SSPM and CSPM – Why you need both

The lucrative opportunity to evolve business models has made it a straightforward choice for organizations to embrace digital transformation. Typically, their transformation strategy involves migrating to the cloud and utilizing a variety of SaaS (Software as a Service) applications. But SaaS and cloud environments can run the risk of security issues if they are not protected.

Securing your SaaS and cloud infrastructure is paramount

The many benefits of adopting cloud and SaaS applications also increase security risks. Digitally representing customers, employees, and other sensitive business data can lead to inadvertent exposure or breaches. New business models that make it easier to connect with suppliers, vendors, and other third parties, also open more possibilities for excessive privileges and poor access management.

The flexibility and cost-savings that the cloud provides result in more silos, less control, and increased usage of security tools. Organizations depend on multiple such tools to protect their cloud and SaaS applications, making it difficult for security and DevOps teams to improve their SaaS and cloud security posture.

What does SaaS and cloud security posture management entail?

CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) and SSPM (SaaS Security Posture Management) are two commonly used solutions for security posture. While both might sound similar, they actually perform vastly different functions. SSPM solutions, as the name suggests, help you monitor your SaaS applications, such as Salesforce or Microsoft 365 for security alerts. On the other hand, CSPM solutions help you gain complete control over your cloud assets across environments like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud and protect them from security breaches.

SSPM vs CSPM – Can you pick one over the other?

SSPM is not a substitute for CSPM and vice versa. With CSPM, you can detect misconfigurations and compliance gaps within the cloud and assess the risk they pose to your business. However, cloud security posture management is confined to your assets within the cloud ecosystem. Your SaaS applications are equally susceptible to misconfigurations and non-compliance and need a SaaS security posture management tool.

What should you look for in modern SaaS and cloud security platforms?

A data-driven platform that automatically detects risks and ensures faster decision-making can help you address the challenges of ensuring security across multiple SaaS and cloud environments. Here are some key features you should consider:

Complete visibility

The security platform must allow you to completely view your SaaS and cloud environments at a glance, and scan them without impacting any resources.

Alert prioritization

Another vital aspect of security posture is understanding the severity of risks. A security platform that gives actionable context to each alert and helps you prioritize risks can help eliminate alert fatigue.

Remediation guidance

Automated remediation workflows from the platform increase the speed of resolution and allows security teams to proactively detect and resolve issues.

Compliance management

Continuously maintaining compliance in accordance with regulatory requirements is essential for protecting sensitive data and keeping your business covered from legal difficulties down the road.

A unified, holistic approach to SaaS and cloud security

Almost all businesses consider securing their cloud environments and SaaS applications to be of utmost importance. While there are various approaches to achieving this security, there is a growing trend towards using a singular solution that empowers security and DevOps teams to efficiently and conveniently secure cloud and SaaS applications while improving overall security posture. Such a solution provides valuable information to enterprises, MSPs, and MSSPs, allowing them to make insightful decisions for enhancing security posture without causing any unnecessary disruptions to end-users.

The CheckRed platform is a singular solution for both – SSPM and CSPM. CheckRed has innovatively reimagined security for SaaS and cloud and focuses your attention on the most critical risks. Its centralized dashboard provides a clear picture of your security posture and uses agentless scanners to detect risks. CheckRed’s automated remediation workflows also help enterprises understand the next steps to take, facilitating every business to be secure.