What Is Cloud Workload Protection?

What is a workload?

A workload consists of the processes and resources that support an application and its interactions with users or other applications. In the cloud, the workload includes the application, the data generated by or entered in an application, and the network resources that support a connection between the user and the application.

What is cloud workload protection?

Cloud workload protection is the process of keeping cloud-based workloads secure. As cloud usage increases, the attack surface expands and vulnerabilities increase. Businesses that use private and public clouds need to expand their existing network and endpoint security deployments and focus on protecting themselves from harm at the workload level.

Is workload protection difficult?

Workload protection is complicated in hybrid data center architectures that employ different environments--from physical, on-premise servers to multiple public cloud infrastructures to container-based application architectures. Comprehensive visibility and control is critical across these multiple environments.

Types of cloud workload protection

Cloud workload protection brings security controls down to the individual, application workload level for better protection of applications and data. Think of it as having a firewall around every workload that provides both visibility and security policy enforcement. This model allows you to implement east-west segmentation at scale.

Contain lateral movement

Implement a secure, zero-trust model using micro-segmentation to minimize security incidents. Use automated machine learning and application behavior analysis to develop and enforce segmentation policy. Ensure the policy moves with the workload, allowing increased application mobility and automatic updates.

Identify behavior anomalies

Continuously monitor and set alerts for suspicious or malicious behavior, based on workload process and communication behavior analysis. Detect pre-defined attack patterns such as MITRE techniques.

Reduce attack surface

Detect, classify, and identify software vulnerabilities and unused open ports. Understand the risk exposure to efficiently prioritize remediation. Your ability to address these significantly hardens the overall attack surface.

Continuously track compliance

Modern applications are dynamic and constantly being updated. It is important to quickly detect when an application is trying to deviate from set security policies and act to mitigate or update policies depending on business need. Deviations can be a leading indicator of compromise.