Agents are not enough: Why cloud security needs agentless deep scanning

This report critiques the effectiveness of agent-based security in modern, dynamic cloud environments—citing incomplete coverage, maintenance overhead, and performance/security risks—and advocates for agentless deep scanning via cloud APIs. It argues that agentless approaches enable comprehensive, context-rich visibility across providers and resource types (including ephemeral and offline assets) without impacting workloads, positioning agents as a last line of defense rather than the primary security method.