Big win for Upwind: We took home the overall title and earned top honors across every category at the Tamnoon Cloud Security Demo Showdown on June 5th. Upwind placed in the top three for all four categories of the people’s choice categories: Application Security, Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Runtime Security, and Vulnerability Management. These results reflect the strength of Upwind’s full-stack capabilities, rapid market momentum, and the enterprise-readiness of our unified cloud security platform. Below, we will dive into our offerings in each category, highlighting why security teams choose Upwind for comprehensive cloud security.
“Upwind offers a holistic CNAPP that’s runtime oriented, including agentless vulnerability scanning, contextual vulnerability prioritization, and posture discoveries. They’re a great holistic choice.”
-James Berthoty, Analyst, Latio
Application Security
Upwind delivers runtime-first application protection, using our lightweight eBPF sensor to provide deep visibility into APIs, containers, and workloads. We continuously discover and monitor APIs, detecting vulnerabilities and runtime anomalies in real time.
Our integration into CI/CD pipelines bridges shift-left and shift-right security, correlating build-time findings with live behavior. As part of a unified CNAPP, Upwind combines AppSec with infrastructure and identity insights for full-stack protection.
Key advantages of Upwind Application Security:
- Runtime-First: Focuses on where attacks actually happen: within running workloads and APIs.
- Function-Level Detection: Enables precise monitoring of in-memory behavior and anomalies.
- Unified Platform: Correlates application, identity, and infrastructure risks.
- Shift-Left + Shift-Right: Connects pre-deployment scans with real-time visibility.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
Upwind combines agentless scanning with runtime-powered analysis, delivering a modern CSPM solution that’s both cloud-agnostic and context-aware. We continuously assess cloud assets for misconfigurations, insecure permissions, and compliance violations, like CIS, NIST, GDPR, HIPAA, including support for custom policy frameworks.
What sets Upwind’s CSPM capabilities apart is the ability to correlate static posture issues with live runtime activity. If a misconfiguration isn’t actively exposing a workload or data, it’s deprioritized – reducing false positives and alert fatigue. By linking posture findings with real network traffic, identity behavior, and API usage, Upwind surfaces truly exploitable risk and guides high-impact remediation.
Runtime Security
Upwind provides deep, kernel-level runtime observability via eBPF sensors, capturing real-time telemetry across system calls, processes, network flows, and file activity, then feeds it into all areas of the platform, including API Security and vulnerability management. This data is enriched with cloud metadata – including IAM roles, security groups, and workload context – allowing for precise detection of suspicious behavior across compute, network, and identity layers.
Using behavioral analytics powered by machine learning, Upwind identifies lateral movement, privilege escalation, and data exfiltration – even in zero-day scenarios. Automated policies enable rapid containment, such as container isolation or permission revocation.
Vulnerability Management
Upwind’s vulnerability management stands out by prioritizing only the vulnerabilities that are actively exploitable by factoring in real-time runtime context and live network activity from its eBPF-powered sensor. Instead of flooding teams with theoretical CVEs, Upwind maps vulnerabilities to live containers, exposed services, and identity permissions – filtering out irrelevant noise.
With deep integration into CI/CD and runtime environments, Upwind continuously tracks vulnerabilities from build through production. This dynamic view adapts to changes in workloads and configurations, helping teams focus on real risk, reduce alert fatigue, and remediate faster with confidence.
“Almost every new cloud security provider is dancing the “are we a Wiz competitor” question, with only Upwind having the boldness to say, “yes, we’re better.”
-From “Redefining CNAPP: A Complete Guide To the Future of Cloud Security” by Analysts Francis Odum & James Berthoty
Looking Forward with Even More Enhancements
Our success at the Cloud Security Showdown is a meaningful milestone, but what matters most is how we continue to earn the trust of the teams who rely on us every day. We’re focused on listening closely to our customers and making thoughtful, continuous improvements that help them detect and respond to threats faster and more confidently. That means using every opportunity to learn where we can improve even further in our efforts to provide an industry-leading cloud security solution that actively solves customer problems.
We’re building on our strengths in real-time telemetry, unified visibility, and precise prevention with updates aimed at delivering even more practical value:
- Expanded detection graphs that correlate process activity with identity, network, and cloud signals
- Visual attack timelines that clearly show how threats unfold across systems
- Integrated remediation guidance to accelerate and streamline response
- Smarter, automated prevention that stops threats proactively, not just reactively
These aren’t just big leaps – they’re the kind of focused, 1% improvements that, over time, make all the difference. That’s what we mean by Up & Up: a commitment to constant progress in service of our customers’ toughest challenges.
See Why Enterprises Are Choosing Upwind
Upwind’s performance at the Tamnoon Cloud Security Demo Showdown underscores the power of a unified, runtime-first approach to cloud security. Upwind is redefining how security teams manage cloud risk. With deep visibility, context-rich insights, and precise detection across the full stack – from applications to infrastructure. As organizations look to scale securely, Upwind’s momentum and platform maturity make it a clear choice for enterprises that demand real-time protection, actionable intelligence, and outcomes that matter.
For us, these results represent more than a win – they’re proof that our platform is built for enterprise scale, speed, and complexity. If you’re ready to take a runtime-first approach to cloud security with full-stack visibility and enterprise-grade protection, we’d love to show you how. Schedule a personalized demo with us, or watch our demo at the Cloud Security Demo Showdown.
