Best Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) of 2025

Use the comparison tool below to compare the top Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) on the market. You can filter results by user reviews, pricing, features, platform, region, support options, integrations, and more.

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Overview

A cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) is a system designed to provide comprehensive security solutions for applications that are deployed and hosted on the cloud. The idea behind CNAPP is to enable organizations to ensure the security of their apps in an agile, cost-efficient way. As more companies transition their apps to the cloud, they need a robust solution that can protect them from malicious attacks and other threats.

CNAPPs use various technologies such as microservices architectures, virtualization, containers, Kubernetes clusters, API gateways, firewalls and more to provide end-to-end security coverage for applications running in the cloud. They come with a range of features including vulnerability scanning and remediation, dynamic authorization policies for users and services, user access control lists (ACLs), configuration settings management, asset discovery and sandboxing capabilities. These features help organizations detect potential vulnerabilities before they become exploited by attackers.

They also offer web application firewalls (WAFs), bot detection & mitigation systems and virtual patching tools which can be used to reduce the risk of exploitation against web applications. These tools monitor network traffic for suspicious activity and automatically apply rules that block attempted attacks. This helps reduce downtime due to malicious activities or unexpected system errors caused by misconfigurations or vulnerabilities in third party code libraries or frameworks.

Finally, CNAPPs come with advanced analytics capabilities that provide deep visibility into application performance across multiple platforms as well as insights into user behavior patterns so organizations can detect anomalous activity quickly and accurately take action if deemed necessary. This provides an extra layer of protection against unknown threats or zero day exploits which may not have been detected otherwise.

Overall, CNAPPs are essential components of any organization's overall security strategy as they help protect applications deployed in the cloud from malicious actors while providing detailed insights into usage data helping ensure the secure operation of these apps over time.

Why Use Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)?

1. Improved Visibility: Cloud-native application protection platforms provide comprehensive visibility into the health and status of cloud applications. This helps organizations detect threats to the system in real-time, allowing them to respond rapidly without disrupting operations or experienced outages.
2. Advanced Security: CNAPP platforms leverage advanced security tools such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and behavioral analytics to identify suspicious activity and protect applications from malicious attacks. They also use secure protocols like TLS/SSL encryption to ensure data is securely transmitted between servers.
3. Automation: CNAPP platforms automate common security tasks such as patching, configuration, access control, and alerting which can reduce operational costs while improving operational efficiency and speed of response time when dealing with potential incidents.
4. Scalability: Traditional security approaches are not well suited for cloud environments due to their dynamic nature; however, with CNAPP platforms, organizations can scale their security efforts up or down quickly according to need in order to accommodate peak traffic periods or new deployments with minimal effort required from administrators or support staff members.
5. Cost Savings: By leveraging self-service capabilities, sophisticated analysis tools, automation capabilities, scalability options provided by CNAPP platforms – organizations can significantly reduce their IT overhead costs related to protecting their cloud applications without compromising on the quality of the service delivered by their solutions.

The Importance of Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

Cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP) are becoming increasingly important in helping ensure the security of an organization’s cloud infrastructure. These systems provide comprehensive protection for modern applications, which are often hosted on distributed computing infrastructures such as Kubernetes and Amazon Web Services.

CNAPPs protect applications from external threats by preventing malicious access to confidential data, blocking unauthorized connections, and monitoring suspicious activities. This helps organizations minimize the risk of costly data breaches and other cyber incidents that could have devastating financial and reputational consequences.

In addition to providing robust security, CNAPPs also offer a number of performance benefits that can reduce the cost associated with running complex applications. For example, these systems help optimize storage utilization, optimize network latency requirements, and efficiently manage large amounts of traffic. This ensures that applications remain available even when demand spikes or hardware failures occur.

Finally, CNAPP solutions can be quickly deployed across multiple locations without disruption to existing operations or services. By allowing organizations to easily provision new cloud-native resources within minutes rather than hours or days, these systems enable faster development times and help streamline operations across different teams and environments—all while maintaining tight security controls over their cloud infrastructure.

Overall, cloud-native application protection platforms offer a range of essential protections for modern businesses operating in the cloud environment today. By enabling secure operations with optimized performance metrics at scale – all while reducing setup time – CNAPPs represent an invaluable asset for any organization looking to ensure its long-term success in the digital world.

Features Offered by Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

1. Container Security: Cloud-native application protection platforms provide container security features to help secure applications running in containers and keep them up to date with the latest security patches.
2. Runtime Protection: CNAPP provides runtime protection that monitors, detects, and responds to activities and threats within the application environment in real time. It also helps protect against attacks such as privilege escalation, injection flaws, and remote code execution.
3. Image Scanning: The platform can scan for known vulnerabilities in images used by applications and alert users of any issues found before deployment into production environments.
4. Infrastructure Automation: CNAPP includes infrastructure automation, allowing organizations to quickly spin up new components or services as needed without sacrificing security or compliance requirements, making scaling easier and faster while maintaining a secure environment.
5. Continuous Monitoring: CNAPP provides continuous monitoring of application activity both inside the network perimeter and external locations where it is deployed, helping identify potential compromise or malicious activity on the system before an attack can be successful or data exfiltration can occur.
6. Data Encryption: The platform also supports encryption of data collected from the cloud environment so that it cannot be accessed by unauthorized individuals even if they have access to your systems somehow through a exploit or breach.

What Types of Users Can Benefit From Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)?

• Developers: CNAPP can help developers ensure their applications are secure and compliant with necessary regulations. It can also provide visibility into application performance, enabling better decision making.
• Security Teams: Security teams can benefit from CNAPP in several ways; it helps them detect anomalies in real time and provides automated security measures, including threat monitoring, malware protection, and attack prevention.
• IT Administrators: With CNAPP, IT administrators have access to powerful tools that automate routine tasks such as provisioning and deployment processes. This frees up their time for more important work. Additionally, they get detailed reports of system performance so they can make any necessary changes and improvements quickly and easily.
• Business Owners: Cloud-native application protection platforms give business owners the peace of mind that their applications are secure and compliant with standards like HIPAA and GDPR. Furthermore, the automation capabilities reduce the need for manual labor, saving money in the process.
• End Users: For end users, a cloud-native application protection platform ensures that sensitive data is kept safe from cyberattacks while still providing a smooth user experience on their devices or computers.

How Much Do Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Cost?

The cost of cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP) can vary greatly depending on the specific needs of an organization and the type of platform chosen. The most basic version of a CNAPP solution may cost only a few hundred dollars, while more robust solutions that integrate with multiple cloud providers and provide advanced threat detection and analytics may cost several thousand dollars or more. In some cases, organizations may even need to purchase additional licenses or subscriptions in order to access all features provided by a CNAPP platform. Ultimately, the pricing structure for any given CNAPP solution will depend on factors such as number of users, volume of data to be protected, integration with other applications, geographical size of the deployment area, existing security requirements in place, and level of support needed. As such, it is important for companies to research various offerings in order to determine which is best suited for their unique needs and budget.

Risk Associated With Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

• Data breach: One of the key risks associated with CNAPP is the potential for a data breach. To ensure security and protect confidential information, it’s important to use strong authentication and encryption technologies that are not easy to crack or bypass.
• Malicious attacks: Cloud-native applications are exposed to malicious actors who may try to access an application's internals by exploiting vulnerabilities in its code or configuration. CNAPPs can provide protection against this kind of attack, but their effectiveness will depend on their ability to detect such activity in a timely manner.
• Intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS): Intrusion detection and prevention systems attempt to detect malicious activity before it causes damage by monitoring incoming traffic for signs of suspicious activity. This requires careful configuration and maintenance, as false alarms can lead to unnecessary downtime for an application.
• Regulatory compliance: A lack of adequate security controls or procedures can put a business at risk of falling foul of regulations, such as those relating to GDPR or PCI DSS compliance. It’s essential that organizations using CNAPPs make sure they have appropriate measures in place to ensure they remain compliant with all relevant regulatory requirements.
• Costly implementation errors: Implementing a cloud-native application protection platform correctly is critical both from a security and cost perspective - failure to do so correctly can be costly both in terms of time and resources spent remediating issues post-implementation as well as any financial losses resulting from any data breaches caused as a result of implementation errors.

Types of Software That Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Integrate With

Cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP) can integrate with a variety of software types. This includes cloud infrastructure and orchestration tools such as Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, as well as container security solutions like Aqua Security and Twistlock. Additionally, CNAPPs typically integrate with identity and access management systems such as Okta, Auth0 or Ping Identity. Finally, many CNAPPs also support integration with web application firewalls, so that they can detect malicious requests and protect against various attack vectors. By integrating all of these different software solutions together, companies can create a fully integrated security posture that is more efficient at detecting threats to their cloud applications.

Questions To Ask Related To Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

1. What type of cloud-native applications does the platform support?
2. Does the platform provide visibility and control?
3. How does the platform detect malicious activity on your cloud environment?
4. Is the security provided by the platform designed to be layered and adaptive in nature?
5. Does it have automated response mechanisms to threats detected in your system?
6. How often is the cloud-native application protection product updated with new threat definitions and other updates?
7. What types of encryption methods does it use for data transmissions and storage?
8. Is there any integration with third party vendors or applications that enhances operational efficiency or overall coverage from a security perspective?
9. Are there any additional services offered such as Incident response, Firewall log analysis, Audit/Forensics, Reporting & Analytics , etc.?
10. What is the total cost (including implementation) of using this solution over time?