Date: 14 July 2025
Adoption of multi-cloud infrastructure has obliterated traditional security perimeters. The real problem, however, is that the security ecosystem hasn’t kept up. Most cloud security vendors still offer narrow, point solutions; tools that address one specific problem, but fail to work cohesively across modern, multi-cloud environments.
The result? Tool sprawl. Identity tools from one vendor. Vulnerability scanners from another. Kubernetes protection from another still. And worst of all: no shared context between them.
So, how can cloud security companies keep pace with today’s distributed, cloud-native architectures? With a Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP).
The Problem: Cloud Security Vendor Sprawl
In the early days of cloud, security vendors simply extended their on-premises tooling to cover basic cloud use cases. As demand grew, so did the market for hyper-specific solutions: CSPMs, CWPPs, CIEMs, IaC Scanners, DSPMs, and more.
This approach was great when organizations worked in a single cloud. But now, in an environment where most enterprises operate across multiple clouds, the number of tools and vendors they need to manage has become unwieldy.
For example, a typical cloud security stack might include:
- A CSPM from one vendor for configuration drift
- A CIEM from another for identity over-permissioning
- Separate DSPM and AP-SPM tools for data and LLM protection
- Multiple workload protection agents tied to infrastructure
Each of these vendors claim to solve one part of the puzzle, but no single tools offer the end-to-end visibility or cross-domain context that security teams need to understand risk at scale.
This leads to:
- Overlapping alerts with little prioritization
- Integration fatigue across disparate platforms
- Blind spots where tools don’t communicate
- Operational inefficiencies in management and maintenance
And, ultimately, a weakened security posture. There’s a reason that, according to Tenable research, 95% of organisations experienced a cloud breach in the last 18 months, with insecure identities being a primary cause for 99% of those organisations.
Clearly, fragmented vendor ecosystems aren’t doing their job.
What Is a CNAPP – and Why Does it Matter?
A CNAPP is a unified security platform that brings together all critical cloud-native protection capabilities into a single, integrated solution. It merges:
- Configuration security (CSPM)
- Identity security and entitlements (CIEM)
- Infrastructure-as-Code scanning (IaC)
- Workload protection (CWPP)
- Threat detection and response (CDR)
- Kubernetes security (KSPM)
- Data and AI posture management (DSPM and AI-SPM)
This consolidation offers more than convenience. It enables contextual correlation, connecting the dots between misconfigurations, identity risk, and workload exposure to highlight real, exploitable attack paths.
Ultimately, where traditional patchwork strategies generate noise, CNAPPs offer clarity.
Key Benefit 1: Achieving Least Privilege at Scale
Modern enterprises manage massive numbers of identities. Without the proper tools, it’s remarkably easy for permissions to become misunderstood or over-provisioned. Industry research has highlighted the scale of this issue, with one report finding that over 90% of identities use less than 5% of their granted permissions, creating a massive, often unmonitored, attack surface.
Patchwork cloud security strategies fail to correlate these risks to actual attack potential.
CNAPPs, however, address this problem by embedding CIEM functionality into a larger ecosystem. That means:
- Automatic discovery of service identities
- Mapping permissions across accounts and clouds
- Prioritisation of over-permissioned roles
- Auto-remediation of risky entitlements
And, crucially, because identity insights sit alongside configuration and vulnerability data, CNAPPs reveal the toxic combinations, like a vulnerable workload to an over-permissioned identity with public access.
Key Benefit 2: Securing Cloud Data and AI Workloads
As organisations adopt LLMs, analytics, and cloud data platforms, traditional security tools no longer fit the bill. They often lack visibility into where sensitive data lives, who can access it, and how it interacts with AI systems.
CNAPPs close this gap by integrating DSPM and AI-SPM into the core platform. This allows teams to:
- Discover and classify sensitive data
- Monitor access to AI models and training sets
- Prioritize risks based on data exposure
- Contextualize data access within broader cloud posture
It’s not just about knowing what’s at risk; it’s about understanding the relationships between workloads, data, and identities in real time.
Key Benefit 3: Multi-Cloud Without the Chaos
Most enterprises now run workloads across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. But each cloud provider has its own distinct security services, APIs, and terminology (e.g., AWS IAM vs. Azure AD vs. Google Cloud IAM), complicating unified policy enforcement. Vendors that only support one platform force customers to cobble together inconsistent protections.
CNAPPs are designed from the ground up for multi-cloud environments. They abstract away cloud-specific quirks and provide:
- A consistent view of cloud risk across providers
- Unified policies and controls
- Centralized monitoring and response workflows
- Full lifecycle security – from development to runtime
This cross-cloud intelligence is a significant upgrade, especially for teams tasked with reducing exposure across disparate cloud environments without introducing more tools.
A Strategic Shift in Cloud Security
CNAPPs are a strategic shift for cloud security vendors. The legacy model of offering narrowly scoped tools no longer works. Buyers want:
- Integrated platforms, not overlapping products
- Context-rich alerts, not a barrage of alerts
- Vendor simplicity, not a growing list of contracts and integrations
Cloud security companies that embrace CNAPP can reduce customer friction, improve outcomes, and position themselves as long-term partners in exposure management.
Those that don’t risk becoming obsolete.
Simplifying Cloud security Without Compromise
The cloud gave enterprises speed, flexibility, and the ability to scale. It also broke the perimeter and introduced unprecedented complexity.
Vendors tried to patch over that complexity with more tools. CNAPPs do more: they offer a rearchitected, unified approach that’s better suited to the realities of modern cloud-native development.
When it comes to protecting workloads, identities, or sensitive data across multiple clouds, a CNAPP isn’t just another product category. It’s a recognition that cloud security needs to evolve – holistically, contextually, and collaboratively.
About the Author: Josh is a Content writer at Bora.
He graduated with a degree in Journalism in 2021 and
has a background in cybersecurity PR.
He's written on a wide range of topics, from AI to Zero Trust,
and is particularly interested in the impacts of cybersecurity
on the wider economy.
