If you're watching the cloud security space, you can't miss the heat radiating off a new acronym: CADR – Cloud Application Detection and Response. It's not just buzz. It's a response to a glaring blind spot in the security stack, and recent acquisitions and product launches are proving it's the next battleground for cloud security vendors.

The Big Signal Flares: Acquisitions Point the Way

First, let's talk about market signals you can't ignore:

• Wiz acquires Gem Security (announcement): Wiz calls out reinventing threat detection in the cloud, aiming to move from static posture management to true detection and response, bridging a gap that CNAPP alone can't close.

• Upwind acquires Nyx (announcement): This deal is all about redefining runtime security for cloud applications, highlighting the industry's hunger for deep, process-level observability in production environments.

• Industry analysts are catching on (Pulse article): Pieces like "WTF is Cloud Application Detection and Response" show that security leaders are realizing that CNAPP, EDR, and traditional AppSec each miss a piece of the puzzle—and CADR is the missing link.

These moves aren't accidents. They're responses to customer demand for a runtime-focused, application-aware, always-on detection and response layer purpose-built for the cloud.

Why CADR Exists: The Missing Letters in Security

Let’s be blunt: Our most valuable asset in IT today is applications. Applications handle the workflows, data, and logic that make modern business run—whether that's payment processing, healthcare systems, or AI workloads. Data itself is passive. It’s the applications that move, transform, and expose it.

Security stacks have grown to protect where these apps run:

• IAM protects access.

• Network security protects movement.

• Infrastructure security protects the environment.

But application security? Historically, it's lagged behind. Most AppSec tooling is:

✅ Static (SAST, SCA)
✅ Intermittent (scheduled scans)
✅ Edge-focused (WAF/WAAP)

It sees code and traffic, not running application behavior.

Meanwhile, cloud-native architecture has evolved:

• Microservices communicating via APIs

• Dynamically orchestrated containers and Kubernetes

• Continuous delivery with no "frozen" production snapshots

These apps are alive. But our security has treated them like they're in cold storage.

CADR: A New Market with a Clear Need

CADR—Cloud Application Detection and Response—is a response to this evolution. It addresses the letters that were missing from other market categories:

• C for Cloud

• A for Applications

• DR for Detection and Response

Where CNAPP offers posture management for cloud infra, CADR brings real-time detection and response for applications. Where traditional DR tools like EDR, NDR, or CDR monitor endpoints or networks, CADR monitors apps themselves—inside their runtime. And where AppSec tools scan code or analyze traffic, CADR observes live application behavior, with process-level detail.

At its core, CADR enables security teams to move:

• From static to runtime – Not just scanning code, but watching executing processes and services.

• From intermittent to always-active – No more once-a-week scans. CADR monitors continuously.

• From visibility to observability – Surface-level traffic analysis isn't enough. CADR offers service-level and process-level insight, including API calls, microservice communication, and East-West traffic inside the cluster.

• From advice to action – CADR doesn’t just alert. It can take remediation steps in real-time.

In short, CADR is the bridge that unites CNAPP, Detection and Response, and AppSec into a single, effective security strategy for modern apps.

Defining Features of CADR

If you want to know whether a solution is really "CADR" or just marketing fluff, here’s what you should look for:

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Why This Market Is Heating Up

Security teams know that cloud-native deployments can’t be fully protected by static checks or perimeter defenses. Developers deploy multiple times a day. Infrastructure is ephemeral. Microservices are in constant flux.

Traditional tools don’t see what matters most: the live, running application.

That's the gap CADR fills.

It's no surprise we're seeing:

• Strategic acquisitions

• Funding rounds

• Analyst coverage

• Startups repositioning to claim the CADR mantle

If you’re a security leader and you’re not evaluating CADR capabilities today, you’re leaving your crown jewels exposed.

Cloud Application Detection and Response (CADR) is the always-active, runtime-focused security layer purpose-built for protecting cloud-native applications with deep observability, real-time detection, and automated response.

And right now? It's heating up.

→ Ready to see Run Security’s CADR in action? Request a demo today.

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