Why Our SaaS Risk Went Down While Shipping More, Faster

Security and speed don’t have to compete. Here’s how organizations are reducing SaaS risk while accelerating delivery through continuous discovery and identity-centric controls.

The False Trade-Off Between Security and Speed

In most organizations, the conversation between engineering and security goes like this:

“We can go fast, or we can be safe — but not both.”

It’s a familiar tension. DevOps wants agility; security wants assurance. But that trade-off is outdated. Modern SaaS ecosystems now allow both — if visibility comes first.

According to Waldo Security’s 2025 SaaS & Cloud Discovery Report:

• 97 % of SaaS apps are unknown to IT.

• < 1 % of SaaS accounts enforce MFA.

• 100 % of organizations have at least one unauthorized cloud account (Shadow CSP).

These gaps slow teams more than any control ever could. The real blocker isn’t governance — it’s blindness.

Shipping Faster Starts With Seeing Clearly

Security friction usually appears when visibility is missing. If you don’t know which tools engineers are using, every new integration feels like a risk. If you can see the entire SaaS and cloud footprint, you can govern through insight, not restriction.

Continuous discovery eliminates guesswork:

• Engineering can connect new tools confidently.

• Security can validate identity and compliance in real time.

• Compliance teams can trace data flow automatically for frameworks like ISO 27001 and the NIST Privacy Framework.

When everyone works from the same inventory, speed and assurance converge.

The Three Shifts That Changed Everything

1 — From Blocking to Guiding

Security policies once relied on pre-approval and manual reviews. Now, teams use SaaS discovery data to guide decisions dynamically — approving low-risk tools automatically while flagging high-risk scopes or missing SSO.

2 — From Static Lists to Living Maps

Asset inventories used to be spreadsheets that aged in weeks. Today, discovery engines create live maps of every SaaS and cloud service tied to your domain.That visibility turns reactive audits into proactive governance.

3 — From Passwords to Verified Identity

The fastest way to lower SaaS risk isn’t more alerts — it’s enforcing SSO and MFA everywhere. The CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model defines this as continuous verification: no user, device, or app is trusted by default. When identity replaces credentials, developers can ship faster without waiting for manual approvals.

Continuous Discovery: The Enabler, Not the Brake

Traditional security frameworks treated discovery as an annual task. But in modern SaaS environments, change happens daily — sometimes hourly.

Continuous discovery provides:

• Real-time SaaS inventory across departments

• Detection of unmanaged OAuth tokens and external identities

• Compliance alignment with SOC 2, ISO 27001, and FedRAMP

• Visibility into Shadow CSP environments

This approach mirrors CISA’s Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) guidance, which emphasizes automated, ongoing visibility as the cornerstone of secure cloud operations.

The Paradox of Velocity

Teams that discover more actually risk less. The reason: discovery transforms the unknown into the known — and known systems can be governed, monitored, and measured.

When engineering sees the same data security sees, alignment replaces friction. The result: fewer policy exceptions, faster releases, stronger posture.

Practical Steps to Replicate the Shift

1. Map Your Real Environment Use automated SaaS discovery to expose all accounts, including OAuth and cloud tenants.

2. Integrate Identity Enforcement Require SSO and MFA everywhere possible.

3. Automate Risk Classification Group apps by compliance status and sensitivity, not by ownership.

4. Validate Continuously Schedule ongoing scans — not quarterly reviews.

These steps turn security from a blocker into a force multiplier for delivery.

From Compliance Lag to Continuous Trust

Frameworks like NIST and ISO 27001 increasingly expect continuous evidence — not point-in-time audits. Discovery-driven security naturally generates that evidence.Every login, every token, every SaaS connection becomes verifiable — and every developer becomes part of the trust fabric.

Velocity isn’t the enemy of security. Blindness is.

Conclusion: Speed Comes From Confidence

Organizations that build with continuous visibility don’t slow down — they accelerate safely. When security knows what exists, risk stops being a mystery and starts being measurable.

That’s why Waldo Security’s research found teams shipping faster experienced fewer SaaS incidents — not because they took shortcuts, but because they finally saw the whole picture.

👉 See how other organizations are tackling SaaS and Cloud Discovery challenges in the 2025 Waldo Security Report.

About Waldo Security

Waldo Security helps organizations discover, classify, and secure every SaaS and cloud service in use — known or unknown. By illuminating Shadow IT, unmanaged identities, and OAuth risk, Waldo enables CISOs and security leaders to strengthen compliance and governance across their entire SaaS footprint.