{"id":715,"date":"2025-03-20T18:14:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T18:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/violethoward.com\/new\/google-just-made-cnapp-the-fastest-formula-1-in-cloud-security\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T18:14:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T18:14:53","slug":"google-just-made-cnapp-the-fastest-formula-1-in-cloud-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/violethoward.com\/new\/google-just-made-cnapp-the-fastest-formula-1-in-cloud-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Google just made CNAPP the fastest Formula 1 in cloud security"},"content":{"rendered":" \r\n
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The real story: Speed and Security at DevOps scale<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The real story behind Google acquiring Wiz is how badly the need for speed dominates every enterprise\u2019s DevOps cycles building apps, models and platforms without sacrificing security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By acquiring Wiz, Google gets an AI-infused Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) designed to eliminate DevSecOps bottlenecks, prevent attacks by and on models in development, prevent cloud breaches and scale multi-cloud security in real time. The Wiz CNAPP platform has earned a global reputation by using AI to enhance its threat detection, predictive analytics, automated remediation, and reduction of false positives. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiz will integrate Google\u2019s risk detection, threat intelligence and automated remediation, which all are table stakes for protecting every stage of cloud-based app and model development. That\u2019s a solid contribution to Wiz\u2019s graph-based security engine designed to find and contain attack paths instantly, prioritize actual risks and help security teams identify and fix vulnerabilities before they\u2019re exploited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google paying $32 billion in cash signals just how urgent the need for speed is across DevOps cycles that have been asking for an AI-driven CNAPP platform that can flex and scale to keep up with more complex DevOps cycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has been investing in built-in CNAPP capabilities for their own platform\u2019s native security with success, these tools have predominantly focused only on protecting GCP endpoints\/assets,\u201d says Andras Cser, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cser added, \u201cafter Microsoft\u2019s 2021 early acquisition of CloudKnox and development of Defender for Cloud, Google is feeling the pressure to offer a true, multicloud-capable CNAPP tool given that so many organizations are multi-cloud today. Forrester expects that, post-acquisition, most current CNAPP capabilities in GCP (CSPM, CIEM, agentless CWP) will be replaced by Wiz\u2019s offering and remain with multi-cloud support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google just made CNAPP the Formula 1 of Cloud Security \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In professional racing, as in DevOps, teams obsess over squeezing the last ounce of speed gains out of their engines or code. Knowing that just a few milliseconds gained by reducing the drag on a Formula 1 car or making slight engine improvements mean the difference between a winning season or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNAPP is one of the engines DevOps and DevSecOps teams rely on to reduce risks, block intrusions and breaches, and provide a 360 view of CI\/CD pipelines to make sure they are secure. Having a CNAPP that\u2019s AI-driven delivers more accurate remediation and guidance, contextual threat intelligence and blocks intrusion attempts on CI\/CD pipelines protecting code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile Wiz is most focused on CNAPP, the firm\u2019s product offerings bleed into the traditional application security space, with container and Kubernetes security pieces. Recently Wiz expanded into security in the software development phases with software composition analysis (SCA), IAC scanning, and secrets scanning, as well as diving into the software supply chain use case with software bill of materials (SBOM) and CI\/CD security posture. These are moves that put Wiz in a position to compete with application security testing vendors and other CNAPP vendors who have \u2018shifted left,\u201d explained Forrester Senior Analyst Janet Worthington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DevOps teams are under constant, growing pressure to deliver. With bonuses often riding on if a delivery date for code is met, security is tacked on to the end of a CI\/CD cycle or product schedule. VentureBeat learned that the typical Fortune 1,000 IT department has over 175 active, concurrent DevOps projects running at once, with many having no consistent cloud application security. In other words, those 175 projects are running in a variety of unprotected cloud environments without a common CNAPP platform to protect them. That\u2019s jeopardizing the entire DevOps pipeline which is a move made to reduce time-to-market that leaves dozens of projects at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Google doubled down on Wiz<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Google\u2019s ambitions to grow Google Cloud Platform (GCP) needed a cybersecurity platform that could go end-to-end, protect DevOps and strengthen DevSecOps while leveraging AI to deliver real-time threat detection, automated remediation and full-stack cloud security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real goal of this acquisition is to have a unified CNAPP solution capable of securing everything from code to cloud to runtime, ensuring that security no longer slows down development but accelerates it. Wiz\u2019s AI-driven risk analysis, attack path visualization and multi-cloud security give GCP a competitive edge, making it a viable competitor in an increasingly crowded market driven by enterprises needing speed, scale and resilience in cloud security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This diagram visually explains how CNAPP integrates security into the entire DevSecOps lifecycle, one of Google\u2019s key motivations in acquiring Wiz to attain an end-to-end, AI-driven security platform. Source:<\/strong> Gartner, 5 Ways CNAPP Will Improve Your Cloud Security, Sept. 21, 2023.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoogle has invested heavily in application security tooling that protects apps deployed not only in GCP but in other clouds (and on-premises). Google\u2019s investment in its Cloud Armor platform has added web application firewall functionality that is competitive not just with Microsoft and AWS but with other WAF providers. reCaptcha Enterprise has expanded from a Captcha provider into a fuller bot management platform that addresses a range of business logic attacks,\u201d says Forrester Principal Analyst Sandy Carielli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn recent months, Google has begun extending its API management product, Apigee, into broader API security use cases. While there are still gaps to fill, adding Wiz to the combined Cloud Armor, reCaptcha, and Apigee offerings moves Google closer to a holistic defense story for cloud applications,\u201d Carielli continued. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google needed a unified AI-driven CNAPP to turbocharge its cybersecurity business. One that brings together security posture management, workload protection, advanced threat detection into a high performance security engine. Challenged by having a siloed approach to security in the past, Google is looking to now have a adaptive, flexible platform that can provide security at the speed of cloud app development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to this deal, GCP\u2019s security toolkit was strong, yet siloed as evidenced by its Chronicle SIEM, Mandiant threat intel and a wide variety of partner solutions that created roadblocks across customers\u2019 CI\/CD pipeline. Acquiring Wiz closes a major gap in their cybersecurity strategy by providing an integrated AI-driven platform that scans cloud environments in minutes and identify risks in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNAPP has a fast track with AI savvy competitors<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe global CNAPP market was valued at approximately $9.79 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $38.01 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 21.8% during the forecast period. Gartner notes that end-user calls on CNAPPs rose 29% from 2023 to 2024, with an emphasis on Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) driven by compliance and easy API deployment, with expectations of runtime visibility and control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWiz\u2019s key detection and response offering Wiz Defend takes a different approach to cloud detection and response. Instead of relying on built-in detection capabilities in its own cloud protection tools, it offers a unified tool solely for detection and response that takes in alerts and data from other tools and does detection engineering on them,\u201d says Forrester Principal Analyst Allie Mellen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis reduces alert volumes from the cloud at a critical time. With this acquisition, it will put pressure on other vendors to consolidate in a similar way \u2014 a big win for security operations teams,\u201d Mellen continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CNAPP market is increasingly becoming the Formula 1 of cloud security, with Google, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike and Check Point leading the charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n