Cloud Security Report Highlights Tool Sprawl and Visibility Gaps as Major Hurdles
A new report from Cybersecurity Insiders and Fortinet reveals that 69% of organizations struggle with cloud security due to fragmented tools and visibility gaps, leading to a widening complexity gap.
A comprehensive 2026 Cloud Security Report, jointly produced by Cybersecurity Insiders and Fortinet, has identified significant challenges hindering effective cloud security for a majority of organizations. The report, based on a survey of 1,163 IT and cybersecurity professionals, found that a staggering 69% of respondents cite tool sprawl and pervasive visibility gaps as the primary obstacles to securing their cloud environments. This fragmentation is directly impacting the ability of security teams to operate efficiently, with 66% of organizations expressing a lack of confidence in their real-time threat detection and response capabilities – a slight increase from the previous year.
The findings underscore a growing disconnect between the expanding complexity of cloud infrastructures and the tools and strategies employed by security teams. As cloud environments become increasingly distributed and dynamic, many organizations continue to rely on a patchwork of disconnected point solutions. This fragmented approach makes it difficult to gain a unified view of the threat landscape, hindering the ability to connect disparate security signals and prioritize risks effectively. Attackers are adept at exploiting this complexity, leveraging automation to chain exposures and move through environments faster than security teams can piece together the necessary context for a response.
Holger Schulze, founder of Cybersecurity Insiders, emphasized the core issue: "Security teams are not short on alerts or tools; they are short on connected context." He elaborated that when security signals are scattered across multiple consoles and platforms, valuable time is spent on manual correlation and investigation rather than proactive defense. The report advocates for a shift towards security investments that reduce this manual burden and empower teams to act decisively before a minor exposure escalates into a full-blown compromise.
Further exacerbating the problem is the continued rise in cloud security spending, which now constitutes an average of 34% of IT security budgets, with 62% of organizations anticipating further increases. Despite this investment, security maturity is not keeping pace. The report indicates that 59% of organizations still rate their cloud security posture at lower maturity levels, suggesting that increased spending alone is not translating into commensurate capability gains. This disparity highlights a critical need for more strategic allocation of resources towards solutions that address the root causes of complexity and fragmentation.
The report also sheds light on the current state of automation in cloud security. While automation is seen as a key enabler for faster response, its adoption remains limited. Only 11% of organizations report having fully autonomous remediation workflows in place. A larger segment, 37%, relies on basic automation that primarily generates alerts and recommendations, falling short of true automated response. Similarly, the operationalization of AI-driven detection capabilities is still in its nascent stages, with only 18% of organizations having it fully implemented across their environments.
In response to these challenges, security leaders are increasingly re-evaluating their architectural choices. When asked about building a cloud security strategy from scratch, a significant majority (64%) indicated a preference for a single-vendor platform that integrates network, cloud, and application security. This contrasts with only 27% who would opt for a best-of-breed approach using disparate point tools. This trend suggests a growing recognition that unified security architectures are essential for consolidating visibility, connecting telemetry, establishing shared risk context, and ultimately enabling faster, more effective security operations.
The full 2026 Cloud Security Report, offering deeper insights into these trends and recommendations for improving cloud security posture, is available for download from the Cybersecurity Insiders website. The report serves as a critical resource for organizations navigating the complexities of modern cloud security and seeking to bridge the gap between their security investments and their actual defensive capabilities.