EXPEL BLOG

Comparison of cloud resources (part IV): Making a roadmap for cloud security

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Cloud security · 3 MIN READ · ETHAN CHEN · APR 9, 2025 · TAGS: Get technical / Guidance

TL;DR

  • This is part four of four in our Comparison of cloud resources blog series
  • For more, see parts one, two, and three 
  • Part four creates a roundmap for cloud security resources based on your org’s security maturity 

 

This blog series will explore cloud security in depth. We’ll discuss the layers to protect and define the tools available for each. In part four, we’ll offer a road map to reduce cloud security risks. We’ll also explore how Expel works to eliminate security gaps at every layer to help you achieve comprehensive protection for your cloud environments. 

The tools described above add up to a considerable shopping list for IT and security teams. You can’t buy and implement everything at once, of course. Instead, prioritize your security tooling strategy to address foundational requirements across the cloud, platform, and application layers.  

At a high level, this maturity model follows four stages:

  1. Foundational: visibility and preventionWhat you don’t know will hurt you. The foundation and first step for cloud security is gaining essential visibility into the common chokepoints in your environment so you can detect vulnerabilities, IOCs, and IOAs. That includes tools to detect malware, anomalous activity, and other threats in your applications, network, containers, and APIs. Our blog post on vulnerability management for cloud environments explore vulnerability prioritization in depth.
  2. Core: secure cloud-native developmentAs you build cloud security maturity, DevSecOps and container security tools will help you prevent security incidents by catching vulnerabilities in the SDLC before they reach production.Advanced: deeper protection across your environment:At this stage, tools like DSPM, CIEM, and KDR provide more-granular capabilities to prioritize vulnerabilities, respond to incidents, restrict access, and fortify your attack surface.
  3. Sophisticated: fully mature cloud securityEven at this stage, there are additional measures that can make a significant difference for your security posture, further reducing risk, and proactively detecting early indicators of threats. 
Foundational Core Advanced Sophisticated
Cloud

Code

  • Static scanning of IaC via IaC scanning

Runtime

  • CNAPP, specifically CSPM and/or CDR
  • Audit logs (CloudTrail, Azure, Google Cloud, OCI)

Foundational capabilities plus: 

Pipeline

  • IaC scanning/policy-as-code (PaC)

Core capabilities plus:

Runtime

  • DSPM
  • CIEM

Advanced capabilities plus: 

Runtime

  • DLP
Orchestration

Pipeline

  • Pipeline security (security of the pipeline)

Runtime

  • KSPM

Core capabilities plus: 

Runtime

  • KDR

Advanced capabilities plus: 

Code 

  • SBOM
Platform

Code

  • Static scanning of container images via image/registry scanning

Runtime

  • Vulnerability scanning

Foundational capabilities plus: 

Pipeline

  • Image scanning

Runtime

  • CWPP (agentless)

Core capabilities plus:

Runtime

  • CWPP (agent)
 Core capabilities
Application

Code

  • Static scanning of custom code via SAST/SCA

Runtime

  • WAF

Foundational capabilities plus: 

Pipeline

  • SAST/SCA

Runtime

  • API security

Core capabilities plus: 

Pipeline

  • DAST/IAST

Runtime

  • CASB
  • SSPM

Advanced capabilities plus: 

Runtime

  • RASP/ADR
While we recommend this model of tool strategy and maturity, it’s not the only way to improve your cloud security. As an alternative or complement to tool shopping, it’s also possible to reduce risk by rearchitecting your cloud environments and adopting best practices such as zero trust.
Secure-by-design principles can also play an important role. CISA provides a valuable overview of this concept. While the agency primarily addresses software production organizations, and their potential customers, internal development teams can adopt many of these tenets as well.

How Expel can help

Expel MDR helps customers eliminate security gaps by providing deep visibility, holistic detection, and faster threat response—across every layer, from infrastructure to applications. Acting as your trusted advisor, we offer customized onboarding plans with prioritized services and best practices to secure your cloud environments.

Cloud infrastructure layer (control plane)

Expel integrates directly withAWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and OCI to monitor logs, traffic, and configuration changes for signs of threats based on custom Expel detections. Integrations with leading CNAPPs—including Wiz, Prisma Cloud, and Orca Security—help us interface seamlessly with the existing security tools and processes of our customers. As we detect unusual activity or signs of compromise, we alert our customers and take fast action with our auto remediations to mitigate the threat. 

Orchestration layer

Our security analysts leverage integrations with container orchestration platforms and security tools (e.g., EKS, AKS, and GKE) to analyze logs, monitor traffic, and track configuration changes related to our customers’ containers and virtual machines. This enables us to detect and respond quickly to any container-related threats. 

Platform Layer

Expel continuously monitors cloud workloads to detect and respond to threats like malware, unauthorized access, or misconfigurations. Integrations with tools that include Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud, CrowdStrike Falcon, and Microsoft Defender enable unified visibility and aggregated telemetry across environments for greater insight and faster response.

Application layer

Our SaaS detection and response strategy is customized for each application, including Workday, GitHub, GitLab, Snowflake, and many others. Our analysts look for suspicious user activity, network activity, authentications, file events, and process events to keep application-layer threats out of our customers’ cloud infrastructure. 

To learn more, explore the resources below or watch the on-demand demo of Expel’s MDR services to see how we deliver cloud security.

 

Contact us to enable comprehensive visibility, full understanding, real-time threat detection, and rapid response across your cloud environments.

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