Today’s DevOps teams need to innovate, accelerate development, and minimize friction. In parallel, securing cloud-native environments is more challenging. Software now runs on containers, virtual machines, serverless, APIs, identities, storage buckets, Kubernetes clusters and across multiple clouds. Every resource can be an attack vector and every configuration can be a vulnerability.

Existing security systems can be cumbersome in this environment because they rely on installing, managing, updating, and monitoring software agents on each workload. That can be a problem for rapidly moving engineering teams. Agentless cloud security provides an alternative: wide visibility across cloud environments without requiring developers to install agents on all assets.

Solutions like Orca Security, Wiz, Prisma Cloud, Lacework, Aqua Security, Sysdig, Trend Micro Cloud One, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are helping security and DevOps teams find vulnerabilities in complex cloud deployments while providing an easier alternative to agent-based security.

Agentless Security Supports DevOps

Dynamic environments are the hallmark of DevOps. Containers are spun up and down rapidly. Serverless functions might run for a short time. Infrastructure is provisioned through code. Cloud resources are in a state of flux as developers deploy, scale, test and roll out new code.

In such a world, having agents on every workload can be problematic. Agents may need to be installed as part of the build process, kept up to date across different operating systems, regularly patched, and monitored for compatibility issues. This can be a burden on engineering teams trying to accelerate.

Agentless security reduces that burden. Agentless security tools don’t require installing software on a workload; instead, they provide access to the cloud environment via APIs, snapshots, metadata, cloud configuration, and workload context. This enables security professionals to scan, detect vulnerabilities, check for misconfigurations and manage risk without requiring changes to the way developers build and deploy code.

The benefits of DevOps are clear: security can be scaled more easily without impacting speed.

How Agentless Cloud Security Works

Agentless cloud security products typically integrate with the cloud provider – such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. They then examine cloud assets and configurations from an external perspective, rather than relying solely on software installed within the workloads themselves.

This might include virtual machine snapshots, cloud storage configurations, IAM roles and policies, networking vulnerabilities, container images, Kubernetes configurations and metadata from cloud services. These signals can be combined to provide insights into the overall risk in the environment.

The real advantage is context. A vulnerability on its own is not enough. The DevOps team also needs to know whether the vulnerable asset is internet-facing, whether it has access to sensitive information, whether it is deployed in production, and whether it has more access than it should, which could compound the vulnerability and exacerbate the problem.

This type of information helps shift focus from a long list of generic threats to risk prioritization.

The Best Agentless Cloud Security Platforms for DevOps

There are now several cloud security platforms with agentless or agent-first features. The best choice depends on the size of the enterprise, cloud infrastructure, compliance and regulatory requirements, run-time environment and current security infrastructure.

Orca Security provides agentless cloud security and visibility. It is typically chosen by teams seeking comprehensive coverage without deploying agents to each asset.

Wiz offers cloud security posture management, vulnerability management, identity risk, exposure management and cloud-native application security. It is used by teams that have complex multi-cloud deployments.

Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Cloud provides a comprehensive cloud-native security solution covering posture, workload, compliance, container, and runtime security.

Lacework is known for cloud security, anomaly detection, workload risk, compliance, and behavioral analytics.

Aqua Security is commonly known for its container, Kubernetes, and cloud-native security. It helps teams that have excellent container and DevSecOps practices.

Sysdig is very popular for cloud, container, and Kubernetes security, where runtime visibility and protection are critical.

Trend Micro Cloud One offers cloud workload, container, file storage and application security for teams looking for cloud security as part of a security platform.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is ideal for those with a heavy investment in Azure, but it can be used for multi-cloud security.

Agentless Cloud Security Platform Comparison

Orca Security and Agentless Cloud Security

Orca Security is frequently mentioned as agentless cloud security because its approach to visibility is agentless. This is important to DevOps teams because it makes it easier to deploy and for security teams to scan cloud assets faster.

The key principle behind Orca’s model is achieving agentless visibility via cloud integrations, workload analysis, metadata and snapshot scanning. Rather than requiring engineering teams to change every workload, the solution integrates with the cloud and takes a cloud-centric view of risk.

Such a model can help discover:

• Misconfigurations that make services or data accessible
• Vulnerabilities in workloads and packages
• Risky access paths and over-privileged identities
• Sensitive data exposure
• Accessible resources with vulnerabilities
• Combinations of risks that may be more risky than individual vulnerabilities

This type of agentless approach can help teams working across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud to get uniform visibility. This is particularly useful in environments where infrastructure is rapidly evolving, there are multiple development teams or limited bandwidth to manage the deployment and maintenance of the agent.

Scaling Security Without Breaking the Build

One of the biggest challenges in DevOps security is “breaking the build”. Developers are rarely against security. They are opposed to security that slows down their process, generates too many false positives, or otherwise gets in their way without adding value.

Agentless security can help to address this because it is not part of the build process and still provides security teams with cloud risk information. Agentless solutions can continually scan the cloud, rather than forcing developers to deploy and manage agents with every release.

This is not to say that agentless solutions negate DevSecOps practices such as code scanning, dependency scanning, infrastructure-as-code scanning, or container image scanning. They simply add value by providing visibility of what is in the cloud and its relative risk.

That distinction is important. A vulnerability in a development system is not the same as one in a production system exposed to the internet and linked to sensitive data. This helps DevOps prioritize which vulnerabilities to fix.

Making Security Actionable for Engineers

Engineers need to be able to use security findings. An ambiguous alert is frustrating. An actionable finding that has an owner, context, severity, affected assets and remediation steps can be brought into the engineering process.

The best agentless cloud security solutions help you answer questions:

• What is the affected asset?
• Who owns it?
• Is it internet accessible?
• Is it storing or manipulating sensitive information?
• What permissions are attached to it?
• How is it fixed?

Here’s where we need to prioritize risk. DevOps teams don’t need more tickets. They need less, more useful tickets. Security tools that aggregate and cluster findings, prioritize root causes, and display attack paths can help engineers identify and fix problems faster.

The trick is not to bombard development teams. Our goal is to help them resolve the right problems at the right time.

Agentless Cloud Security: FAQs

What is agentless cloud security?

Agentless cloud security is a security approach that scans and inspects cloud workloads without running software agents on each workload. It typically operates via cloud APIs, snapshots, metadata, configuration and workload context.

What are the benefits of agentless security for DevOps?

Agentless security is good for DevOps because it’s easy to deploy. It allows teams to get the information they need about cloud risks without needing to deploy, maintain and troubleshoot agents on every workload.

Which is better, agentless or agent-based security?

Agentless security is better for visibility, rapid deployment and operational simplicity. Agent-based security might still be better for comprehensive runtime security, process-level telemetry, and dynamic workload control. Many companies use both.

Which providers have agentless cloud security?

Agentless and agentless-supported cloud security platforms include Orca Security, Wiz, Prisma Cloud, Lacework, Aqua Security, Sysdig, Trend Micro Cloud One and Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

When does DevOps need agents?

DevOps teams can still use agents if they require deep runtime monitoring and control, process telemetry, file monitoring, or workload telemetry. Agentless solutions are great for awareness and triage, but agents may be needed in some critical environments.

Rajesh Kumar

I’m a DevOps/SRE/DevSecOps/Cloud Expert passionate about sharing knowledge and experiences. I have worked at Cotocus. I share tech blog at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market tips at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow , and SEO strategies at Wizbrand.

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