SaaS Management

  • 7 min read

CASB Vs SMP (Cloud Access Security Broker vs SaaS Management Platforms): Which Is Apt For Strengthening Software Security

Team Zluri

10th August, 2023

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The SaaS management platform (SMP) enables your IT teams to manage SaaS apps and ensures that they are being used effectively and securely. The ultimate goal is to give your IT teams complete visibility and control over your organization’s SaaS apps. 

Whereas cloud access security broker (CASB) allows your IT teams to secure cloud apps and data by providing advanced security capabilities. The primary motive is to protect your organization's SaaS app data by eliminating shadow IT.  

While there is some overlap in functionality between the two solutions, they serve different purposes and are used in different contexts. 

Advancement in technology and SaaS adoption has been a boon for businesses, however, they are encountering numerous security challenges as well. For instance, cybercrime has become a significant threat as more organizations store their data digitally. Hackers and cybercriminals use modern technology, such as phishing, malware, and ransomware, to steal sensitive data or compromise systems.

So, to protect your organization’s SaaS app data from emerging security threats, you, as a CIO or CISO, need to implement strong security solutions. CASB and SMP are one such solutions that will guard your enterprise against potential threats.

But it would help if you looked through specific security needs also; then only you will be able to decide which one will be more compatible. Such as SMP reduces security risks by improving visibility into SaaS apps across the enterprise, whereas CASB addresses the threats of cloud services and enforces security policies. 

Although there are other parameters as well that you can consider before making your decision. 

So, in this article, we will closely compare the two solutions to help you make an optimal choice.   

CASB Vs. SMP: Comparison Based On 4 Different Parameters

Do you get confused when it comes to choosing between two efficient security management  tools? Maybe yes, because there are hundreds of tools that solve the security issues of organizations.

So, you need to closely examine each tool to better understand how the tools mitigate security threats and which is more suitable. In that way, you will be able to make an optimal decision. Here's a quick comparison between CASB and SMP based on different parameters.    

1. Pros and Cons 

• Pros of CASB

CASB solutions are designed to interact with the application programming interfaces that cloud service providers provide. When these APIs are available, they make CASBs work very effectively. 

Cons of CASB

A common limitation of CASB is that it must be integrated with other standalone security solutions. Dependency on other standalone solutions makes security management costly, complex, and less efficient. 

• Pros of SMP

SMP automates IT processes, such as granting employees secure access to SaaS apps, reducing human errors, and saving time. It also integrates with other tools and services, such as single sign-on (SSO) solutions, identity and access management (IAM) tools, and mobile device management (MDM) solutions, making them more versatile and useful.

Cons of SMP

SMP can be complex, especially for organizations with large numbers of SaaS apps or intricate app usage patterns. Apart from that, it requires access to sensitive data and may have access to credentials or other confidential information, which can raise privacy concerns and require careful consideration of the security and privacy implications of using such platforms.

2. Visibility

CASBs provide a window into the traffic between organizations and their cloud provider.  It helps your IT team see what sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud systems users access. 

Furthermore, it enables your team to discover and identify cloud applications or services used by your organization's employees, even if it does not authorize them. This provides visibility into shadow IT, which is the use of unauthorized/restricted apps or services within an organization. 

CASBs help your team understand what cloud services are being used, who is using them, and how much data is being transmitted. This helps in monitoring suspicious activity and blocks potential threats. 

On the other hand, SMP creates a SaaS inventory with all your organization's SaaS application data. From the names of the app, the number of licenses or subscriptions, the users who have access, to the data volume or usage. This helps your team gain complete visibility into the SaaS landscape. 

Furthermore, SMP also enables your IT teams to identify critical apps, unauthorized attempts to access apps and eliminates shadow IT, which helps in reducing security threats.   

3. Compliance

CASB allows your team to apply data protection policies, such as encryption or data loss prevention, to protect sensitive data in the cloud. This helps your team meet compliance requirements for data protection and privacy.

While SMP helps your team ensure compliance with regulations and governance policies. By identifying whether the SaaS app complies with regulatory standards or not and monitoring SaaS usage and user activity, they can identify potential compliance risks and take appropriate actions to mitigate them.

4. Data Security & Threat Detection

CASB helps your team to identify and prevent threats by analyzing network traffic and behavior patterns. It acts as a firewall, identifying and blocking malicious activity such as phishing attempts, malware downloads, and data exfiltration attempts. 

Also, it provides your team with user entity behavior analytical capabilities, which detect threats and compromised accounts. 

Whereas SMP allows your team to monitor user activity within SaaS applications and services. This includes tracking logins, file uploads, downloads, and sharing activity. By monitoring user activity, SaaS management platforms can detect and alert your IT teams about potentially risky behavior or activities. 

Furthermore, its access management features track employees' unauthorized access attempts and immediately restrict or block their accounts to safeguard crucial data. 

Now, you know which will be more apt for securing your users, apps, and data from potential security threats. To sum it up, here is the quick overall performance of CASB and SMP.

CASB Vs SMP: Overall Performance 

CASB deployment with proxy, agent, and API-based approaches is complicated. Unfortunately, many products use a combination of these three. This complexity means that companies require professional services for CASB deployment.

CASB tools do not offer streamlined workflows or administration tools to help your IT teams prevent security threats before they are manifested. 

However, there are also delays caused by the CASB in proxy deployment mode, as it sits between the user and the software application.

On the other hand, the SaaS management platform fills these gaps by providing lightweight, easy-to-deploy discovery tools that uncover the shadow of IT lurking in plain sight. This is done by using APIs and integration with endpoint technologies.

Further, it helps you to save money by eliminating redundant applications and optimizing the usage of underutilized licenses.

Even though SaaS management platforms and CASB solutions solve most of the same issues, but they work differently. Overall, CASB is good for addressing many specific security concerns. However, the deployment process is complex, and often the discovery features don't capture the entire data.

While the SaaS management platform provides a lightweight method of capturing complete application data. SMP also offers opportunities for your IT teams to take action with insights gained and prevent security risks.

One such efficient SaaS management platform is Zluri, which you can implement to streamline your IT process and safeguard your crucial data from data breaches and cyberattacks. 

Zluri - An SMP That Helps With SaaS and User Lifecycle Management

Now what is Zluri? How does it help enterprises strengthen their security system? Zluri is an intelligent SaaS management platform that provides your IT team with a 360-degree view that helps keep track of everything, such as who is accessing which application. 

Its security capabilities allow your team to safeguard its crucial data and strengthen its security posture. For example, Zluri helps eliminate shadow IT by giving full visibility into organizations' SaaS stack with the help of 5 discovery methods, i.e., SSO or IDP, finance & expense management systems, direct integrations, browser extensions (optional), and desktop agents (optional), allowing your team to discover all the SaaS applications used in your organization. 

This also allows your team to identify redundant applications which have the potential to compromise security as it's an easy way for hackers to breach in. 

Furthermore, once all the applications are identified, Zluri enables your IT team to thoroughly examine each SaaS app, providing information about events, shared data, compliance, and security probes. 

From where will all these details be visible? Your team can follow these few steps. 

• Step 1: On Zluri's main interface, click on applications; it will display all applications that are categorized under managed, unmanaged, restricted, and need reviews.

  

  

• Step 2: Click the application that your team wants more information about. All the related details will be displayed, including how many active users are using the app, the IT owner of the app, risk level, which departments are using the app, and more.

  

  

• Step 3: To get in-depth detail, click on the security & compliance tab; it will display 4 tabs events, data shared, compliance, and security probes.

By clicking on the events tab, your team can view all events related to the applications. Zluri fetches this information from multiple authentic online sources, including critical updates, data breaches, security vulnerabilities, and other news associated with the application.

The score will vary depending on the event's impact; if the event has a high-security impact, the score will be low, and vice versa. For instance, the score will be low due to X application's multiple security breaches.

Moving ahead, in data shared, your team can view who has read-only, modify, and delete access. If any user has read-only access, the threat level is comparatively low compared to users having to modify and delete access. Also, the more sensitive the data that an app accesses, the higher the threat level. 

For example, an app with access to Google Drive and the ability to delete files would be considered a high threat.

Furthermore, in the compliance tab, your team will be able to view which compliance standard the application adheres to. This lets your team ensure the application meets your company's compliance regulations. Moreover, Zluri's risk scoring system considers the number of compliance standards that an app complies with is taken into account. The higher the number of compliance standards, the higher the score, and the lower the number of compliance standards, the lower the score. 

Lastly, in the security probes tab, your team can get a view of technical scanning, which is conducted every once a month. 

Zluri doesn't stop here; it utilizes secure encryption algorithms; Zluri places a high priority on the protection of your crucial data. Additionally, it gives your team access to a thorough log of important activities that can be audited, allowing you to keep tabs on all actions that pertain to the security of your app.

Also, unless a request for removal is made, all collected data, including usage statistics for SaaS applications, is kept forever. Zluri backs up all data for 60 days and keeps it encrypted to ensure it is always accessible.

It identifies such applications; it navigates the threat and risk level embedded in an app and puts them under critical applications or restricts them. Also, ensure all the apps comply with the company’s standards to prevent security and compliance risks. 

Zluri does the same with users; it detects unauthorized users or any employees trying to access critical apps and restricts their access or puts them under critical users. This helps in securing sensitive data from data breaches. 

Zluri doesn't stop here; it sends real-time alerts to your IT teams on any unauthorized attempt to access apps. For example, if a user logs in from an unknown device or location, it immediately notifies your IT team of such actions. It detects suspicious behavior and potential security threats, which enables your team to respond quickly to security incidents and take action to mitigate the risk of cyberattacks and other security incidents.

It also puts an extra layer of protection by enforcing security policies and requires additional verification before granting access. 

Apart from this, its identity governance functionality enables your team to manage and control user access to applications and data. This includes managing user roles and permissions, enforcing access policies, and conducting access reviews to ensure that users have only the access they need to perform their job functions.

This was a brief description of Zluri, however, it has many other excellent capabilities such as asset management, user lifecycle management, SaaS buying, and more, that you can have a look at by just booking a demo. You will get a better understanding of how it will work in your organization. Before choosing any solution, you should thoroughly check all the features it offers because sometimes you might get way better features than other tools at a great deal. 

About the author

Team Zluri

Team Zluri