Cloud security protects your cloud infrastructure, applications, and data from vulnerabilities and combines specialized tools, simple processes, and proven best practices to ensure security without slowing down the workflows that impact software delivery. Effective cloud security also allows organizations to quickly spot, analyze, and deal with threats across their cloud environments.
Having strong cloud security is important for keeping your users and data safe. But with so many factors to consider, it can be difficult to figure out which tools and strategies are right for you.
Read on to discover what roles your security tools should play and take a closer look at the main types of tools you need to build strong security workflows for your organization.
Cloud security tool categories
Cloud security tools differ from each other in two main ways:
The types of threats and systems they work with
The security functions they perform
For complete cloud security, you need a strategy that covers the following categories of tools:
Preventative tools
These tools stop threats before they reach your live deployments. By using them, you can cut down on real security incidents and make life easier for your security team.
For instance, you can use CI/CD controls to block branches with vulnerabilities.
Detective tools
Detective tools scan your systems to catch security issues that sneak past your preventative measures. They can also uncover new app vulnerabilities and flag infrastructure misconfigurations, like cloud resources with incorrect access controls.
Since no preventative solution can catch everything, detective tools are key to spotting problems before attackers do.
Analysis tools
Security analysis tools give you more details about detected threats. They show how a threat impacts your product, where it came from, and what caused it. A good analysis tool also offers clear, actionable insights to help you fix issues faster and improve your cloud security over time.
Mitigation tools
Mitigation tools make dealing with threats easier, faster, and more consistent. They can recommend fixes or even take care of the problem for you, such as automatically updating a vulnerable package or removing a hardcoded secret from your repo.
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At a glance: 10 cloud security tools
Here’s a quick look at the main types of tools that will help you build strong security workflows for your organization:
| Tool Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Cloud access security brokers (CASBs) | Sits between users and cloud services to enforce security policies and monitor cloud usage |
| Cloud detection and response (CDR) | Provides advanced threat detection for cloud environments using behavioral analytics and machine learning |
| Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM) | Manages identity governance by discovering, analyzing, and fixing identity-related risks in cloud environments |
| Cloud vulnerability management | Finds, assesses, prioritizes, and fixes security weaknesses across cloud infrastructure and applications |
| Cloud security posture management (CSPM) | Maintains security and governance through continuous configuration checks and automated compliance monitoring |
| Cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) | Secures runtime cloud workloads through behavior monitoring, integrity checks, and threat prevention |
| Data security posture management (DSPM) | Protects sensitive data through automated discovery, classification, and continuous monitoring |
| Identity and access management (IAM) | Handles authentication, authorization, and auditing for both people and automated systems |
| Kubernetes security posture management (KSPM) | Secures container orchestration by assessing configurations and enforcing Kubernetes policies |
| Role-based access control (RBAC) | Simplifies permission management by grouping them into roles based on organizational functions |
In depth: 10 cloud security tools
Here’s a look at 10 essential tool types and security features to include in your cloud security toolkit—along with their features, pros, and cons—to help you make the best decisions for your setup:
1. CASBs
CASBs are smart security tools that sit between cloud service users and providers to enforce security policies, prevent unauthorized access, and provide detailed insights into how teams are using cloud resources. They typically work in two ways:
API-based integrations: Connect directly to cloud services for post-access controls
Proxy-based deployments: Route all traffic through an inline gateway for real-time control
Most enterprise CASBs can also integrate directly into DevOps security workflows using webhooks and REST APIs. This lets security teams embed cloud access controls into CI/CD pipelines, automatically check policies during application deployment, and monitor them continuously throughout the app’s lifecycle.
CASBs also work well with other security tools—they share shadow IT data with CIEM solutions for identity correlation, send detected data transfers to DSPM tools for classification, and provide access logs to security information and event management (SIEM) platforms. Their data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities also often integrate with existing enterprise DLP systems, which extends on-premises policies into the cloud for consistent protection.
On the compliance side, top CASBs support major frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and SOC2 and offer pre-configured policy templates and automated compliance reporting to simplify the process. Many also support zero trust architecture for continuous session monitoring, contextual access controls based on factors like device health and location, and adaptive authentication when teams detect unusual activity across multi-cloud environments.
Examples: Netskope, Zscaler, and Proofpoint
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2. CDR
CDR tools bring advanced threat detection capabilities to cloud environments. By combining behavioral analytics, machine learning, and signature-based detection, these tools keep a continuous eye on your cloud setup. But unlike traditional endpoint detection systems, CDR platforms spot cloud-specific threats like unusual API calls, privilege escalations, or suspicious resource provisioning.
Since CDR solutions use read-only API connections and don’t require agents, they’re non-intrusive to DevOps workflows. Many of these tools also integrate with CI/CD platforms so security teams can automatically trigger scans whenever infrastructure code changes or new cloud resources deploy. They often support customizable detection rules in YAML or JSON as well, which teams can store alongside infrastructure as code (IaC) templates in version control.
Findings from CDR platforms can enhance your broader security ecosystem by exporting priority alerts to SIEM platforms with MITRE ATT&CK framework context, feeding threats to SOAR platforms for orchestrated responses, and sharing compromise indicators with CWPP solutions for stronger runtime protection. Advanced setups can even match identity information with CIEM tools to pinpoint compromised credentials in attack chains and automatically request credential rotations.
These solutions typically keep audit-ready records for incident response documentation (to meet SOC2, NIST, and ISO standards), provide detailed threat timelines for regulatory reporting (like GDPR or HIPAA), and offer ready-to-use reporting templates to show continuous monitoring controls.
Examples: Wiz Defend, Rapid7, and Arctic Wolf
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3. CIEM
CIEM platforms handle identity governance specifically for cloud environments by continuously discovering, analyzing, and fixing identity-related risks. These tools also make it easy to visualize and understand complex permission structures across multi-cloud setups by spotting excessive privileges, unused access rights, and privilege escalation risks that traditional IAM tools often overlook.
When it comes to implementation, CIEM solutions connect to cloud services and identity providers through read-only APIs. Most enterprise-level CIEM platforms even integrate directly with IaC tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, and Pulumi. This means they can evaluate potential permission risks during CI/CD processes and catch issues before deployment while giving developers quick feedback on IAM best practices.
CIEM findings also boost other security tools’ effectiveness—they share identity risk data with SIEM/SOAR platforms to add context to prioritization, provide credential exposure details to CDR tools for better threat detection, and work with CSPM solutions to link misconfigurations with identity vulnerabilities. Many CIEM platforms offer just-in-time access as well by issuing temporary credentials that automatically expire after a set time or task, which cuts down standing privilege risks.
For compliance, CIEM solutions align with major regulatory frameworks by mapping identified risks to specific control violations (like SOC2 CC6.1/CC6.3, NIST AC-2/AC-6, or ISO 27001 A.9). They also provide detailed audit trails of permission changes and ready-to-use reporting templates to show least privilege implementation.
Examples: Wiz, Sonrai, and CyberArk
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4. Cloud vulnerability management
Cloud vulnerability management involves finding, assessing, prioritizing, and fixing security weaknesses across cloud infrastructure, platforms, and apps. Modern tools use techniques like API discovery, agent-based scanning, and network analysis to continuously spot vulnerabilities in virtual machines (VMs), containers, serverless functions, and managed services. Many solutions also rely on frameworks like the Common Vulnerability Scoring System and Exploit Prediction Scoring System and then add in your environment’s context to calculate risks to your architecture.
Cloud vulnerability scanners also integrate with CI/CD pipelines using plug-ins so you can scan container images and IaC templates before deployment. For container environments, these tools can analyze both base images and application layers and flag vulnerabilities in OS components and dependencies while providing actionable remediation advice.
When it comes to compliance, these solutions work with frameworks like PCI-DSS (for quarterly scans or after major changes), HIPAA (for regular checks), and SOC2 (for ongoing monitoring). More advanced systems support zero trust strategies by offering real-time vulnerability insights for dynamic access decisions, simplifying scans across multi-cloud setups, and creating workflows to manage risks from vulnerabilities that teams can’t fix due to business needs.
Examples: Wiz, Qualys Cloud Platform, and Tenable.io
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5. CSPM
CSPM platforms are a powerful way to ensure security and governance in cloud environments. They handle everything from continuous configuration checks and automated compliance monitoring to risk remediation. And if you connect CSPM tools to cloud providers through APIs, you can create a centralized control system across multi-cloud setups and assess thousands of configurations against security best practices and compliance standards.
With these solutions, you can take advantage of policy as code frameworks like Open Policy Agent, Rego, and HashiCorp Sentinel. This means security teams define infrastructure requirements as programmable, version-controlled code and deploy it via read-only API connections, which makes setup quick and easy. Many CSPM tools also integrate with CI/CD pipelines so developers can check IaC templates against security policies before deployment.
Though they support frameworks like CIS Benchmarks, NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, SOC2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR, some of these platforms’ more advanced features include drift detection, which flags unauthorized infrastructure changes and makes it easier to stay on top of shadow operations and configuration drift. CSPM platforms can also feed misconfiguration data into vulnerability management systems for risk scoring, provide resource info for CIEM tools, and integrate with SOAR platforms for automated repairs.
Examples: Wiz and Microsoft Defender for Cloud
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6. CWPP
CWPPs keep your cloud workloads secure during runtime using tools like behavioral monitoring, integrity checks, and threat prevention to protect everything in the compute stack, from VMs and containers to serverless functions and databases. By monitoring memory, verifying processes, analyzing network traffic, and checking file integrity, CWPPs catch unusual activity before it becomes a problem. Additionally, with machine learning, they create behavioral baselines to spot anomalies like strange process patterns, unexpected network behavior, or suspicious API calls, all while keeping false positives to a minimum.
Teams typically deploy these tools as lightweight agents for VMs, sidecar containers for Kubernetes, or API hooks for serverless functions to strike a balance between security and performance. Many CWPP platforms also work with CI/CD pipelines by offering pre-built plug-ins to secure container images and block vulnerable workloads. On top of that, runtime application self-protection adds another layer of defense by detecting and blocking attacks like injection exploits or insecure deserialization at runtime—all without the need to modify your applications.
CWPPs offer advanced features like kernel-level monitoring and tracking serverless functions, so you can integrate runtime threat data with tools like SIEMs, CSPMs, and vulnerability management solutions. Additionally, CWPPs support compliance standards like SOC 2, PCI-DSS, and GDPR with runtime audits, access controls, and workload immutability. Plus, they enable zero trust security, secure multi-cloud setups, and support DevOps teams with automated threat remediation.
Examples: Wiz, Panoptica, and SentinelOne’s Singularity Cloud
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7. DSPM
DSPM platforms keep sensitive data safe across cloud environments by offering automated tools for discovery, classification, and continuous monitoring. They use techniques like pattern matching, contextual analysis, machine learning, and metadata inspection to identify sensitive data, no matter where you store it.
These platforms rely on API-based connectors to secure cloud storage, databases, and SaaS apps, which eliminates the need for agents. They also integrate with DevOps workflows to catch hardcoded secrets or insecure data storage before deployment. With features like data flow monitoring, DSPM identifies potential exposure risks and compliance problems. Many platforms also offer automated fixes, like encryption, access control updates, and policy changes, through cloud provider APIs.
As for compliance, DSPM tools map discovered data to regulations like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS and generate reports to show control implementation.
Examples: Wiz, Cyera, and Sentra
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8. IAM
IAM is a security layer for cloud environments that handles authentication, authorization, and auditing for both people and automated systems. Cloud provider IAM tools, like AWS IAM and Google Cloud IAM, allow you to set fine-tuned permissions through policies that define who can do what with specific resources and under which conditions. IAM also supports federation protocols like SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, and OIDC, which makes it easier to manage identities across multiple cloud providers and cuts down on administrative work.
These tools often integrate with CI/CD pipelines through IaC tools, which allows development teams to define and test access controls while automating security measures. Advanced setups also include privileged access management to issue temporary, task-specific credentials with automated expiration so elevated access is both secure and short-lived.
Overall, IAM enhances cloud security by providing identity context, detecting anomalies, and managing permissions with tools like CASBs, SIEM, and CIEM. It supports zero trust principles with continuous authentication and helps with compliance (such as SOC2 and HIPAA) through detailed audit logs.
Examples: AWS IAM, Entra ID (previously Azure AD), and Google Cloud IAM
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9. KSPM
KSPM platforms secure container orchestration environments by continuously assessing configurations, validating setups, and enforcing Kubernetes policies. These tools provide a clear overview of security across API server scans, control plane checks, node-level protections, and workload configurations.
These solutions make security easier by enforcing policies during deployment with dynamic admission controllers and integrating directly into Kubernetes environments. Teams can deploy them as operators or via API connections for quick cluster assessments. They also work with CI/CD tools to enable shift-left security. Primary features include container image validation, software bill of materials analysis, runtime drift detection, and supply chain security—all of which give you a great security foundation.
KSPM can boost cloud security by working alongside CSPM and CWPP tools to enforce runtime policies, network policies, and service meshes. They maintain compliance with standards like CIS Kubernetes, NIST 800-53, and PCI-DSS as well through continuous control checks and evidence collection for containerized workloads.
Examples: Wiz, ARMO, and Tigera
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10. RBAC
RBAC offers a simpler way to manage permissions in cloud environments by grouping them into roles based on organizational functions instead of assigning permissions to individual users. This streamlines complex permission sets into roles like “database administrator,” “security auditor,” or “application developer,” which admins assign based on job responsibilities. This reduces administrative headaches and simplifies management, especially in large organizations. RBAC also often includes hierarchical structures, where specialized roles inherit base permissions and admins add specific privileges as necessary.
RBAC enhances security by providing data to analyze privileges, track compliance, and detect anomalies. Advanced setups even allow consistent permission management across multi-cloud environments.
These frameworks also help teams meet compliance standards like SOC2 (CC6.3), ISO 27001 (A.9), and NIST 800-53 (AC-2/AC-6) by enabling role-based segregation of duties, access reviews, and audit trails. They support zero trust architecture by allowing contextual role activation based on factors like device security, location, and resource sensitivity.
Examples: Auth0, StrongDM, and ZITADEL
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Non-negotiable features of a cloud security tool
When deciding on a cloud security solution, there are a few must-have features you should look out for to keep your organization protected:
Risk-based prioritization: The best tools rank vulnerabilities by what matters most to your organization in clear, contextualized lists. This way, your team can tackle the most critical issues first.
Agentless scanning: You should opt for solutions that use cloud-native APIs for agentless, continuous scanning. They’re easy to set up, provide constant visibility, and save you money.
Deep contextual assessments: As your environment grows, your tools need to keep up. Look for ones that can assess a variety of technologies—like VMs, containers, and serverless functions—with in-depth context.
Integration capabilities: Your security tools should work well with what you already use, like SIEM, SOAR, and security configuration management, to keep workflows smooth and avoid silos.
Compliance support: You should choose a solution that can handle any compliance needs, with easy setup for industry standards and customizable policies.
Consolidating your tools with a CNAPP
Cloud security tools work better when they work together. To get full protection, it’s a good idea to consolidate your tools so you can manage all threats and resources in one place.
Without this unified approach, your tools can become disconnected, leading to issues like these:
Duplicate data: When different tools detect the same vulnerabilities and track them separately, it’s harder to see exactly how your security is improving.
Loss of control: Juggling multiple tools slows down response times and makes it harder to find key information when you need it.
Incompatible data models: Tools with different formats or data models can be a headache to integrate later.
Irrelevant findings: Outdated or unnecessary results might show up if tools lack context.
Management overload: Relying on multiple security tools can create extra admin work and pull time away from proactively hunting threats and making strategic improvements.
To avoid these issues, consider using a cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP), which streamlines workflows by combining multiple tool functions into one platform. This way, you can manage all your threats, resources, and compliance needs in one place without having to switch between tools.
This platform also gives you full visibility into risks across your cloud environment, along with automated threat analysis and response to keep everything secure. Plus, it prioritizes threats in context and streamlines remediation with pre-configured response actions, which makes your workflows smoother and more efficient.
Wiz: Your solution for complete cloud security
Wiz is your all-in-one solution for securing everything you build and run in the cloud. Forget the hassle of juggling multiple tools—Wiz offers all the tools you need in one single platform. This way, you can stay ahead of threats by preventing, detecting, analyzing, and mitigating risks.
For example, Wiz’s CSPM features catch misconfigurations and automatically apply fixes, while its CIEM identifies exposed credentials, tracks usage across resources, and gives you generated recommendations to reduce risk.
With Wiz, you get fast, efficient cloud security for your entire inventory. Its CNAPP connects to your resources in minutes via API, giving you instant visibility into your vulnerabilities and threat posture. You can also set up rules, policies, and alerts to maintain your security requirements.
Want to learn more? Get a full checkup on your cloud security today with Wiz’s free cloud security self-assessment.
