DevOps and cloud have been two of the most impactful advances in modern IT. DevOps gained attention as organizations sought ways to enhance the efficiency of their software development life cycles, shortening the time it takes to develop and deploy software products. The cloud, a market that is now worth over $500 trillion globally, has provided advantages across a wide range of fields, including software and apps development and delivery.

The connection between cloud computing and DevOps may appear natural and instinctual. Both are set to grow further as they become crucial in a world dominated by online connectivity and heavy reliance on software, mobile apps in particular. However, cybersecurity remains a critical issue.

To maximize the benefit of DevOps in the context of a cloud-dominated modern IT environment, it is vital to ensure security, and with the rise of new development methodologies, cloud-native security in particular. With the rise of dynamic environments, microservices, containers and other factors that characterize cloud environments, developers need new ways to secure their apps effectively against more complex threats.

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms, or CNAPPs, are a security model that focuses on cloud-native security. A relatively new cybersecurity term, it was first defined by Gartner in 2021 to stress the importance of ascertaining the security of applications that run on the cloud. It veers away from the conventional approach to security that uses a patchwork of tools. Instead, it implements a comprehensive life cycle approach wherein app security is taken into account from planning to design, implementation, deployment and maintenance.

CNAPP can serve as a bridge that brings together DevOps practices and requirements for ensuring robust security. It can link DevOps directly to cloud-native security by providing the tools developers need to achieve the best security configurations and implement all crucial controls and mechanisms under cloud environments.

Created in response to the need for tooling and security platform consolidation, CNAPP is designed to view security and regulatory compliance holistically, not as a separate phase the software development process has to go through. It is about treating cybersecurity as a continuum that involves different operations and security teams. It helps make the “shift left” security paradigm a reality.

Key CNAPP Benefits That Enable Cloud-Native Security

CNAPP focuses on achieving cybersecurity defense in a continuous life cycle approach while consolidating different security tools and platforms, thereby addressing the problem of low observability in conventional cybersecurity. This is important because of the nature of cloud-native security. It is unlike traditional setups wherein network parameters are clearly defined. With the presence of cloud-native workloads, it does not make sense to identify network parameters and implement controls specific to these boundaries.

CNAPP integrates with CI/CD pipelines to provide protection at the instance of an application. By doing this, protection is afforded not to a specific well-defined location but across clouds and on-premises assets where applications operate. It secures the cloud-native infrastructure, including serverless security arrangements and containers.

Another notable CNAPP benefit is its ability to contextualize security information and conduct end-to-end security visibility. Traditional cybersecurity solutions also have their way of conducting security scans, tracking and observation. However, they tend to encounter accuracy issues because they have no means of cross-checking their data and determining the correct and broader view of their security situation.

CNAPP provides end-to-end visibility and comprehensive details on an organization’s technology stacks, user identities and configurations. With contextualization, it can also set priorities on security alerts to ensure that overwhelming amounts of data do not end up pushing crucial alerts into oblivion and failure of response.

Moreover, CNAPP provides cyberprotection that is suitable for cloud-native applications by facilitating tighter oversight or control over an organization’s secrets, containers and workloads, among others. It is up to date with the latest cybersecurity challenges and the corresponding solutions to efficiently deal with them. It ensures stricter controls and a proactive approach in scanning, detecting, mitigating and remediating threats.

How to Adopt CNAPP to Achieve Cloud-Native Security

CNAPP has three main components, namely cloud security posture management (CSPM), cloud service network security (CSNS) and cloud workload protection platform (CWPP). Organizations that are considering CNAPP as part of their cybersecurity strategy will have to implement these components.

CSPM consists of tools and mechanisms focused on conducting security assessments, including the regulatory compliance of a system. It also entails the use of automation to ensure efficient detection and remediation of most security tasks. CSPM makes it possible to spot misconfigurations and other vulnerabilities that can lead to security breaches. It also enables broad cloud visibility by expanding into SaaS, IaaS and PaaS platforms.

CSNS is about implementing cloud network security functions that can monitor the dynamic nature of cloud networks. It can proactively adjust its operational breadth to secure cloud-native workloads. It supports granular segmentation to provide adequate security for all kinds of traffic, especially those that dynamically pass through the cloud. Some examples of CSNS tools are load balancers, next-gen firewalls and anti-denial of service solutions.

Lastly, CNAPP requires the institution of CWPP, which focuses on modern threats that target workloads in private and public clouds but also in hybrid setups. CWPP is a vital component in infusing security early in the software development life cycle or the concept of shifting security left.

In a way, CWPP eases DevOps teams’ transition to DevSecOps. It provides the tools necessary to conduct workload discovery and then proceed to detect security issues and find solutions to plug the vulnerabilities discovered. The security tools involved here include malware detection (specifically for workloads), runtime protection, as well as network segmentation.

Bridging DevOps With Cloud-Native Security

CNAPP empowers organizations to achieve cloud-native security through its ability to facilitate continuous protection and monitoring, dynamic and proactive cloud security, real-time threat detection, app-centric security and automation and orchestration capabilities.

There are other solutions that allow organizations to work towards cloud-native security. However, CNAPP is arguably superior because of its ability to integrate end-to-end cloud-native security. This does not only work for a specific type of workload. It applies to all enterprise workloads. It provides a holistic approach to bringing cloud-native security and DevOps practices together.

CNAPP is not necessarily the be-all and end-all solution in securing cloud-native environments. Newer and better solutions are bound to emerge and supplant it. However, at this point, it is one of the best ways to infuse security into DevOps while paying close attention to the unique needs of cloud-native applications.