Google has introduced particular plans to amass Cloud Native Software Safety (CNAPP) vendor Wiz for $32 billion which is the most important ever acquisition in cybersecurity, surpassing the $28B that Cisco paid for Splunk in 2024. That is additionally Google’s largest ever acquisition and primarily based on Forrester’s estimates of Wiz’s annual income, represents an astronomically excessive, roughly 45-50x estimated multiplier of Wiz’s annual income. Wiz has been making monetary headlines since final summer time from rumors in July 2024 that Google would purchase them for $23bn, its acquisition of Gem Safety to rumors it might purchase Lacework, a deal that fell by means of (Fortinet later acquired Lacework).
This acquisition highlights the next:
Within the mild of Google’s observe report with previous safety acquisitions, Google can efficiently combine Wiz. When evaluating Googe Cloud’s earlier safety acquisitions, the observe report is robust. Google’s 2022 acquisition of Mandiant has been confirmed a key part to Google’s cybersecurity product technique, infusing Google Safety Operations with Mandiant menace intelligence and analytics. Google has additionally retained lots of Mandiant’s most distinguished safety leaders which is a optimistic signal. Equally, the 2022 Siemplify acquisition was productive for Google Safety Operations – it not too long ago absolutely built-in Siemplify into the platform as a full-fledged SOAR. The success of Wiz’s acquisition may even depend upon Google’s 1) potential to navigate right now’s present risky financial setting, 2) potential to ‘avoid wasting money’ to stay within the AI race with AWS and Azure, and three) whether or not Google operates Wiz individually or embeds them into Google Cloud’s safety portfolio.
Multi-cloud CNAPP is indispensable for cloud infrastructure safety choices. Whereas Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has efficiently developed CNAPP capabilities (Cloud Safety Posture Administration and Cloud Workload Safety) for their very own platform’s native safety, these instruments have predominantly targeted solely on defending GCP endpoints/property. After Microsoft’s 2021 early acquisition of CloudKnox and improvement of Defender for Cloud (a multi-cloud CNAPP device competing with Palo Alto Networks, and others), Google is now feeling the stress to supply a real, multicloud-capable CNAPP device on condition that so many organizations are multi-cloud right now. Forrester expects that, post-acquisition, most present CNAPP capabilities in GCP (CSPM, CIEM, agentless CWP) can be changed by Wiz’s providing and stay with multi-cloud assist. Multicloud safety capabilities will speed up Google Cloud’s entry into many enterprises.
App safety synergies present extra alternatives for cloud suppliers. Whereas Wiz is primarily targeted on CNAPP, the agency’s product choices bleed into the applying safety house. Lately Wiz expanded into app safety, together with SCA), IAC, and secrets and techniques scanning, software program invoice of supplies (SBOM) and CI/CD safety posture administration. These strikes place Wiz to compete with utility safety testing distributors and different CNAPP distributors who’ve “shifted left”. Google has additionally begun extending its API administration product, Apigee, into broader API safety use instances. Whereas there are nonetheless gaps to fill, akin to SAST, DAST, and API assault detection, including Wiz to the Cloud Armor, reCaptcha, and Apigee choices strikes Google nearer to being a holistic cloud utility safety supplier.
The acquisition will present aggressive pressures and drive consolidation for unbiased CNAPP suite distributors. Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Sysdig, Rapid7, Pattern Micro, and different now face fierce competitors from cloud infrastructure suppliers (Google and Microsoft). This deliberate acquisition plus Microsoft’s continued investments in CNAPP and app safety will drive unbiased CNAPP suppliers to innovate and search differentiation v. the cloud infrastructure suppliers and will result in additional consolidation inside the CNAPP house. Cloud clients should take into account whether or not these unbiased CNAPP distributors have adequate capabilities to keep up themselves as a trusted third get together platform that mitigates reliance on a single cloud supplier — a sample that has benefited distributors within the observability and AIOps house, for instance.
Different CNAPP distributors should 1) combine cloud detection and response. Wiz’s cloud detection and response providing Wiz Defend (previously Gem Safety) takes a special strategy to cloud detection and response. As an alternative of counting on built-in detection capabilities in its personal cloud safety instruments completely, Wiz Defend gives a unified device solely for detection and response that takes in alerts and information from different instruments (identification instruments, Google Cloud Audit logs, Azure Exercise Logs, AWS Cloud path logs, and many others.) and does detection engineering on them. This reduces alert volumes from the cloud at a vital time – purchasers are scuffling with cloud alert volumes greater than ever given the disparate merchandise. With this acquisition, it places stress on different distributors to consolidate their CNAPP and CDR choices in an analogous manner and supply specific CDR capabilities of their CNAPP answer: an enormous win for safety operations groups.
Wiz’s cluster optimization and value consideration raises questions on Google’s cloud administration ambitions. Though historically a CNAPP answer, Wiz – pushed by buyer necessities – developed a value optimization framework with Cloud Configuration Rule being its newest functionality. It optimizes Kubernetes prices in EKS by figuring out cluster optimization alternatives. Although this functionality begins with AWS, the Wiz earlier had acknowledged plans to increase its subsequent technology of Wiz Cloud Price to different public clouds. Since Google Cloud has its personal price administration capabilities, the query stays whether or not Wiz Cloud Price can be deprecated or folded into Google’s native administration suite, or will Google proceed its FinOps ambitions and increase to ingesting and managing its opponents’ cloud prices.
AWS might want to react to those CNAPP tendencies. Whereas AWS has been offering Guard Responsibility and Config, these options 1) will not be as sturdy as different CNAPP options in areas of greatest practices and compliance template breadth and depth, and, extra importantly, multicloud protection. Whereas AWS WAF helps hybrid and multi-cloud deployments, many Forrester purchasers inform us they nonetheless restrict AWS WAF to the AWS setting. To reply to Google’s acquisition of Wiz, AWS might want to beef up its productized, multicloud CNAPP providing (with protection for CSPM, CIEM, agent-based and agentless CWP, container safety, and IaC scanning). If AWS chooses to go the purchase v. construct route, seemingly CNAPP acquisition targets would come with smaller gamers akin to Aqua Safety, Orca Safety, and Sysdig.
