Agentless is the opposite of Agent-Based. Agentless security solutions can monitor, scan, and protect systems without requiring software agents (e.g., agent-based) to be installed onto each endpoint. It leverages native APIs, network protocols, and snapshots to provide administrators visibility, reducing administrative overhead and system performance impact. This approach is ideal for cloud environments, IoT devices, and reducing management complexities.
Key Aspects of Agentless Security
- Mechanism: Uses API integrations (e.g., AWS/Azure/GCP APIs), snapshots, and network scans to gather data rather than have the local agents do it.
- Rapid Deployment: No need to install, configure, or mainta software on every machine.
- Low Impact: Avoids performance degradation on production workloads.
- Full Visibility: Easily covers ephemeral workloads, serverless functions, and cloud storage.
- Reduced Complexity: Eliminates agent lifecycle management.
-based security is a method that involves installing specialized, lightweight software (agents) directly onto endpoints - servers, laptops, mobile and handheld devices, network appliances, virtual machines, and more - to provide continuous, near-real-time monitoring, threat detection, policy enforcement, and active defense. These agents operate locally to analyze and report back behaviors, security policy enforcement status, and report data to a central management system.
Key Aspects of Agent-Based Security:
- Continuous Monitoring: Agents act as 24x7x365 security guards, offering near-real-time visibility into system activities.
- Deep Visibility & Control: Because they "live" on the operating system, agents offer granular data, such as registry changes, process execution, and file access.
- Active Response: Agents can immediately isoate a compromised device from the network or stop malicious processes on their own.
- Use Cases: Essential for Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), and environments that require high-compliance.