SSPM vs. CSPM: Key Differences Explained

SSPM vs CSPM forms one of the fundamental building blocks of sound cloud security—comprehensive visibility into a company’s entire cloud estate. It is this innovation that organizations are seeking, but the risks of breaches have also grown with the rising volumes of data and growing cloud adoption.

The debate over SSPM vs CSPM has been raging for some time now. It does not protect the same areas but puts them into a central visibility and access domain.

These are very different solutions that are often confused with one another, uniquely apart.

1 in 3 data breaches involve the use of shadow IT data. 40% of data breaches occur in multi-cloud environments, and it is time-critical to protect sensitive data moving across hybrid clouds.

CSPM solutions can provide scalability and flexibility advantages to organizations as concerns about data privacy, threat mitigation, and access implementation remain at the top of security leaders’ minds. Fifteen percent of all organizations fail security audits. Enterprises are seeing a rise in the number of attacks stemming from the cloud.

SSPM solutions for Software-as-a-Service Security Posture Management let one track security threats found in SaaS apps on the cloud platform. They support hybrid workforces to tackle day-to-day challenges by incorporating best practices. In the case of SSPM vs CSPM, SSPM safeguards an organization’s mission-critical data and synergistically complements CSPM solutions.

Today, we will consider their key features, compare how SSPM vs CSPM work, and show where and how they may be implemented in organizations.

What is SSPM?

SaaS Security Posture Management solutions identify misconfigurations, compliance, and excessive access permissions. While in SSPM vs. CSPM solutions, SSPM would have the ability to track changes in SaaS app configurations, implement access controls, and provide incident response capabilities. This would increase the visibility into the infrastructure, reduce the risk of data breaches, and maintain continuous compliance with various regulatory standards.

What are the key features of SSPM?

The key features of SSPM are:

• SSPM won’t let any sensitive data get exposed to the internet.
• SSPM identifies security gaps and compliance issues that could potentially put organizations at increased risk. It enables continuous security monitoring for SaaS apps and services.
• SSPM vs CSPM offers a single-pane-of-glass visibility for all security concerns and gets every stakeholder onboard. In SSPM vs CSPM, SSPM implements the latest privacy and data security rules and bolsters the organization’s ability to incorporate active threat remediation.
• SSPM vs CSPM solutions are very compatible with different platforms like messaging solutions, dashboards, workspaces, video conferencing systems, HR management software, and customer support tools. They can identify unauthorized privileges, eliminate them, and manage user roles and permissions.
• These solutions can detect inactive and unneeded user service accounts. SSPM can reduce the number of attack surface vectors. Such SSPM vs. CSPM tools can automatically mitigate critical security risks and prune user accounts to better manage these attack surface vectors. They also send automated alerts to security teams whenever new security issues are found and flag them.

What is CSPM?

CSPM solutions provide a holistic view of the organization’s entire cloud security posture. CSPM solutions provide real-time visibility into cloud security configurations, identify vulnerabilities, and automate remediation efforts to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards.

SSPM vs. CSPM is particularly important in today’s cloud-first world, where organizations are increasingly relying on cloud services and infrastructure to support their business operations. By implementing CSPM, organizations can maintain the trust and confidence of their customers and stakeholders. Cloud Security Posture Management tools also offer advanced monitoring and threat detection abilities that SSPM doesn’t provide.

What are the key Features of CSPM?

CSPM solutions typically offer a range of features, including:

• The ability to manage cloud inventories and resources
• Management of security configurations
• Agentless vulnerability scans and cloud audits
• Regular updates, patching, compliance monitoring, reporting
• Incident response and threat detection
• Security policy management and enforcement.
• Advanced analytics and reporting for cloud security posture management

7 Critical Differences between SSPM and CSPM

We’ve explored both sides of SSPM vs CSPM now and can fully agree that they have their merits. Organizations can enjoy their advantages and disadvantages; that is only possible when they are aware of their critical differences.

Here are the distinct characteristics of SSPM vs CSPM that separate them:

1. Application and Data Protection– SaaS SPM deals with the protection of SaaS applications and data within the SaaS provider’s infrastructure. CSPM Focuses on securing cloud infrastructure, applications, and data across multiple cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
2. Visibility and Access Control– In most cases, SaaS SPM is limited to one SaaS application or a very small set of SaaS applications. CSPM provides visibility and control across an entire cloud environment, including multiple cloud providers, accounts, and resources.
3. Logging and Cloud Configuration Management– Usually, SaaS SPM tracks logs and security events of SaaS applications. However, it does so within the SaaS provider’s infrastructure. CSPM does monitoring across many clouds, accounts, and security configurations of the cloud and network traffic flow.
4. Automated Policy Enforcement and Threat Remediation-SaaS SPM provides recommendations for the remediation of SaaS application-specific security issues. CSPM gives remediation recommendations for configuration issues of cloud security, such as NSG rules or IAM policies and more.

5. Third-Party and API Integrations-SaaS SPM is integrated with API and SaaS application security features. CSPM SSPM integrates with cloud provider APIs, cloud security features, and other security tools to provide a comprehensive view on cloud security posture.

6. Multi-Cloud Compliance and Data Governance-SaaS SPM places a high premium on compliance with SaaS-specific regulations and standards, such as HIPAA and PCI-DSS; at the same time, CSPM does it with cloud-specific regulations and standards, like AWS Well-Architected Framework or Azure Security Benchmark.

7. Security Design-By definition, SaaS SSPM is a cloud-based service, meaning no on-premises infrastructure needs to be installed. CSPM is a cloud-based service, though it may leverage on-premises infrastructure to make some of its capabilities possible around the collection and processing of data.

SSPM vs. CSPM: Key Differences

SaaS SPM is only concerned with the SaaS applications one buys from external vendors. CSPM deals with access control to the cloud accounts, consolidating the visibility and risks across multiple cloud providers. You won’t find SaaS SPM security-related features included within the CSPM solution. However, SaaS SPM and CSPM both help an organization enhance its overall security posture.

You can use SSPM vs. CSPM for privilege access management for users, management of security vulnerabilities, or regular audits. Here are the main differences between CSPM vs SSPM that exist in organizations.

What are the Key Advantages of SSPM & CSPM?

SaaS SSPM offers organizations the following advantages:

1. SaaS SPM solutions are cloud-based; thus, their implementation and deployment are easy.
2. Provides real-time transparency into security configuration compliance and SaaS application security posture, user activity, and data access.
3. Ensures adherence to compliance requirements by SaaS applications, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and others.
4. It identifies and raises an alert on SaaS application-specific threats to reduce the risks of data breaches or unauthorized access.
5. Scalable for large and complex SaaS application estates.
6. Generally more cost-effective than on-premise solutions; has no infrastructure or maintenance costs.
7. It provides a user-friendly UI for monitoring and managing SaaS application security.

CSPM offers organizations the following advantages:

• CSPM solutions offer total visibility into cloud infrastructures, resources, and configurations, enabling the real-time monitoring and searching of various security threats.
• Organizations can track their assets in real time, highlight changes in security configurations, and manage threats as they occur.
• CSPM solutions support a high level of report customization and alerting to meet very specific security requirements, thereby allowing an organization to define security posture management settings and ensure their adherence.
• CSPM solutions work together with other security tools and cloud providers, giving a comprehensive view of the security posture. These solutions can scale up or down with large, complex, cloud environments, so they work best for companies with multiple cloud providers and huge-scale cloud deployments.
• Generally, CSPM solutions are more cost-effective than their on-premise equivalents and do not involve infrastructure and maintenance costs. CSPM solutions detect and send alerts on misconfigurations, unauthorized access, and other security threats that may result in data and security breaches.
• CSPM solutions help stay compliant with regulatory requirements and industry standards such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR by ensuring sufficient controls and visibility over cloud security.
• CSPM solutions increase security through the discovery and remediation of security threats associated with misconfigured resources, unauthorized access, and data breach protection.
• CSPM allows the acceleration of the response to security incidents by quickly discovering and responding to security incidents, thus containing the impact of such security breaches.
• CSPM solutions help maintain and manage visibility into cloud workloads hosted natively with applications and services, reducing workload risks as well as general security risks.
• CSPM solutions support multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and others, making them ideal for organizations with multi-cloud environments.

What are the Limitations of SSPM & CSPM?

Here are the limitations of SSPM vs. CSPM:

1. SSPM solutions can impact performance, primarily if they are not optimized for cloud-based applications. CSPM solutions may not be capable of detecting advanced threats or zero-day attacks, particularly if detection is signature-based. CSPM solutions may not provide automated remediation capabilities for issues identified with cloud security.
2. SSPM solutions may not scale to large environments or high-traffic applications. CSPM solutions may not scale to large environments or high-traffic applications.
3. Not every SSPM solution will provide you with multi-cloud compliance reporting and enforcement capabilities against the current requirements of regulatory bodies. Not all CSPM solutions provide advanced analytics or machine learning-based threat detection.

When to choose between SSPM and CSPM?

You can choose between SSPM vs CSPM by taking into consideration the following factors:

• Between SSPM vs CSPM solutions, SSPM is designed specifically for SaaS applications. In SSPM vs CSPM features, SSPM offers similar capabilities to that of CSPM solutions by providing automated security posture assessments and policy enforcement.
• Among SSPM vs CSPM, CSPM enables granular visibility while SSPM offers additional access controls and exclusive application security monitoring. The choice between SSPM vs CSPM will depend on your specific business needs and organizational goals.
• Organizations can protect themselves against cyber threats when deciding between SSPM vs CSPM and both are excellent solutions. However, CSPM wins when it comes to ensuring the overall security of your cloud infrastructure.
• CSPM is best suited for large organizations with vast cloud resources and services. It’s also good for those looking to ensure compliance with specific regulatory requirements like HIPAA or PCI-DSS.
• If you need a technology solution to secure your cloud-based applications, data, and users, then go for SSPM CSPM. If you have a problem concerning the management and monitoring of your cloud security posture, particularly configuration and risk management, then it’s only CSPM.

SSPM vs CSPM Use Cases

Here are the most popular SSPM vs. CSPM use cases in 2024:

• Both SSPM vs. CSPM solutions for advanced cloud security orchestration can be used to consolidate cloud security services via integration with other security tools and systems.
• Automation of cloud security workflows for automated remediation capabilities and automated threat detection—is possible through SSPM vs. CSPM.
• SSPM vs. CSPM can provide real-time threat intelligence, to help organizations drive informed cloud security decisions.
• SSPM vs. CSPM platforms can be used for the protection of cloud-based IoT devices from malware, DDoS, and other possible unauthorized access, including smart home devices and industrial control systems.

Why Do Organizations Need Both SSPM and CSPM?

The capabilities of SSPM vs. CSPM complement each other to ensure continuous security and compliance for an organization’s total tech stack. For SSPM vs. CSPM, working together, provides complete visibility into the overall security posture while ensuring the security and compliance of their SaaS applications and cloud infrastructure.

Conclusion

It’s not surprising to learn that there is no deciding between SSPM vs. CSPM. You need both to ensure complete cloud and cyber security. Being aware of the key differences between SSPM vs. CSPM will help you decide which solution is right for your organization. Do keep in mind that security needs to evolve and your threat actors will change their tactics.

Modern SSPM vs. CSPM offerings incorporate AI and deep learning to keep up with the dynamic threat landscape. So don’t worry too much about falling behind. If your goal is to protect your users, data, assets, and SaaS apps, get both. SSPM and CSPM together will help you achieve a holistic view of your cloud security posture and keep your organization secure.

SSPM vs. CSPM FAQs

1. Can SSPM replace CSPM or vice versa?

SSPM and CSPM complement each other and neither of them can replace both totally. Whether it’s SSPM vs. CSPM, it will depend on what the company is looking for to enhance its overall cloud security posture.

2. Can SSPM and CSPM Work Together?

SSPM vs. CSPM can work together for end-to-end security posture management. With the inclusion of SSPM vs. CSPM, organizations will manage to have a single view of their security posture across SaaS applications and cloud infrastructure. For example, SSPM may alert CSPM to potential security problems within a SaaS application, and this could very well trigger appropriate response actions for mitigating them.

3. What is the difference between SMP and SSPM?

SMP is concerned with the administration of an organization’s security posture across its total technological stack—on-premises infrastructure, cloud resources, and SaaS applications. SPM can help you respond to security incidents and doesn’t have a steep learning curve.

SSPM manages the security posture of only SaaS applications such as Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce, and Google Workspace. It is easy to deploy and access in global companies.

4. What is the difference between CSPM vs SSPM vs CWPP?

CSPM will continuously monitor and manage your cloud resources, networks, and configurations. SSPM enhances the visibility of SaaS apps and highlights their usability, user behaviors, and data access restrictions. CWPP provides real-time runtime protection and monitoring of your cloud workloads.