Sysdig has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Cloud Native Application Protection Solutions, Q1 2026, as one of three vendors receiving the highest designation in Forrester’s assessment. Forrester evaluated 14 top CNAPP providers in the market and detailed their findings to help security teams understand which platforms are best positioned to protect modern cloud environments. We believe this recognition reflects Sysdig’s evolution into a complete CNAPP platform, built on a runtime-powered foundation to secure cloud-native applications wherever they run.

To see where each vendor landed, get access to the full report!

From posture to runtime: How cloud security has evolved

Cloud security is at an inflection point. As organizations accelerate cloud adoption and bring more AI-driven applications into production, attackers are moving faster, environments are more dynamic, and security teams are being asked to reduce risk without slowing innovation.

For years, cloud security centered on posture and compliance. This was an important starting point, but posture only shows what could be wrong. Real risk emerges in running workloads, where vulnerabilities are exploited in real time and attacks unfold in minutes.

That’s why the industry is moving towards CNAPPs that are rooted in runtime. With 82% of AI workloads now built on Kubernetes, AI is cloud-native by default. And when AI goes to production, what matters is runtime behavior, not just how applications are configured. The next era of cloud security will be defined by real-time action grounded in runtime visibility.

Sysdig named a Leader: Our takeaways from the report

CNAPP has become the most important category in cloud security, but the market remains crowded with point solutions and loosely integrated platforms. As buyers look to consolidate, they need clarity on which vendors can deliver end-to-end protection across the cloud lifecycle.

Forrester’s report evaluates CNAPP providers across current offering, strategy, and customer feedback to help security leaders understand which platforms are aligned with how cloud security is evolving.

The Forrester report notes Sysdig’s evolution into a full CNAPP provider:

“Sysdig has evolved from a container security specialist vendor into a full CNAPP provider.”

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Forrester’s evaluation also notes Sysdig’s focus on “connecting posture with vulnerability and runtime telemetry, role-specific workflows for admins and incident responders, and a semantic attack graph.” We believe this reflects Sysdig’s commitment to comprehensive cloud security with runtime protection at its core, bringing together context from across our platform into a unified view of application risk from code to cloud.

Our approach is supported by deep container and Kubernetes security expertise, an active community strategy, and an AI-driven strategic vision for modern cloud defense. Forrester’s report specifically noted Sysdig’s “state-of-the-art AI copilots for staff augmentation,” which we believe reflects the momentum behind Sysdig Sage™, the AI-powered cloud security analyst that employs multi-step reasoning and contextual awareness to accelerate the resolution of complex cloud attacks.

Sysdig also received above average customer feedback in the evaluation, which to us reflects the trust organizations place in Sysdig to secure modern cloud environments at scale.

Runtime is the foundation of modern CNAPP

We believe these findings point to a broader shift in how CNAPPs are evaluated and why runtime has become the foundation of modern cloud security. CNAPPs are increasingly defined by their ability to connect static signals to live runtime behavior so teams can determine which risks are actually real.

For Sysdig, runtime protection isn’t a standalone capability. It’s what makes our complete CNAPP effective. Runtime context provides the clarity needed to prioritize risk, understand active behavior, and respond with confidence.

This matters even more in the AI era. AI is accelerating both innovation and attacker velocity, making real-time defense a must. Posture scans can highlight what could be wrong, but they don’t show what a workload is actually doing once it’s running. For modern CNAPPs, runtime is what makes cloud security effective in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Real-time AI-powered cloud defense

For organizations choosing a CNAPP today, the takeaway is clear: the most effective platforms deliver unified protection grounded in what’s happening in real time.

Sysdig is a complete platform built to help teams understand application risk across modern cloud environments. With deep real-time visibility and context and AI-powered guidance from Sysdig Sage, Sysdig helps teams prioritize what matters most in production and take decisive action.

With Sysdig, organizations can:

• Reduce vulnerability noise by focusing on what’s actually running
• Detect and respond faster with real-time insights
• Consolidate on a complete platform built for modern cloud environments

Sysdig will continue advancing this runtime-first vision, helping organizations defend modern cloud environments with greater speed and confidence.

Read the full report

To learn more about why Sysdig was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Cloud Native Application Protection Solutions, Q1 2026, get access to the report.

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Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here.