Tigera Releases ‘State of Cloud-Native Security’ Report

Tigera, cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) provider and creator of Project Calico, today releases the findings of its first The State of Cloud-Native Security market report. The report reveals key insights from security and IT professionals, shedding light on the opportunities and challenges enterprises face with containers and cloud-native applications, with a particular focus on security, observability and compliance.

Growth in cloud-native workloads surged with the rapid digitalization caused by the pandemic and the need for more agile, powerful development tools. By 2025, Gartner estimates that more than 95 percent of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms, up from 30 percent in 2021.

This trend is reflected in Tigera’s report, which found that 75 percent of companies are focusing development on cloud-native applications. The increased development and deployment of cloud-native applications also creates the need for more advanced observability and security capabilities.

“Organizations are only just beginning to unlock the potential of cloud-native applications,” said Ratan Tipirneni, President and CEO, Tigera. “At the same time, however, these unprecedented innovations have created unforeseen challenges – evidenced by the majority of IT professionals naming security as a top challenge when it comes to cloud-native application deployment cycles.”

 

Survey Key Findings

The State of Cloud-Native Security report results showcase the rise in cloud-native development, while identifying barriers and areas where organizations need support as they start or continue their cloud-native journey.

Cloud-native applications are gaining momentum but also present security, compliance and observability issues.

  • 97 percent of companies report observability challenges with cloud-native applications
  • 96 percent of companies said that cloud-native application challenges are leading to slower deployment cycles, with 67 percent naming security as the top challenge
  • 69 percent of companies identified container-level firewalls (IPS/IDS, WAF, DDoS, DPI, etc.) as the top need for network security for cloud-native applications
  • 76 percent of organizations need runtime visualization for cloud-native applications

Organizations require security solutions for runtime, access, and networking for containers.

  • 99 percent of companies indicate containers require access to other applications and services
  • 98 percent need container security, with runtime security topping the list
  • 99 percent of companies require network security for containerized applications

Cloud-native and container compliance requirements are driving delays and challenges for organizations.

  • 87 percent of companies state meeting compliance requirements is critical for their company, and 84 percent of respondents stated that meeting compliance requirements for cloud-native applications is challenging
  • 95 percent report they have compliance requirements for cloud-native applications
  • 63 percent of companies must provide container-level information for compliance requirements
  • 90 percent said audit reports are challenging to produce

Cloud-Native Security Solution Adoption in 2022

Adopting tools that increase visibility and provide security at the container, application and network levels can help enterprises address cloud-native security, including: threat prevention by reducing the application attack surface; threat detection to monitor for both known and unknown threats; and threat mitigation to quickly resolve risks from exposure. These tools remove barriers and delays during development and deployment, while also reducing the risk of delayed time to market, security vulnerabilities, and compliance violations.

Click here to download the full report.

Click here to learn more about Tigera’s solutions or request a free trial.