliance and uptime while strengthening their cloud posture with expert support.
Global enterprises with regional compliance needs: Multinational corporations operating in multiple jurisdictions may require localized visibility and control to meet region-specific regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, PDPA). A co-managed model enables global oversight from a central team while delegating tactical monitoring and remediation to regional security units.
Evaluating and selecting a managed security provider
Visibility: The provider should offer full-stack visibility, from cloud assets and configurations to vulnerabilities and identity exposures. Without this context, it's impossible to prioritize or respond effectively. Look for agentless or API-based platforms that provide continuous coverage without operational drag.
Multi-cloud and environment-specific coverage: Now that cloud environments have become more fragmented, support for AWS, Azure, GCP, containers, and Kubernetes is essential. Providers should offer consistent policies and detection logic across services and regions.
Integration with existing workflows: Security needs to align with engineering and DevOps, not block them. Providers should integrate with CI/CD pipelines, ticketing systems, IaC tools, and SIEMs to embed security into day-to-day processes.
Transparency and support model: Ask how alerts are triaged, who monitors your environment, and whether you get access to detection logic and remediation steps. Avoid black-box tools; favor providers who are open about what’s being flagged and why.
Scalability and shift-left capabilities: Providers should support IaC scanning, container image analysis, and code-to-cloud traceability to catch issues earlier in the software development lifecycle. These abilities become more important as organizations adopt microservices and scale rapidly.
How Wiz supports managed cloud security
Wiz is purpose-built to support organizations adopting a managed cloud security model. Its architecture directly addresses many of the operational and visibility challenges that we’ve covered throughout this article, ranging from fragmented tooling to scaling security across cloud environments. Here’s what to expect from Wiz:
Looking for a unified view? Our industry-leading platform combines CNAPP, CSPM, DSPM, container security, CIEM for identity visibility and access risk reduction, and vulnerability management into a single interface. The benefits are big: simplified posture management and consistent, actionable insights across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes for both providers and internal teams.
For teams practicing shift-left security, Wiz integrates directly into CI/CD pipelines, supports IaC scanning, and provides full code-to-cloud traceability. These capabilities help managed providers catch misconfigurations and risks earlier, without slowing delivery cycles.
Wiz also supports federated environments, ideal for co-managed models. Wiz allows a central team or provider to maintain oversight while enabling individual teams or business units to manage their own risks and workloads.
Finally, with native DSPM capabilities, Wiz continuously scans for sensitive data exposure and policy violations, streamlining compliance with standards like HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR.
For organizations working with managed providers, Wiz gives both sides the context, speed, and control needed to secure complex cloud environments effectively. See for yourself: Schedule a Wiz demo today.
