Cybersecurity 101 / Cloud Security / Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)

What is CNAPP (Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform)?

Cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPPs) are vital for securing modern applications. Understand their role in enhancing your security posture.
By SentinelOne March 10, 2023

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) are revolutionizing the way we secure cloud-based applications. Our guide explores the key features and benefits of CNAPP, including its ability to provide comprehensive visibility, risk assessment, and security controls across the entire cloud-native application lifecycle.

Learn how CNAPP can help you streamline security operations, reduce vulnerabilities, and ensure compliance in a cloud-native environment. Stay ahead of the curve and protect your cloud-native applications with our expert insights on CNAPP.

What is a Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)?

A Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) is a security solution to protect cloud-native applications. These applications are built using microservice architecture and run on containerized environments like Kubernetes, OpenShift, or Docker. A CNAPP offers a holistic approach to cloud security, protecting the entire application lifecycle from development to production.

CNAPPs use vulnerability scanning, threat detection, response, runtime protection, and policy enforcement techniques to secure cloud-native applications. In addition, they are designed to be highly scalable and automated, making them ideal for cloud environments where applications are constantly changing and scaling.

Why Do Businesses Need CNAPPs?

Adopting cloud-native applications has brought numerous benefits to businesses, including improved agility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. However, it has also introduced new security challenges. Cloud-native applications are highly dynamic and are constantly changing, making it difficult for traditional security solutions to keep up.

CNAPPs are purpose-built for securing cloud-native applications and provide a comprehensive security solution. They offer visibility and control over the entire application development and deployment pipeline, ensuring that security is integrated into every process stage. In addition, CNAPPs provide real-time protection and response to threats, ensuring that applications remain secure even as they scale and change.

Benefits of CNAPPs

In addition, a CNAPP offers several advantages over traditional security solutions when protecting cloud-native applications. CNAPPs offer numerous benefits to businesses, including:

  • Comprehensive Security – A CNAPP offers a comprehensive security solution that covers the entire application lifecycle. From securing the application code in the development stage to protecting the application in production, a CNAPP provides end-to-end security.
  • Scalability – Cloud-native applications are designed to be scalable, and a CNAPP offers the same scalability. A CNAPP can scale up or down based on the application workload, ensuring the application is always protected.
  • Agility – Cloud-native applications are designed to be agile, and a CNAPP offers the same agility. A CNAPP can adapt to changes in the application environment, providing security even as the application architecture evolves.
  • Automation – A CNAPP offers automation, which means that security tasks are automated, reducing the burden on the security team. This frees up the security team to focus on other critical tasks, improving the organization’s overall security posture.
  • Ease of Management – A CNAPP offers ease of management, with a single console for managing all security policies. This makes it easier for the security team to manage security policies and respond to security incidents.

How Does CNAPP Work?

CNAPP works by integrating security into the entire cloud-native application lifecycle. This includes development, testing, deployment, and production. The platform provides a set of security features that are designed to work with cloud-native applications, such as:

  • Container security – CNAPP protects against container-based attacks by scanning images for vulnerabilities, monitoring runtime behavior, and enforcing runtime policies.
  • Network security – CNAPP provides network security by monitoring traffic, enforcing security policies, and detecting and preventing attacks.
  • Application security – CNAPP provides application security by scanning applications for vulnerabilities, monitoring runtime behavior, and enforcing runtime policies.
  • Data security – CNAPP provides data security by monitoring data access, enforcing data protection policies, and detecting and preventing data breaches.

CNAPP also provides advanced threat detection and response capabilities, including automated incident response, threat hunting, and security analytics.

Conclusion

As businesses migrate their applications to the cloud, a cloud-native security solution becomes increasingly essential. A Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) provides a comprehensive, scalable, agile, and automated approach to cloud security, making it the ultimate solution for protecting cloud-native applications. With a CNAPP, businesses can have peace of mind knowing that their cloud-native applications are protected throughout their lifecycle.

Singularity Cloud Workload Security is runtime cloud threat protection, detection, and response for your multi-cloud workloads. Whether your workloads run on-prem or public cloud, in VMs, containers, or Kubernetes clusters, SentinelOne works alongside other security control to do what they do not: stop runtime threats like ransomware, zero-days, and memory injection. To learn more, visit our product page. There you can find customer testimonials, whitepapers, and more.

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