What is a Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP)?
A Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP) is a security solution designed to protect applications, workloads, and data running in cloud environments. It provides threat detection, vulnerability management, and compliance enforcement across various cloud infrastructures, including public, private, and hybrid clouds. CWPPs safeguard workloads such as virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions by offering features like runtime protection, behavioral monitoring, and automated response to security incidents. These platforms help organizations maintain visibility and control over their cloud-based assets while ensuring they meet security and regulatory requirements.
CWPP vs CSPM
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is a security solution that helps organizations identify and remediate misconfigurations, compliance risks, and policy violations in cloud environments. It continuously monitors cloud infrastructure—including workloads, storage, networking, and identity management—to ensure security best practices are followed. CSPM solutions provide automated assessments, visibility into security risks, and recommendations for remediation, helping businesses reduce their exposure to threats.
While both CWPP and CSPM enhance cloud security, they focus on different aspects:
- CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platforms) secures cloud workloads, such as virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions, by providing threat detection, runtime protection, and behavioral monitoring against attacks targeting applications and data.
- CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) secures cloud configurations, ensuring that cloud resources are set up correctly to prevent security gaps, misconfigurations, and compliance violations.
In short, CWPP protects what is running in the cloud (workloads), while CSPM ensures the cloud environment itself is secure (configurations). Many organizations use both solutions together for comprehensive cloud security.