Strengthening Healthcare Cloud Security Using Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP): A Framework for Protecting Patient-Critical Workloads in Health Data Warehouses

Abstract

This research presents a comprehensive CWPP-enabled framework tailored for securing healthcare cloud workloads, specifically focusing on cloud-based health data warehouses (HDWs) that integrate heterogeneous clinical data sources for analytics and decision support. Drawing on contemporary literature, industry research, and real-world implementations, this paper analyzes the healthcare cloud threat landscape, evaluates CWPP architectural components, and proposes an end-to-end framework integrating runtime monitoring, micro segmentation, continuous compliance, and DevSecOps-aligned scanning. Demonstrations and system diagrams illustrate how CWPPs intervene in attack chains, reduce breach impact, and defend PHI-processing workloads. A comparative analysis of leading CWPP solutions (Prisma Cloud, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Trend Micro Deep Security) is included to highlight operational relevance for healthcare IT environments. Findings show that CWPPs significantly enhance resilience, reduce misconfigurations, and strengthen compliance readiness in healthcare HDW ecosystems. The proposed framework can guide healthcare organizations toward establishing workload-centric, adaptive, and regulatory-aligned security architecture suitable for modern cloud operations.