Upwind, a next-generation cloud security provider, has announced its partnership with Microsoft to offer a unified security solution for Azure environments.
This collaboration aims to enhance runtime protection, posture management, and vulnerability detection, offering enterprises integrated visibility across their Azure systems. The solution, available via the Microsoft Marketplace, aligns closely with Azure services, with future expansions planned to include identity protection, internet exposure, and GenAI workload security.
Enterprise Deployment Solutions
The Upwind solution has gained co-sell status and full eligibility for Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment decrement, simplifying enterprise procurement through the Microsoft platform.
By integrating tools such as Azure cloud audit logs and CSPM frameworks, it streamlines onboarding, providing immediate visibility and actionable insights. Security teams benefit from the combination of Azure Container Registry scanning and consolidation of multiple disconnected tools into one cohesive experience, facilitating real-time risk response.
Emphasis on Runtime-First Protection
Upwind helps reduce false positives and enables faster threat response
Moving beyond traditional static cloud security tools, Upwind's platform pairs agentless visibility with eBPF-powered runtime detection. This approach addresses critical gaps in dynamic cloud environments, as highlighted by Gartner® in its Hype Cycle™ for Cloud Security, 2024.
By unifying various security measures, such as posture management and identity security, Upwind helps reduce false positives and enables faster threat response, particularly benefiting sectors like financial services and healthcare.
Market Position and Cloud Security
Upwind's multi-cloud strategy ensures seamless protection across Azure and other platforms, offering comprehensive visibility and protection, including serverless workloads.
As CEO Amiram Shachar states, embedding runtime-first protection in Azure redefines cloud security, facilitating proactive threat management. This integrated solution empowers enterprises with real-time, accurate threat detection and response capabilities.
Azure-Native Service Integration
According to Tom Davis, Partner at Microsoft Startups, the partnership with Upwind underscores Microsoft's commitment to enterprise cloud security. By integrating runtime protection within Azure-native services and the Microsoft Marketplace, enterprises can now effectively prioritize and manage vulnerabilities in real-time.
Customer Experiences and Industry Recognition
Shahab Siddiqui of Petrofac notes the rapid benefits of Upwind's platform for security posture improvement. This partnership with Microsoft is expected to simplify operations and enhance security in Azure settings. The industry has recognized Upwind's momentum, with accolades from Frost & Sullivan, GigaOm, and Gartner among others, affirming its status in cloud application security.
Upwind, a next-generation cloud security provider, announces a partnership with Microsoft to deliver a unified Azure security solution to enterprises worldwide.
The partnership brings together runtime protection, posture management, and vulnerability detection in a single experience, giving organizations continuous and integrated visibility across their Azure environments. Available on the Microsoft Marketplace, the solution offers deep alignment with Azure’s services and will expand in the coming months to address identity protection, internet exposure, and GenAI workloads.
Deployment for enterprise customers
Upwind’s solution has also earned co-sell status and full Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment decrement eligibility, further streamlining procurement and deployment for enterprise customers through the Microsoft ecosystem.
By integrating Azure cloud audit logs, CSPM frameworks, Azure Container Registry (ACR) scanning, and streamlining the onboarding of Azure cloud assets, customers gain instant visibility and prioritised, actionable insights. Capabilities that once required multiple disconnected tools and hours of manual investigations are now delivered as a cohesive all-in-one experience, enabling security teams to detect and respond to risks in real time. Furthermore, Upwind integrates Microsoft Sentinel, Sentinel Graph and Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
Runtime-first protection
Unlike traditional cloud security tools that rely on static rules, fragmented signals, or posture-only scans, Upwind delivers a comprehensive platform that pairs agentless visibility with eBPF-powered runtime detection. Gartner® notes in its Hype Cycle™ for Cloud Security, 2024, that runtime visibility has become essential for reducing blind spots in dynamic cloud environments - a gap Upwind sees as critical and directly addresses with runtime-first protection embedded into Azure.
By unifying posture management, workload protection, threat detection, vulnerability management, and identity security into one solution, Upwind helps security teams cut through noise, reduce false positives, and act before risks become incidents. For customers in financial services, healthcare, and digital-native enterprises, the partnership delivers advanced protection for critical workloads by combining security with the speed these industries demand.
Cloud security market
With its multi-cloud security approach, Upwind ensures seamless protection across Azure and other leading platforms, allowing security teams to manage risks regardless of their cloud environment. Notably, it extends runtime-first visibility and protection into serverless workloads, a defining advantage in the cloud security market.
“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.”
Azure-native services
“Our partnership with Upwind highlights Microsoft’s commitment to equipping enterprises with 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.
This partnership comes at a defining moment, with 900% year-over-year revenue growth and 200% logo growth, Upwind has emerged as the challenger to beat, outpacing vendors that stop at posture checks or view the cloud from the outside-in, rather than protecting it from the inside-out. Customers choose Upwind because it delivers what others can’t: real-time, runtime-first security, with accurate detection and protection across every layer of the cloud stack.
Security posture moving forward
“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.”
This momentum has recently been recognized by the analyst community. The company was named CNADR Company of the Year by Frost & Sullivan, and recognized as a Leader and Outperformer in Container Security by GigaOm. Upwind was also recognized in the Gartner 2025 Market Guide for CNAPP and included in three Gartner Hype Cycles, and is rated 4.9 out of 5 on Gartner Peer Insights in the CNAPP category.
The company was named to Fortune’s Cyber 60, and named to CRN’s Security 100, recognized as a CRN 2025 Stellar Startup in Security, and named a pioneer and Emerging Innovator in the QKS Group SPARK Matrix™ for CNAPP 2025, with a top-right quadrant placement in ISMG’s 2025 CNAPP Market Guide. In addition, Upwind was named a two-time Leader in Cloud Application Detection and Response (CADR) and Cloud Security in Latio’s 2025 Cloud Security Market Report.
