Upwind, a cloud security company that offers a runtime-first approach to cloud security solutions, has formed a strategic partnership with Microsoft to launch a unified security platform for enterprises that use Microsoft Azure. The partnership will allow the two companies to launch a platform that offers a unified experience of runtime protection, posture management, and vulnerability detection.
The solution is available through the Microsoft Marketplace and is designed to work closely with Azure-native services. Future enhancements are expected to extend protection to additional areas including identity security, internet exposure monitoring and GenAI workloads. Upwind’s offering has also achieved co-sell status and full Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) eligibility, allowing enterprises to simplify procurement and deployment through the Microsoft ecosystem.
Unified Visibility and Faster Threat Response
With the integration of Azure cloud audit logs, Cloud Security Posture Management frameworks, as well as scanning for Azure Container Registry, the platform offers timely information on potential threats to cloud assets. The onboarding mechanism is designed to enable the quick integration of Azure cloud assets. This way, security teams gain timely intelligence without the need to use various tools for the purpose.
The integration of the various tools offers a platform that replaces the use of fragmented security tools. The security teams can gain timely information on threats to cloud assets.
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Advancing Runtime-First Cloud Security
Unlike traditional cloud security tools that rely primarily on static rule sets or posture scans, Upwind combines agentless visibility with eBPF-powered runtime detection to provide deeper operational insight into cloud workloads. According to research by Gartner in the Hype Cycle for Cloud Security 2024, runtime visibility is increasingly essential for identifying blind spots in dynamic cloud environments. Upwind’s runtime-first architecture addresses this challenge by embedding detection and protection directly within cloud workloads.
The platform brings together the most important security features such as posture management, workload protection, vulnerability management, threat protection, and identity security into a single platform. This unification enables the reduction of alert fatigue, false positives, and enables security teams to address risks before they turn into security incidents.
For industries such as financial services, healthcare, and digital-native companies, the partnership enables the deployment of advanced security for mission-critical workloads while maintaining the speed and scale necessary to power cloud-native operations.
The multi-cloud security offered by Upwind ensures the protection of Azure environments as well as other cloud environments. This provides a centralized solution to monitor and secure the workload of the organization. However, the most important aspect of the solution is the capability to provide runtime protection to serverless environments. This is an important feature since serverless environments are becoming increasingly popular.
Strengthening the Future of Cloud Security
“Cloud innovation is accelerating faster than traditional security platforms can keep up,” said Amiram Shachar, CEO and co-founder of Upwind. “Upwind solves that problem, and by partnering with Microsoft we’re embedding our runtime-first protection directly into the fabric of Azure, from audit logs to container registries, giving customers the ability to discover and act on threats before they become breaches. This is both an integration and a redefinition of how cloud security should work, setting a new benchmark for protecting enterprises across Azure and their mutli-cloud investments.”
“Our partnership with Upwind highlights Microsoft’s commitment to equipping enterprises with the cloud runtime security foundation,” said Tom Davis, Partner at Microsoft Startups at Microsoft. “By bringing runtime-first protection into Azure-native services and the Microsoft Marketplace, we’re enabling customers to, for the first time, pinpoint the vulnerabilities that matter most in real time, cut through the alert noise that slows down security teams, and act on what’s truly exploitable.”
Strong Growth and Customer Adoption
The partnership announcement comes as Upwind experiences significant growth, with 900% revenue growth year over year and a 200% increase in its customer base. Upwind’s runtime-first security strategy has enabled it to become a strong challenger for traditional cloud security providers who are more focused on assessments than runtime security.
Customers cite the platform’s ability to deliver real-time threat detection and actionable security insights across the entire cloud stack as a key advantage.
“Within the first few hours of connecting to the platform, we already had an actionable list of recommendations to strengthen our AKS security,” said Shahab Siddiqui, Global Head of Cyber Security at Petrofac. “Upwind has already shown us the power of runtime visibility, and its growing partnership with Microsoft gives us confidence that these capabilities will continue to be deeply integrated into our Azure environment. We’re excited to see how this partnership will further simplify our operations and strengthen our security posture moving forward.”