What does Google’s $32B acquisition of cloud security startup Wiz mean for security operations?

Google just made a $32 billion bet on cloud security with its acquisition of Wiz. This move underscores a growing reality: multicloud security is a top priority for businesses. Wiz identified this early and met security teams’ massive need for visibility and control over complex multicloud deployments. Their tremendous growth reflects how well they addressed the challenge.

But even the very best tools don’t equate to operational capabilities. Challenges like staffing and expertise overall, and around-the-clock coverage in particular, mean that most security teams aren’t able to reliably achieve the one outcome they seek: finding and stopping attacks before they cause disruption.

The rise of cloud-native and identity-enabled attacks

Attackers don’t just want access—they want persistence. In the cloud, compromised identities have become their golden ticket, as valid account access is required to access anything in the cloud. Once inside, attackers escalate privileges, disable logging, and hijack accounts to quietly take control.

It’s no wonder that identity threats surged in 2024. Our research, compiled in our latest iteration of the Threat Detection Report, shows a consistent rise in identity threats throughout the year, signaling a shift in adversary tactics.

As organizations store sensitive data and conduct business in the cloud, compromised identities present an ideal entry point. A single compromised, highly privileged identity can unlock access to vast swaths of an organization’s systems and data—making identity security critical, but also challenging to manage.

The rise of cloud-native and identity-enabled threats is tightly intertwined, and while cloud and identity providers offer strong security controls, identities remain prime targets. Misconfigurations and clever adversaries can bypass even the best defenses, gaining access through vulnerabilities in identity federation and exploiting weaknesses in cloud infrastructure and SaaS applications.

Why cloud security requires great tools, and great teams

Organizations invest in leading tools like Wiz to improve visibility and reduce risk, but tools alone, while necessary, are not sufficient. Security teams need the best tools, the right expertise, and around-the-clock coverage to turn insights from their tools into action when it matters the most. That translation of insight to action continues to challenge most teams; our research shows that:

• The average team juggles 90+ security tools, and 60% report being overwhelmed by alerts and false positives
• 85% of security leaders admit their ability to detect and resolve threats has stayed the same or worsened in the past 12 months
• 78% of organizations use two or more cloud providers [Fortinet 2025 State of Cloud Security Report]

Understanding where your security program excels—and where external support is needed—is key to overcoming these challenges. Cloud security, at large, is grounded in the concept of shared responsibility, but this model applies well beyond your relationship with your cloud security provider; shared responsibility is at the heart of modern security operations.

At Red Canary, we excel at making sense of the signal from leading tools and technologies, augmenting your security stack with our own intelligence and analytics to find and stop the threats that your tools miss. All so that our customers can focus on fulfilling the functions that only they are able to, maximizing focus on their own priorities and mission without the distraction and disruption of a cyber attack.

Red Canary + Wiz = better together

Red Canary is a long-time Wiz customer. And like so many of our respective (and shared!) customers, we’re faced with securing a complex multicloud environment against determined, relentless adversaries. We learned firsthand that to do this requires both technical and operational excellence. And it was this realization that led us to become Wiz’s first certified MDR partner.

The Red Canary and Wiz partnership delivers decisive action. Wiz continuously uncovers misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and risks across multicloud environments, while Red Canary prioritizes and takes action on those insights through expert-driven threat detection, investigation, and response.

We’ve never been more excited for our many friends at Wiz, and we’re as committed as ever to strengthening our integration as part of our multicloud strategy and roadmap. Together, we’ll continue providing the technical and operational foundation security teams need to stay ahead of cloud and identity-based threats.