Modern cloud environments present unique challenges for organizations striving to achieve both security and operational efficiency. While DevOps and Platform Engineering have improved the development-operations relationship, the security-operations gap remains challenging. This is where combining tools like Wiz and Gloo can make a difference.
Security teams often operate within distinct organizational structures, with differing goals and budgets. This separation can lead to communication breakdowns and delays in decision-making. When platform teams introduce new tools or processes, security teams may raise concerns that require extensive evaluation and approval. However, there's often a lack of clarity on how to verify compliance with these requirements.
Wiz ensures Istio configurations are correctly enforced
Wiz enables security teams to define precise configurations as part of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) policies, which include ensuring that namespaces are labeled correctly to activate Istio Ambient Mesh. Wiz’s IaC scanning and Admission Controller validate these configurations across environments, helping to enforce policies consistently.
Wiz’s cloud configuration rules are designed with exceptional flexibility, allowing security teams to define and enforce precise policies that align with organizational needs. These rules are written in Rego, the policy language used by Open Policy Agent (OPA), enabling robust control over configurations across various cloud resources. With Rego, Wiz policies can assess Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates, enforce runtime configurations, and continuously validate compliance, ensuring that environments like Istio Ambient Mesh meet exact specifications for security and operational efficiency.
This approach allows security teams to confirm that Istio configurations—such as mandatory namespace labeling, authentication, encryption settings, and traffic controls—are correctly implemented before deployment, reducing misconfigurations that could weaken security.
By using Wiz and Solo.io’s tools together, organizations can bridge security with operational efficiency, gaining visibility into both configuration compliance and secure service mesh traffic flow across cloud-native infrastructures.
Scenario: Achieving Secure Service Mesh Architecture with Wiz and Gloo
Consider a scenario where an organization like SuperBank seeks to adopt a service mesh to secure microservices communications and ensure zero-trust security policies. Gloo’s version of Istio Ambient Mesh provides critical traffic control features, while Wiz enables continuous visibility and compliance tracking.
With Gloo, the Istio Ambient Mesh from Solo.io, platform teams can introduce zero-trust architecture by enforcing policies for traffic, layer 4 authentication, and encryption. Wiz, on the other hand, offers a powerful platform for defining and monitoring compliance rules, enabling security teams to track enforcement, detect anomalies, and manage risks without compromising efficiency.
Defense in Depth and Gloo’s Ambient Mesh
The previous scenario is well-known. In our experience, it is Security that defines the requirements, being Defence In-Depth key part of those requirements.
Defense in Depth Achieved by Wiz and Gloo
Both Wiz and Gloo contribute to a Defense in Depth strategy:
- Network Security: Wiz’s runtime visibility and threat detection work alongside Gloo’s traffic controls, such as circuit-breaking and retries, to secure network flows and prevent unauthorized access.
- Data Security: Wiz monitors data flows and flags potential vulnerabilities or misconfigurations, while Istio Ambient Mesh enforces data encryption in transit.
- Application Security: Wiz’s Security Graph offers detailed insight into application-layer risks, while Istio applies policies that regulate service-to-service communication.
How Wiz and Gloo Elevate Cloud-Native Security Together
- Comprehensive Policy Monitoring and Compliance
Wiz’s CNAPP platform allows security teams to define and monitor policies related to cloud resources, application permissions,etc... With Gloo’s Istio Ambient Mesh in place, these policies are enforced at the service mesh level, providing robust, real-time security without slowing platform teams.
- Enhanced Traffic Management with Visibility and Security
Gloo’s Istio manages east-west traffic within the service mesh, while Wiz provides insights into any misconfigurations or compliance violations, creating a comprehensive picture of both authorized and anomalous traffic patterns.
- Efficient Threat Detection and Rapid Response
Wiz enables security teams to track runtime incidents across services and data layers, while Gloo’s Istio provides mechanisms to enforce circuit-breaking, retries, and timeout rules, allowing quick remediation of incidents without operational downtime.
- Unified View of Security and Compliance
Wiz’s dashboards offer real-time visibility into compliance status and risk insights, while Istio Ambient Mesh provides platform teams with the means to manage traffic policies across services, resulting in a streamlined workflow between security and operations.
Gloo and Wiz In Practice
Gloo, being an enhanced version of Istio Ambient Mesh, and Wiz can work together to create a more robust Defense in Depth strategy.
As we explained in the beginning, the Security team just needs to define the rules that the Platform Teams have to pass.
Here's how:
- Define Security Policies in Wiz:
Use Wiz's policy engine to define specific security rules that need to be enforced.
These rules can cover areas like network traffic control, authentication, authorization, encryption, and data protection.
- Integrate Istio Ambient Mesh:
Deploy Istio Ambient Mesh in your Kubernetes environment.
Configure Istio to enforce the security policies defined in Wiz.
- Real-Time Monitoring and Enforcement:
Wiz can monitor Istio's enforcement of the defined policies.
If any violations are detected, Wiz can trigger alerts or take automated actions, such as blocking malicious traffic or revoking access
