How PSPM Reduces CNAPP Noise and Alert Fatigue
Organizations investing in CNAPP worry that adding PSPM creates overlapping spend. PSPM doesn't replace CNAPP - it dramatically reduces CNAPP noise so your security team can focus on truly critical threats.
The Problem: CNAPP Drowning in Misconfiguration Noise
Without prevention, CNAPP platforms surface every misconfiguration in the environment:
Alert volumes overwhelm security teams. Cloud alerts surged 388% in 2024. CNAPP finds thousands of misconfigurations: public S3 buckets, unencrypted databases, overly permissive security groups, missing MFA, weak access policies. Each finding requires triage, ticket creation, team coordination, and remediation effort.
Critical threats get buried in preventable alerts. CNAPP provides sophisticated threat detection, attack path analysis, vulnerability management, and compliance visibility. But when security teams spend 60-80% of their time on misconfiguration remediation, truly critical threats get lost in noise. Sophisticated attacks and complex attack paths get buried under thousands of preventable misconfigurations.
Remediation cycles consume capacity. Each finding creates work: assessment, prioritization, ticket creation, developer coordination, implementation, testing, deployment, validation. For preventable misconfigurations that appear repeatedly, this cycle repeats endlessly. Security teams become remediation coordinators rather than security engineers.
Same issues reappear continuously. Without prevention, fixing a misconfiguration doesn't stop it from happening again. Public S3 buckets get remediated, then new public S3 buckets get deployed. Unencrypted volumes get fixed, then new unencrypted volumes appear. CNAPP catches them all, but remediation never ends.
This isn't CNAPP's fault - CNAPP is doing its job perfectly. The problem is that detection alone can't solve problems that prevention addresses more effectively.
The Solution: PSPM Eliminates Preventable Noise
PSPM systematically reduces what CNAPP finds:
Alert volume reduction: 50-80% fewer findings. As PSPM expands prevention coverage, fewer misconfigurations reach production. Organization policies block public buckets before deployment. Config-layer defaults enable encryption automatically. IaC scanning catches misconfigurations in code. Build-layer scanning catches issues during development. Runtime remediation fixes drift within minutes.
Example impact:
- Before PSPM: 12,000 CNAPP findings per month
- After PSPM: 2,500 CNAPP findings per month
- Result: 79% finding reduction, same security team
Teams focus on truly critical items. With preventable misconfigurations eliminated, CNAPP findings focus on what matters: sophisticated attacks, zero-day exploits, complex attack paths, insider threats, vulnerabilities requiring patching. Security teams stop drowning in preventable alerts and focus on issues requiring human judgment and investigation.
CNAPP's advanced capabilities become usable. With misconfiguration noise reduced, security teams can actually use CNAPP's detection features:
- Attack path analysis reveals complex risks requiring architectural changes
- Runtime threat detection catches sophisticated attacks and anomalous behavior
- Vulnerability management prioritizes patching based on exploitability
- Compliance monitoring provides audit evidence without remediation noise
Remediation capacity freed for strategic work. Organizations implementing comprehensive prevention typically free 60-80% of remediation capacity. Security teams shift from reactive coordination to proactive work: security architecture, threat hunting, risk assessment, security engineering, strategic planning.
Real-World Impact: Reduced Risk and Eliminated Alert Fatigue
PSPM helps security teams use CNAPP effectively by eliminating noise:
Before PSPM deployment:
- 12,000 CNAPP findings per month
- 400 hours remediation effort
- 85% are repeat issues
- Sophisticated threat detection underutilized
- Attack path analysis gets no attention
- Security team burnout and turnover
After PSPM deployment:
- 2,500 CNAPP findings per month
- 80 hours remediation effort
- 25% are repeat issues
- Threat detection drives incident response
- Attack path analysis guides architecture
- Security team focuses on strategic work
Security teams can focus on what matters. With prevention eliminating predictable misconfigurations, teams concentrate on genuine threats. Organizations reduce risk by preventing issues upstream and detecting sophisticated threats downstream.
Alert fatigue disappears. The endless cycle of triaging preventable misconfigurations ends. Security teams operate with purpose rather than drowning in noise.
The Business Case: Better Together Than Either Alone
CNAPP alone provides comprehensive visibility but creates overwhelming alert volumes. PSPM alone reduces issues but provides no validation or detection of sophisticated threats. Together they deliver outcomes neither achieves alone:
Lower risk: Preventive controls stop predictable misconfigurations. Detection catches sophisticated threats. Multiple layers provide defense in depth.
Lower cost: Prevention eliminates expensive remediation cycles. Detection validates prevention works and catches what prevention misses. Total security cost decreases while effectiveness increases.
Higher confidence: Comprehensive CNAPP visibility ensures nothing goes unnoticed. Systematic PSPM prevention ensures predictable issues don't reach production. Security teams operate with assurance rather than anxiety.
Better outcomes: Fewer incidents, faster detection when incidents occur, shorter exposure windows, freed capacity for strategic work, reduced risk, eliminated alert fatigue.
Organizations that deploy both achieve better security outcomes at lower total cost than organizations investing in either alone. PSPM doesn't compete with CNAPP - it helps security teams use CNAPP effectively by reducing noise and eliminating alert fatigue so teams can focus on truly critical threats.