About the Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP) category
What belongs in this category
The Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP) category covers products that protect the workloads themselves, wherever they run. Typical entries scan images and hosts for vulnerabilities and malware, harden configurations, control which processes may run, and detect and block attacks at runtime, with agents or agentless scanning, across virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, containers and serverless functions.
Platforms that combine workload protection with cloud posture, permissions and code scanning fit Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP), and detection and response focused on cloud activity fits Cloud Detection and Response (CDR). Workload protection products are open to a second entry in Cloud Security, the broad cloud category.
Related categories to enter
Each category is judged separately, so you can enter a product in every category that matches what it does, with a separate nomination for each. Tailor each nomination to that category's focus. Entering several related categories gives the product more than one chance to be recognized.
How entries are judged
An independent jury of security practitioners, analysts and CISOs scores each nomination on leadership, innovation and impact. Each nomination competes in its category against organizations of similar size and region, so a mid-sized firm is not ranked against a global enterprise. Your entry package, any sponsorship and public votes do not affect the jury's scores.
Strong entries in this category show:
- Leadership — the workloads the product protects: hosts, containers and functions covered, clouds and data centers supported, and customers that rely on it in production.
- Innovation — a workload problem solved in a new way, such as runtime protection with very low overhead, coverage for short-lived containers, or one policy across cloud and data center.
- Impact — results for customers: attacks blocked at runtime, vulnerable images kept out of production, workload coverage gained. Give figures from customers.
The jury awards Gold, Silver or Bronze, or a Finalist badge, and results are published on this site and announced to the 600,000+ member Cybersecurity Insiders community. Every approved nomination also enters the separate Community Choice award, decided by public votes.
How to enter
A vendor can enter its own product or service, and a PR agency can enter it on a client's behalf. The nomination form has a confidential field for detail that is shared with the judges and not published, such as customer names, deployment figures or roadmap. Deadlines, pricing and entry steps are on the How it Works page.
