Grip vs. SSPM: Enhancing SaaS Security

In today’s cloud-driven world, SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) platforms are a common solution for safeguarding specific SaaS applications and maintaining compliance. These tools are one piece of the puzzle, however, and they focus on detecting and resolving misconfigurations and enforcing policies in specific apps. By continuously monitoring an app, SSPMs can help prevent security breaches from misconfigurations or lax access controls. SSPMs, however, do nothing about the SaaS employees are adding daily, a problem  SaaS identity risk management addresses.  As SaaS adoption and behaviors change, SSPMs alone cannot provide the comprehensive coverage organizations need.

Understanding SaaS Identity Risk Management

Before going deeper into the SaaS security discussion, it’s important to understand that SSPMs are functions of SaaS identity risk management (SIRM) and the SaaS lifecycle. SIRM is designed to address risks throughout the lifecycle of SaaS applications, ensuring visibility, security, and governance at every stage.

The SaaS lifecycle stages include:

1. Identity-based discovery: Identifying all SaaS applications and mapping them to user identities.

2. SaaS onboarding: Evaluating the risks of new SaaS apps before sanctioning them.

3. Constant risk monitoring: Continuously reviewing user access and behaviors over time, to address new and emerging risks promptly.

4. Automated SaaS governance: Implementing and enforcing security controls like SSO and MFA.

5. SaaS offboarding: Revoking access to applications—sanctioned and unsanctioned—to ensure no open access remains and compliance standards are met.

SaaS Identity Risk Management in Practical Application

SSPMs are highly effective in protecting individual apps, whereas SIRM protects the entire SaaS estate:

Risk identification and correction: Identifying SaaS misconfigurations and enforcing best practices for sanctioned applications.

Security policy enforcement: Monitoring security settings, such as access controls, to ensure compliance with organizational and regulatory standards.

Visibility into sanctioned apps: Providing centralized dashboards and insights into the security posture of approved applications.

However, SSPMs fall short of addressing the broader challenges of SaaS identity risk management, particularly the rapid adoption of SaaS and the rising threats posed by shadow SaaS.  

Gaps in SSPM Coverage

While SSPMs address each stage of the SaaS lifecycle to some extent, they lack comprehensive capabilities in these key areas:

Widespread SaaS use: The 2025 SaaS Security Risks Report reveals that the average enterprise uses over 800 SaaS applications. Additionally, SaaS portfolios grow 40% each year, and many of the apps are niche software with smaller user bases. However, most SSPMs focus on specific SaaS applications, typically those vetted through traditional procurement processes, such as Salesforce, Slack, Google Workspace, or Office365, and may only support a subset of other applications in use. This leaves the smaller or specialized tools, such as Canva, Grammarly, or ChatGPT, outside the scope of SSPM monitoring, creating gaps in visibility and control.

Shadow SaaS discovery: SSPMs are designed to monitor sanctioned applications but struggle to effectively discover shadow SaaS—applications adopted outside of IT’s visibility. This leaves a significant blind spot in the discovery stage of the SaaS lifecycle.

In general, most SSPMs don't have discovery capabilities, and those that do, aren't as robust as Grip's. It’s becoming common practice for employees to adopt new SaaS tools independently, bypassing IT and security oversight. These shadow SaaS applications can introduce significant risks, including unauthorized access to sensitive data, unvetted third-party integrations, and non-compliance with security standards.

Identity-centric risk analysis: SSPMs primarily focus on application configurations and lack detailed insights into user identities, authentication methods, and SaaS-to-SaaS permissions granted. If a SaaS application a SSPM monitors is connected to an unsanctioned application, the SSPM may detect it, but in general, SSPMs are not designed to uncover or address SaaS identity risks, especially when the app is not managed in the SSPM.

Comprehensive offboarding: SSPMs can revoke access to sanctioned apps, but they cannot manage or offboard shadow SaaS, leaving these unmanaged applications as potential attack surface vulnerabilities.

“SSPM solutions have helped organizations map the relationship between the SaaS applications in their environment. However, there are still challenges when identifying shadow IT and unsanctioned apps. These often pose hidden risks because security teams cannot implement relevant security policies and controls that stand outside of their organization’s SaaS ecosystem. This highlights the growing need for a greater focus on discovering shadow IT and unsanctioned apps.” - Frost and Sullivan

The Value of Grip

Grip delivers comprehensive SaaS identity risk management with built-in SSPM capabilities. With Grip, there are no blind spots because the platform understands and protects the entire SaaS estate.  By uncovering all SaaS applications in use—both managed apps and shadow SaaS—and focusing on SaaS identity risks, Grip provides a complete solution rather than just focusing on individual apps.  

The value that Grip delivers:

Shadow SaaS discovery: Grip identifies all SaaS applications within an organization, including those adopted outside traditional procurement processes and those not connected to your SSPM.

SaaS and identity risk prioritization: Grip evaluates how SaaS is used and accessed, SaaS-to-SaaS integrations, plus risky and over-permissioned SaaS, highlighting your most critical vulnerabilities.

Risk mitigation: Grip guides security teams to mitigate the risks it discovers. For example, Grip recommends implementing SSO or MFA for risky, unprotected apps and revoking access to apps that are reviewed and tagged as unsanctioned.

Simplified SaaS security: Grip operates without requiring agents, proxies, or extensive API integrations, making deployment seamless and reducing operational overhead.

Grip includes an SSPM and more. By combining the strengths of both, organizations gain a clearer and more actionable view of their entire SaaS ecosystem.

The Benefits of SSPM and SIRM

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Securing SaaS More Effectively

SaaS adoption is changing, and the complexity of securing digital environments continues to grow. Cyber threats targeting SaaS applications are increasing in sophistication, exploiting gaps in visibility, configuration, and identity security. The dual combination of SSPM and SIRM amplifies your defense strategy, enabling comprehensive SaaS risk management that goes beyond traditional boundaries.

A fully-secured SaaS environment includes:

- Shadow SaaS visibility, evaluation, and actionability, ensuring no application is overlooked.

- Configuration insights with data on SaaS usage and access controls, for end-to-end SaaS protection.

- Supporting employee-led SaaS without fear of the security repercussions.

Grip provides a holistic approach to SaaS security, aligning with the SIRM framework to secure the entire SaaS lifecycle while addressing the unique challenges posed by modern SaaS environments.

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Additional Resources

FAQs About SSPM Platforms

Strengthening SaaS Security Posture Management by Tackling Identity Risks Head On

2025 SaaS Security Risks Report

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