IT AI Index
Index Cloud and infrastructure September 2026 Edition

Cloud security posture management

Asked as “cloud security posture management platform”, and as “CSPM tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Clear leader
43% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Wiz43%15%59endorsed leader
02Prowler16%4%24accepted challenger
03Microsoft Defender for Cloud14%15%53accepted challenger
04Orca Security12%8%38accepted challenger
05AWS Security Hub4%6%17accepted challenger
06Cloudaware2%9%11accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Prisma Cloud0%47%49criticized challenger
10Lacework FortiCNAPP0%36%14criticized challenger
07CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security0%9%22accepted challenger
08Tenable Cloud Security0%5%21accepted challenger
09Uptycs0%0%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Wiz43%
02Prowler16%
03Microsoft Defender for Cloud14%
04Orca Security12%
05AWS Security Hub4%
06Cloudaware2%
07CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security0%
08Tenable Cloud Security0%
09Uptycs0%
10Lacework FortiCNAPP0%
11Prisma Cloud0%

02What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Prisma Cloud
47%
23 of 49 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“**Avoid at all costs on a limited budget:** Enterprise suites like **Wiz**, **Prisma Cloud**, or **Orca Security**.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
Wiz
15%
9 of 59 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“What to avoid at low budget ... Wiz, Orca, Prisma Cloud, Lacework ... overkill for a company on a limited budget” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
15%
8 of 53 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“**Ecosystem lock-in risk**: While functional for Azure-heavy environments, native-first platforms create gravitational pull toward a single cloud ecosystem” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Lacework FortiCNAPP
36%
5 of 14 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“**Prisma Cloud and Lacework** present the most documented risks around cost unpredictability and complexity” Kimi K2, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

65 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 781 links across 170 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Cloudaware46 answers · 50 citations · 10 models
41 answers · 55 citations · 10 models
36 answers · 40 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Orca33 answers · 39 citations · 10 models
32 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Expert Insights29 answers · 29 citations · 10 models
vendor site · ComplyJet23 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
21 answers · 35 citations · 10 models
20 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
12 answers · 19 citations · 7 models
12 answers · 19 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best cloud security posture management platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which CSPM tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top cloud security posture management platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best cloud security posture management platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a cloud security posture management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which cloud security posture management platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Aikido Security, Wiz
Three alternativesCrowdStrike, Tenable Cloud Security, Uptycs
Orca SecurityChanged
Three alternativesAccuKnox, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
no first choice
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security
Prowler
Five alternativesCheck Point CloudGuard, CloudMapper, Lacework FortiCNAPP, Qualys, Wiz
no first choiceagainst: Orca, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
GPT-5.4 miniWiz
Four alternativesAWS Security Hub, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca, Prisma Cloud
WizHeld
Four alternativesAqua Security, Lacework FortiCNAPP, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesAWS Security Hub, Google Security Command Center, Prisma Cloud
AWS Security Hub, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloudagainst: Orca, Prisma Cloud, Wizno first choiceagainst: Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Gemini 3.5 FlashOrca Security, Wiz
Four alternativesAqua Security, Datadog Cloud Security Management, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Sysdig
Orca SecurityChanged
Four alternativesCloudanix, Datadog Cloud Security Management, Prowler, Wiz
against: Prisma Cloud
Orca Security, Wiz
Four alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig Secure
Aikido Security, Prowler
Five alternativesAWS Security Hub, CloudSploit, Cloudanix, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Scrut Automation
against: Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Orca Security, Wiz
Four alternativesAWS Security Hub, Datadog Cloud Security Management, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prowler
against: AWS Security Hub, Check Point CloudGuard, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Rapid7 InsightCloudSec
Perplexity SonarWiz
Four alternativesCloudaware, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, SecPod Saner Cloud CSPM
WizHeld
Four alternativesCloudaware, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud
Wiz
Five alternativesCheck Point CloudGuard/Cloud Firewall, CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesAWS Security Hub, Aikido Security, Prowler, Scrut Automation
no first choiceagainst: Darktrace, Prisma Cloud, Snyk, Tenable Cloud Security
Grok 4.1 FastWiz
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
against: Prisma Cloud
WizHeld
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
against: Prisma Cloud
Orca Security, Wiz
Five alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Lacework FortiCNAPP, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Tenable Cloud Security
against: Aqua Security, Prowler, SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security, Snyk
Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prowler
Three alternativesAWS Config/Security Hub, Cloud Custodian, Google Security Command Center
against: CloudSploit, Cloudflare CASB, ScoutSuite
no first choice
Three alternativesOrca Security, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
against: AlgoSec, Darktrace, Lacework FortiCNAPP, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Qualys, Snyk
Mistral SmallCrowdStrike, Wiz
Three alternativesTenable Cloud Security, Uptycs, Wing Security
Cloudaware, WizChanged
Two alternativesTenable Cloud Security, Uptycs
Wiz
Seven alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Lacework FortiCNAPP, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Prowler, Tenable Cloud Security
Prowler
Three alternativesAWS Security Hub, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
against: Cloudaware, Snyk
no first choiceagainst: Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Wiz
DeepSeek V4 FlashOrca Security, Wiz
Four alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Tenable Cloud Security, Uptycs
WizChanged
Four alternativesCyscale, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prowler
against: Prisma Cloud
Wiz
Five alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Prowler
Prowler
Seven alternativesAWS Security Hub, Checkov, CloudQuery, Cloudaware, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Snyk
against: Lacework FortiCNAPP, Orca, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Wiz
Three alternativesCrowdStrike, Orca Security, Tenable Cloud Security
against: Prisma Cloud
against: Aqua Security, CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Lacework FortiCNAPP, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceWizChanged
Two alternativesTenable Cloud Security, Uptycs
Wiz
Six alternativesAikido Security, Cloudaware, CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca, Prisma Cloud
AWS Security Hub, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prowler
One alternativeAikido Security
no first choiceagainst: Prisma Cloud
Qwen 3.7 FlashWiz
Four alternativesCloudaware, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud
WizHeld
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
against: Prisma Cloud
Orca Security, Wiz
Five alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Vulnerability Management
Aikido Security
Four alternativesAWS Security Hub, Datadog Cloud Security Management, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prowler
against: Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
no first choiceagainst: Drata, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Qualys, Rapid7 InsightVM, Trend Micro
Kimi K2Wiz
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Orca Security, Tenable Cloud Security
against: Microsoft Defender for Cloud
WizHeld
One alternativeOrca Security
against: Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Wiz
Five alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Tenable Cloud Security
Prowler
Five alternativesAWS Security Hub, Checkov, Cloud Custodian, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
against: Lacework FortiCNAPP, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
no first choiceagainst: Lacework FortiCNAPP, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud
GLM 4.7 FlashXWiz
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
against: Prisma Cloud
Microsoft Defender for CloudChanged
One alternativeWiz
against: Prisma Cloud
Wiz
Ten alternativesCheck Point CloudGuard, CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Lacework FortiCNAPP, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Prowler, SentinelOne Singularity, Tenable Cloud Security, Zscaler Posture Control
Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prowler
Three alternativesAWS Security Hub, Cloudflare CASB, Google Security Command Center
against: Prisma Cloud, Wiz
no first choiceagainst: Prisma Cloud
MiniMax M2.5Wiz
Four alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Rapid7, Snyk, Tenable Cloud Security
Orca Security, WizChanged
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Tenable Cloud Security
Wiz
Four alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Two alternativesAWS Security Hub, Prowler
no first choiceagainst: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:13yes1611 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:06yes47 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:57yes1624 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:55yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:15yes3418 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:49yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:15yes1415 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:08yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:28yes840 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:46yes923 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:35yes20133 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:20yes1029 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:28yes99 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:09no04 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:12yes1722 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:49yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:11yes2414 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:42yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:08yes814 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:56yes54 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:48yes10107 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:34yes921 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:29yes2369 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:57yes526 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:11yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:01yes512 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:25yes1733 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:07yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:15yes1816 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:31yes510 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:30yes1118 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:19yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:18yes523 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:55yes1029 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:49yes14837 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:23yes2045 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:09yes012 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:49yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:49yes1529 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:28yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:51yes3119 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:36yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:06yes1819 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:36yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:52yes1182 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:57yes1443 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:04yes940 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:42yes515 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:05no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:09no013 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:28yes1429 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:48yes206 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 14:10yes1813 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:24no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:38yes2023 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:00yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:28yes534 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:02yes1326 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:38yes1591 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:29no012 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:27yes2613 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:11yes38 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:59yes1826 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:58yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:36yes2012 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:33yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 14:00yes2750 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:54yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:16no041 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:48yes3061 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:32yes27120 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:43yes1530 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Aikido read as Aikido Security
Aqua read as Aqua Security
Check Point read as Check Point CloudGuard
CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud read as CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
Datadog read as Datadog Cloud Security Management
Datadog Cloud Security read as Datadog Cloud Security Management
Lacework read as Lacework FortiCNAPP
Lacework (now FortiCNAPP by Fortinet) read as Lacework FortiCNAPP
Lacework (now FortiCNAPP) read as Lacework FortiCNAPP
Lacework / FortiCNAPP (Fortinet) read as Lacework FortiCNAPP
Lacework/Fortinet read as Lacework FortiCNAPP
Microsoft Defender read as Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Palo Alto read as Prisma Cloud
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Cloud) read as Prisma Cloud
SentinelOne read as SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security
Tenable read as Tenable Cloud Security
Tenable (Cloud Security) read as Tenable Cloud Security
Unresolved, counted raw
AWS Config/Security Hub
AlgoSec
Check Point CloudGuard/Cloud Firewall
CloudMapper
SecPod Saner Cloud CSPM
Steampipe/Powerpipe
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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