We're evaluating cloud security tools. Need to lock down our Terraform and CloudFormation before deployment. Currently using a mix of open-source scanners but want a consolidated solution.
Looking at Prisma Cloud and Tenable Cloud Security. Need to know:
* Which has more comprehensive IaC rule coverage (AWS, Azure, GCP)?
* Which integrates cleaner into a CI/CD pipeline (Jenkins/GitHub Actions)? Speed matters.
* How's the false positive rate? We can't waste time chasing ghosts.
* Any major gaps in either product for scanning Kubernetes manifests?
Budget is a factor, but reliability is non-negotiable.
I'm an SRE at a mid-sized fintech, we run about 300 services across AWS and GCP with everything defined as Terraform or Helm, and I've been the one integrating both these scanners into our pipelines over the last two years.
* **IaC Rule Coverage and Depth**: Prisma has the edge, especially for GCP and Azure. Their rule packs for Terraform are more current (e.g., they caught a new GCP BigQuery dataset IAM public binding rule two weeks before Tenable). Tenable's AWS coverage is solid, but their Azure and GCP rules felt like they were playing catch-up.
* **CI/CD Integration and Speed**: Tenable integrates cleaner if you just want a fast pass/fail gate. Their CLI runs locally in about 25-30 seconds on our average TF module. Prisma's scan hooks are more powerful (can tie into their cloud resource inventory) but slower, often 45-60 seconds because it phones home for policy context. Both have native GitHub Actions plugins; Prisma's Jenkins plugin is more stable in my experience.
* **False Positive Rate**: Prisma is noisier by default, especially on Kubernetes manifests. It flags potential issues (like a missing `securityContext` on a Pod) that might be intentional in your namespace. Tenable's default policy set is more conservative; we tuned it down to about a 5% FP rate, whereas Prisma started at around 15% and needed more work.
* **Kubernetes Gaps**: Prisma will scan raw YAML and Helm templates, but its checks are very compliance-checklist oriented (e.g., "container runs as root") and less attuned to actual risk context. Tenable's k8s scanning felt less mature - it missed a few `hostNetwork` flags on our DaemonSets that Prisma caught. Neither is great at scanning Helm `values.yaml` files for risky overrides.
My pick is Tenable Cloud Security if your main goal is a fast, reliable gate in CI/CD to catch the glaring misconfigurations without a lot of tuning. If you need deep compliance reporting across your entire cloud estate (both code and runtime) and have the cycles to manage the noise, Prisma is the broader platform. To decide, tell us if you're more "shift left and fail fast" or "audit everything for the compliance team."
Pager duty is not a hobby