DSPM vs. CSPM: What Are the Differences and How to Decide?
One of the most promising recent trends in data security technology is Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), which promises organizations the ability to identify and classify sensitive data to mitigate data risk using extensive automation.
With so much data being moved to the cloud, it’s understandable that Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) has also gained momentum. Organizations must have tools to maintain visibility and control over sensitive information and to prevent data loss, and multiple technologies have emerged to answer this need with significant overlap between them.
So, what’s the difference between DSPM and CSPM, and which one is right for your organization?
Get Visibility and Control Over Your Data
DSPM locates and identifies sensitive data across multiple locations and services, assesses its vulnerability to threats and non-compliance risks, and can both remediate problems and monitor for future risks. This applies to data in the cloud as well as other storage locations.
CSPM, on the other hand, monitors cloud-based systems and infrastructures to identify and remediate risks and misconfigurations to better keep the data they store safe. It’s a crucial tool in a day and age where most workloads live in the cloud.
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) key features
The concept of DSPM was initially defined by industry analyst Gartner® in its 2022 Hype Cycle for Data Security. DSPM is usually understood to cover these four key capabilities:
- Data discovery
- Data classification
- Risk assessment and prioritization
- Remediation and monitoring
DSPM solutions are designed to find and classify data – in the cloud and elsewhere – and to recommend or implement remediation where needed. They constantly monitor for risks, and the best solutions offer AI-driven automation that evolves in its ability to accurately classify data, flag potential threats and provide appropriate safeguards.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) key features
CSPM solutions are designed to provide similar functions of visibility, risk detection, remediation and ongoing monitoring to an organization’s cloud environments and infrastructure, including:
- Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
CSPM solutions can help security teams to proactively detect weak spots in cloud environments and respond using capabilities such as remediation recommendation, compliance monitoring and DevOps integration.
Organizations deploy CSPM solutions in public and private cloud environments to prevent breaches and avoid the risk of regulatory non-compliance. CSPM became a common security technology once enterprises began migrating applications to cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
DSPM vs. CSPM: Deciding on the Right Solution
Taking stock of your security needs in relation to DSPM and CSPM can help you decide whether you want to pick one or use both to ensure you don’t leave any weak spots in your security posture.
DSPM deals with data over a broader range of locations, which adds value for enterprises that are storage-agnostic or that rely on BYOD. CSPM emphasizes finding misconfigurations and vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure, which are known risks that can lead to data loss.
DSPM will provide the best fit if your primary concerns are data security and data privacy across the enterprise. CSPM excels for securing multi-cloud environments and protecting the data stored within them. And both will complement each other as part of a well-rounded security strategy. DSPM vs. CSPM isn’t a question of which is better overall; rather, which one offsets your organization’s unique security risks.
With a great DSPM solution, you can achieve total visibility and control over the sensitive data that may be your most critical resource. Forcepoint DSPM, powered by Getvisibility, allows organizations to discover, classify and orchestrate data using advanced AI-powered automation to fine-tune its accuracy and scan up to one million files per hour at scale.
While most DSPM solutions offer automated remediation but require a Data Detection and Response (DDR) tool to perform these actions, Forcepoint DSPM offers a wide range of built-in remediation activities actionable in near-real time.
Are you interested in evaluating the best DSPM solutions on the market? Take a look at Forcepoint DSPM or talk to an expert to set up a demo.
