Sep 3, 2024
Sep 3, 2024
SSPM platforms are well-liked for their ease of use, and many solutions are available on the market today. Here, we highlight different SSPM vendors, key platform features, and ideal use cases to help you determine the best fit for your organization.
We all rely on SaaS apps to running our businesses, but are they secure enough to trust? While these cloud-based solutions provide the speed and flexibility to stay competitive, they also open the door to a new world of security headaches. That’s what's led to the rise of SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) tools, making sure your apps are locked down and your compliance boxes are checked.
SSPM tools provide a centralized view of integrated SaaS applications, enabling security teams to detect misconfigurations, enforce security policies, and manage access controls more effectively. By continuously monitoring and auditing the security settings of SaaS applications, SSPMs help ensure that security standards are consistently upheld.
SSPM platforms are well-liked for their ease of use, and many solutions are available on the market today. Here, we highlight (in alphabetical order) different SSPM vendors, key platform features, and ideal use cases to help you determine the best fit for your organization.
Adaptive Shield integrates over 150 SaaS applications to continuously enable SaaS security analysis and governance, providing visibility into user accounts, permissions, and high-privilege activities. The platform identifies and prioritizes potential SaaS misconfigurations through detailed assessments, offering automated and guided remediation to streamline the process.
Adaptive Shield also enhances operational efficiency by enabling security teams to monitor and control third-party apps connected to core SaaS hubs, assess their associated risks, and manage device vulnerabilities. The platform prioritizes configuration weaknesses, helping teams effectively address identity-centric threats within the SaaS environment.
4.8 out of 5 stars from 31 reviews.
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AppOmni provides continuous SaaS security posture management and advanced threat detection, offering security insights for commonly used SaaS applications, such as ServiceNow, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, and Snowflake. AppOmni helps security teams uncover data exposures, identify threats and anomalies, and detect unauthorized third- and fourth-party SaaS connections to secure integrated apps. The platform also helps manage identities and privileges while identifying configuration drifts. With its agentless architecture, AppOmni ensures ongoing SaaS security monitoring, delivering timely insights and actionable remediation guidance to prevent data breaches. The platform serves as a central control hub for all managed SaaS applications within your organization.
4.8 out of 5 stars from 5 reviews
Pros and Cons are not available due to the limited number of reviews.
Cynet's SSPM platform automatically identifies, prioritizes, and fixes security risks across all common business SaaS applications and Cloud platforms, such as AWS, Azure, Google. The platform continuously monitors all connected SaaS applications, allowing users to manage security risks from a centralized dashboard. Cynet's solution ensures that SaaS applications remain compliant with key regulations such as HIPAA, PCI, and GDPR by aligning them with established security policies and controls. Moreover, it supports many popular SaaS applications and seamlessly integrates with Cynet's 360 AutoXDR platform, offering a unified approach to SaaS security management.
4.7 out of 5 stars from 190 reviews.
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DoControl is a SaaS security posture management platform that provides comprehensive visibility, threat detection, and remediation capabilities to protect against sensitive data exposure and insider threats. DoControl safeguards SaaS data, manages identities, and secures connected third-party applications and configurations, ensuring robust protection across leading SaaS environments, including Google Workspace, Slack, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Box.
4.3 out of 5 stars from 2 reviews
Pros and Cons are not available due to the limited number of reviews.
Lumos offers a unified SaaS management and identity governance solution, empowering IT and security teams to optimize software costs, reduce IT ticket volumes, and enforce least-privilege access protocols. By centralizing vendor data, software spending, and license information, Lumos provides a consolidated resource for managing all integrated applications from one platform.
The platform’s integration with various SaaS tools, including SSO providers like Okta, enhances security by supporting multi-stage approvals and time-based access. Lumos also facilitates compliance management by generating audit-friendly reports, making it easier to meet regulatory requirements and ensuring the secure functioning of IT infrastructures.
4.8 out of 5 stars from 51 reviews
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Netskope’s SaaS security posture management solution offers visibility and control over SaaS configurations, particularly for applications like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Zoom. The platform reduces the risk of data breaches and compliance violations by enabling administrators to define and enforce cross-app rules, correlate data between different apps, and rapidly remediate identified security issues.
Netskope’s API-based protection for SaaS applications integrates seamlessly with their leading Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) service, providing a comprehensive security solution within their broader Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture. This ensures alignment with industry standards, including CIS, PCI-DSS, NIST, HIPAA, and GDPR.
4.4 out of 5 stars from 53 reviews
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Obsidian is a threat and SaaS security posture management solution that takes a 360-degree approach to SaaS application security by addressing application posture, identity security, and SaaS data governance.
With Obsidian, security teams can effectively manage and adjust user privileges, minimize risks from privilege escalations, prevent SaaS configuration drift, and automate SaaS compliance. Real-world insights help to strengthen an organization’s security posture and prevent breaches.
Obsidian has a limited presence on G2, with only one review. We are intentionally excluding details to prevent bias.
Spin.ai / SpinOne is a SaaS security platform designed to safeguard critical SaaS applications such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Slack. The platform includes SSPM, DSPM, and risk assessment capabilities, enabling rapid incident response and addressing key security, compliance, and risk management challenges. By automating security processes, SpinOne reduces the risk of data leaks and losses, streamlines SecOps workflows, minimizes downtime, and cuts recovery costs associated with ransomware attacks. Additionally, the platform supports compliance efforts, ensuring that organizations maintain adherence to regulatory requirements while protecting their SaaS data.
4.8 out of 5 stars from 55 reviews
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Varonis is a well-established name in SaaS security posture management, helping businesses address critical misconfigurations in their cloud data. As a Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) platform, Varonis enables teams to discover, map, monitor, and protect data wherever it lives—including SaaS, IaaS, databases, directories, and Microsoft 365.
Varonis provides a rich set of features, including cloud DLP, identity security, email security, and policy automation. These capabilities allow organizations to find critical data and remediate exposure.
4.5 stars out of 5 from 41 reviews
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While SSPM tools provide crucial security insights, they do have certain limitations that organizations need to consider. A notable issue is their limited support for the wide array of SaaS applications that companies use. Many businesses rely on a diverse set of SaaS tools (the average enterprise uses over 800 SaaS applications according to Grip data), yet SSPM solutions typically cover only a subset of these applications. Consider the SaaS tools employed by functional teams that have smaller user bases and bypassed security reviews, like Canva, Grammarly, and ChatGPT. These tools are not covered by SSPMs, which are designed to monitor and protect known SaaS applications—applications that likely went through traditional procurement reviews—and then integrated with the SSPM platform. As a result, SSPMs can have gaps in SaaS identification and monitoring, leaving some SaaS tools unprotected and potentially exposing the organization to undetected risks.
Numerous G2 reviews highlighted this limitation, referencing the restricted number of SaaS integrations available with many SSPM platforms. Users often expressed frustration that some applications weren't supported, further complicating the challenge of maintaining comprehensive security coverage across their entire SaaS ecosystem.
Another significant gap is that SSPMs are not designed to identify or manage unauthorized SaaS applications, often called Shadow IT. Employees frequently adopt new SaaS tools without the IT department's knowledge or approval, and because SSPMs focus on securing known applications, they overlook these emerging risks. While the ease of use of SSPMs is a draw, the gaps should be considered if you seek inclusive SaaS application security and comprehensive risk management.
Before settling on an SSPM for your SaaS application security, it’s important to identify your objectives. Are you seeking visibility across ALL SaaS usage, or are you just concerned with safeguarding select applications? SSPMs focus on the apps you already know about, so if you want to broaden your visibility to the unsanctioned SaaS in use across your organization, you’ll need to explore SSPM alternatives.
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs) serve as enforcement points for managing access to cloud services and applications. Typically deployed either on-premises or via cloud delivery, CASBs utilize a combination of forward and reverse proxies, APIs, and periodic polling to monitor and control cloud access. Positioned between cloud service consumers and providers, CASBs aim to enforce enterprise security policies, offering key capabilities such as visibility, compliance, threat protection, and data loss prevention (DLP).
However, despite their robust feature set, CASBs can be challenging to operationalize. Many organizations find that CASBs are complex to implement and require significant time and effort to achieve effective security outcomes. This complexity often leads to frustration, particularly when compared to SSPM solutions, which are generally praised in reviews for their ease of use and faster deployment times. As a result, while CASBs offer comprehensive security controls, their practical application can be cumbersome and may not provide the user-friendly, seamless experience that organizations increasingly seek.
Security Service Edge (SSE) platforms are designed to deliver security services closer to the user’s location (e.g., a corporate office, branch locations, or remote locations) to enhance both security and user experience. This approach is particularly beneficial in environments where users require secure access to various applications without relying on traditional network controls like VPNs. However, as the adoption of SaaS continues to accelerate, traditional SSE security models have struggled to keep up with the pace. SSE platforms, initially developed before the SaaS boom, depend heavily on network traffic inspection and policy enforcement, which can provide some level of protection but are increasingly inadequate in today's dynamic and decentralized SaaS landscape.
SSE platforms were built on the assumption that IT and security teams would maintain centralized control over the procurement and use of applications—a rapidly outdated scenario. In the modern workplace, end users frequently adopt and abandon SaaS applications without IT’s oversight, as employees often switch between tools to meet their needs. This consumer-like behavior makes it challenging for SSE technologies, which were not designed to handle such fluidity, to provide comprehensive and effective coverage. As a result, the static nature of traditional SSE tools is increasingly at odds with the flexible and fast-paced adoption of SaaS applications today.
A SaaS Security Control Plane (SSCP) is the newest addition to SaaS application security, designed specifically for how SaaS is acquired today—predominantly outside of IT’s visibility.
Unlike CASBs, SSCPs leverage an identity-based access control model, integrating directly with Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems. This allows SSCPs to determine user identities and authentication methods while monitoring every SaaS application for account creation triggers based on the user's identity. This approach is significantly more accurate—up to five times more so—than traditional CASB methods. Moreover, SSCPs operate without needing agents, secure web gateways/proxies, or API integrations, simplifying deployment and reducing operational overhead.
Compared to SSPMs, SSCPs not only match (or exceed) the ease of use that SSPMs are known for but also offer a distinct advantage: the ability to identify, prioritize, and mitigate risks associated with both managed and unmanaged (shadow) SaaS applications. This comprehensive coverage ensures that organizations can secure their entire SaaS ecosystem, including applications that might otherwise go unnoticed and unprotected by SSPMs.
By integrating seamlessly with existing systems, SSCPs empower IT and security teams to detect, secure, and orchestrate SaaS protection across various platforms and control points, including those led by business units. This makes SSCPs a compelling alternative to traditional CASBs and SSPMs, particularly for organizations seeking a more flexible and effective approach to SaaS application security.
SaaS adoption, usage, and security are rapidly changing, and securing SaaS environments is increasingly complex. This is where Grip Security stands out as a leader in the SSCP category. Grip’s SSCP solution is built on the SaaS identity risk management (SIRM) framework, which addresses every stage in the SaaS lifecycle—from discovery and risk assessment to access control and automated offboarding. As a result, Grip enables comprehensive SaaS risk management and mitigation of both sanctioned and unsanctioned SaaS applications, which SSPMs cannot provide.
Before choosing an SSPM or any other SaaS application security solution, it’s important to understand your specific SaaS identity risks first. Grip offers a free SaaS identity risk assessment to help you identify potential vulnerabilities and better protect your organization's SaaS ecosystem. This assessment provides insights into your current security posture, allowing you to make informed decisions and implement the necessary controls to safeguard your data and applications. Book your assessment now.
Gain a complete view of your SaaS usage—including shadow SaaS and rogue cloud accounts—from an identity-centric viewpoint. See how Grip can improve the security of your enterprise.
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