ISMG's Apollo AI engine highlights Upwind's runtime-first architecture and strong market presence

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Upwind, the next generation runtime-first cloud security platform, announced its inclusion in the newly released Information Security Media Group (ISMG) 2025 Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) Market Guide. Upwind is the youngest company featured and the fastest to reach a top-right quadrant position. The report evaluates 19 CNAPP vendors using ISMG's data driven, AI-powered methodology.

"We were pleased to feature Upwind in this year's CNAPP Market Guide," said Dan Vertan, Vice President at ISMG. "Their runtime-focused architecture continues to resonate strongly with the needs we see across cloud-native security teams. Because our process is fully data-driven and rooted in verified information, Upwind's capabilities emerged naturally and objectively in the research." 

Youngest Company, Fastest Rise

ISMG highlights vendors demonstrating real-world traction and momentum, and Upwind stands out with the technology strength, customer impact, and market presence rarely seen this early in a company's journey. This placement reinforces what the market has shown: Upwind is executing at a pace and precision that has accelerated it to the forefront of the CNAPP category.

"Upwind entered the CNAPP landscape just 2.5 years ago, and we're proud to reach this level of momentum so quickly," said Amiram Shachar, CEO and Co-Founder of Upwind. "We built Upwind on a runtime-first foundation from day one, and ISMG reinforces how critical that approach has become. The findings reflect what customers tell us consistently, that runtime clarity and context make security teams faster, more accurate, and more confident. ISMG's data driven methodology surfaces what truly stands out in the market, and it's great to see Upwind emerged so clearly based on objective signals and real customer impact."

Upwind's Placement and Runtime-First Advantages

Upwind's placement in the top-right quadrant represents simple deployment and comprehensive coverage, a category that reflects both technical strength and operational maturity.

The report highlights Upwind's runtime-first approach, which correlates live workload activity with identity, configuration, and vulnerability context to surface what's actually impactful to the business while eliminating noise that slows down most security teams. It also points to Upwind's hybrid approach that combines agentless speed with lightweight runtime sensors, for deeper fidelity without operational friction, a critical capability for precise, runtime-informed risk prioritization.

Objective Validation of Upwind's Market Momentum 

The report was produced using ISMG's Apollo AI workflow engine, which gathers and validates vendor information across public data sources, including product pages, security blogs, analyst reports, investor filings and regulatory disclosures. Their process removes narrative bias, elevating vendors with strong real-world signals, digital presence, customer traction, and product clarity. Every output is anchored to trusted, validated sources and finalized with human editorial review.

ISMG's AI-powered methodology provides validation that extends beyond product depth. Because ISMG's Apollo AI model evaluates vendors using externally validated data, Upwind's inclusion reflects not only its forward-looking runtime-first architecture but also its strong market presence, clarity of messaging, and digital footprint - areas where younger vendors are often underestimated.

Analysts have increasingly emphasized that digital visibility, content, and clear, security-and-developer-aligned communication play a growing role in CNAPP evaluation, a trend that ISMG's data-driven process highlights by design. 

Industry Shift Toward Runtime-Driven Security

ISMG identifies a market-wide shift from static scanning toward runtime-powered detection, contextual correlation, and AI-assisted remediation, a direction Upwind has championed since its founding. Upwind's approach focuses on what is actually happening inside live environments, correlating real runtime activity with identity, configuration, and vulnerability data to surface genuinely exploitable risks while reducing noise. This unified, runtime-informed visibility helps teams detect threats earlier, respond faster, and make decisions based on what matters most. 

The ISMG Market Guide offers independent validation of these shifts and underscores why modern organizations across all cloud maturity stages are moving toward runtime-led cloud protection, where Upwind continues to lead the way.

About Upwind 

Upwind is the next-generation cloud security platform built to lead the Runtime revolution. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Upwind brings together a unified vision for cloud and application-layer protection, empowering organizations to run faster, detect threats earlier, and secure their environments with unmatched precision. The company was founded by Amiram Shachar and the founding team behind Spot.io (acquired by NetApp for $450 million) and is backed by leading investors including Greylock, Cyberstarts, Leaders Fund, Craft Ventures, Cerca Partners, and Sheva, a venture fund founded by former NBA player Omri Casspi with investment from current NBA star Stephen Curry through Penny Jar Capital. Upwind has raised $180 million since its founding in 2022 and is trusted by forward-thinking enterprises globally to bring real-time runtime intelligence to modern cloud security. For more information or to schedule a demo, visit www.upwind.io. 

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