Why Traditional Security Approaches Fall Short

Traditional security scanning tools designed for virtual machines or bare-metal servers struggle with containerized environments. These tools expect persistent systems with traditional package managers and file systems. Containers' ephemeral nature and layered file systems confuse traditional scanners, leading to incomplete or inaccurate results. The rapid pace of container deployments means that by the time traditional tools complete their scans, the environment has already changed.

The shift-left movement in DevOps requires security integration early in the development pipeline, but traditional security tools operate too slowly for modern CI/CD pipelines. Developers expect build and deployment processes to complete in minutes, not hours. Security scans that add significant time to the pipeline face resistance and often get bypassed or ignored. This speed requirement demands purpose-built container scanning tools that can analyze images quickly without sacrificing accuracy.

The immutable nature of containers also challenges traditional patching approaches. You cannot simply SSH into a running container and apply security updates. Instead, fixing vulnerabilities requires rebuilding images and redeploying containers. This process demands coordination between development, security, and operations teams. Without automated scanning and remediation workflows, organizations struggle to maintain security while preserving deployment velocity.