Cloud
How Google’s Wiz Acquisition Impacts CNAPP
Google aims to stake out a share of the CNAPP market and compete head-on against AWS and Microsoft Azure with its planned Wiz acquisition. What are the implications for companies invested in AWS and Azure cloud infrastructure?
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With its planned Wiz acquisition, Google aims to leapfrog competitors that have taken the lead in the cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) space. That’s raised questions amongst industry observers and Wiz customers about what might come on the other side of a deal. If Wiz were to shift toward Google Cloud Platform™ (GCP), what will happen to current users with heavy infrastructure investments in AWS and Azure?
Tech mergers and acquisitions can produce powerful combinations of capabilities and services—think Dell’s 2016 purchase of EMC or Cisco’s more recent buy of Splunk.
But they often also create uncertainty, especially for customers who have gone all in on a specific infrastructure or platform. That seems to be the case with Google’s acquisition of Wiz, which has many people asking, “What does this mean for my multi-cloud environment?”
Big deal, big questions
Wiz is a well-known provider of cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPPs), which Forrester has called “indispensable for cloud infrastructure security offerings.”
Google announced its plan to acquire Wiz in March 2025 for the hefty sum of $32 billion, making it the biggest cybersecurity acquisition to date.
Industry observers agree Google has good reasons for making such a bold move. Competitors have been outpacing the tech giant in the enterprise cloud market, while Wiz has gained a lot of market traction in a short span of time—achieving $100 million ARR in just 18 months, according to Forbes.
Yet even Wiz’s own CEO was resistant when Google first approached in summer 2024, rejecting an initial offer in favour of maintaining Wiz’s independence. Google’s March announcement has some re-raising the question of independence, wondering if Wiz solutions will ultimately favour the GCP once the deal is done.
The deal also creates uncertainty about how competitors like Microsoft and AWS will respond—namely, whether or not they’ll continue to support Wiz on their platforms.
As Forbes put it, “Their willingness to support a solution that enhances Google’s market position is highly in doubt,” while Gartner’s Neil McDonald noted the Wiz acquisition would make Google cloud a much more credible rival to Microsoft.
What’s the impact on CNAPP customers?
Many Wiz customers have committed heavily to AWS cloud infrastructure. For them, the worry is what will happen to those investments if Wiz gravitates toward GCP. Meanwhile, companies shopping for a CNAPP solution now have to weigh the potential implications of the Wiz acquisition as part of their buying decision.
Customer concerns about being left behind in an acquisition don’t come out of nowhere. Many organisations still have a bad taste in their mouths from the 2020 Broadcom acquisition of Symantec, when a lot of customers were left off the list of who Broadcom wanted to retain or were unhappy with the support they received post-acquisition.
But what, concretely, might be the consequences of Google acquiring Wiz? The potential impacts fall broadly into two categories, technical considerations and business considerations.
Potential technical outcomes of the Wiz acquisition
The three main technical concerns about the Google deal are common to pretty much any acquisition scenario. First, there will have to be a post-acquisition integration phase as Wiz gets absorbed into the Google corporate structure. It’s conceivable that customers could experience deployment delays during that process.
Next, as mentioned above, Google could easily prioritise GCP integrations, opting for a ‘GCP-first’ model instead of a neutral multi-cloud strategy. This would have an impact on existing Wiz customers who rely on AWS infrastructure and also constrains the cloud choices available to organisations considering Wiz for their CNAPP solution.
Related to that last concern, customers could see reduced investment in AWS scanning capabilities for the Wiz solution, diminishing its security functionality. It could even end up that Google integrates Wiz technology into its platform as a GCP-branded CNAPP offering, and Wiz itself disappears—a common scenario in tech acquisitions.
Business impacts may be felt, too
Companies that have invested in Wiz could find themselves having to retrain their security teams if interfaces or capabilities change post-acquisition—which can be costly and time-consuming. Budgets may need to be adjusted if pricing models change. And companies could encounter less flexibility to consolidate vendors on Wiz across clouds.
At a higher level, the Wiz acquisition may force organisations to rethink their cloud security strategies. Are they comfortable with the possibility of needing different security tools for their multi-cloud environment—Wiz for GCP and something else for AWS or Azure? Aligning with the changed landscape and how it affects their existing infrastructure may require some strategic decisions.
Multi-cloud and hybrid CNAPP matter
It’s impossible to predict exactly what will happen in the wake of any acquisition. It’s too early to answer many questions, such as what will happen to the pace of Wiz innovation, to the Wiz product roadmap and team, to the company leadership, or to support going forward?
As the leader in cloud security and the top CNAPP provider by market share for six years running, Trend Micro is pleased to see Google acknowledge the critical importance of cloud security in such a clear and bold way. At the same time, we sympathise with companies that are concerned about protecting their hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure investments—which are more important than ever as organisations seek the flexibility to leverage cloud assets in the ways that make the most sense for their business. And in those cases, we are able to offer some help.
We are a longtime AWS partner. We have a dedicated AWS security roadmap, and we generate AWS-specific threat intelligence. We continually enhance our AWS-native integrations for Trend Vision One™, and we maintain an AWS Marketplace presence with flexible procurement models. We support more than 80 AWS services and hold nine AWS competencies.
Trend Vision One is a multi-cloud CNAPP that includes cloud security posture management (CSPM), cloud risk management, XDR for cloud and containers, and protection for workloads, containers, cloud storage, and code—far beyond a basic CNAPP solution. It is also, importantly, a hybrid cloud platform, maximising flexibility and delivering a consistent cross-cloud experience in any environment.
It comes down to managing risk
It’s too early to tell what the Google acquisition of Wiz may bring. For organisations with GCP infrastructure, it could usher in an exciting new era of cloud security. But for those concerned about protecting investments in non-Google infrastructure like AWS and Azure, Trend stands as an independent security partner in control of its roadmap—and a proven multi-cloud expert to deliver cloud-native security for the long term.
Next steps
For more Trend insights into CNAPP and Cloud Security, check out these additional resources:
- Trend solutions for AWS webpage
- Trend Vision One trial webpage
- Pay-as-you-go options for Trend Vision One in AWS Marketplace