Top Cloud Compliance Software Tools

Moving to cloud computing relieves an organization from some infrastructure management headaches, but it doesn’t absolve companies from ensuring cloud compliance. Indeed, cloud compliance and governance remain paramount in the cloud and the data center.

Compliance in the cloud is a multi-faceted issue. There is the compliance of the underlying cloud infrastructure and the ability of the cloud company to provide services that meet various requirements. And there is the need for organizations to manage their own use of cloud resources, as well as data usage, to maintain compliance and industry best practices.

For example, a public cloud provider could have its platform certified compliant to be used for organizations that need to meet Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). Yet it is still up to the individual companies to adhere to all the non-infrastructure elements for which the public cloud provider is not responsible.

There are multiple tools and services available today to help companies meet and maintain compliance. Some of the tools overlap with cloud workload protection platforms management, while others are purpose-built specifically for compliance. Each of the top public cloud vendors – AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud – offers tools that can be useful for organizations to monitor compliance efforts.

How to Choose a Cloud Compliance Tool

When it comes to choosing a cloud compliance tool, there are a number of key criteria for organizations to consider. While one tool might be the ideal fit for one company, it might not be for another, depending on the need for certain capabilities.

There are a number of key considerations to evaluate as part of a decision on cloud project management:

Compliance Coverage. There are a lot of different compliance specifications and it’s important to identify what compliance your organization needs to cover and be sure to choose a solution that aligns with those regulations. Among the most common are PCI-DSS, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

On-Premises Integration. Many organizations have both cloud and on-premises assets – a true hybrid cloud – that need to managed for compliance. If you have both types of environments, consider a solution that can handle both on-premises and cloud IT assets.

Integrated Security. Some tools are standalone compliance solutions while others directly integrate security as part of cloud workload management. If you don’t already have cloud security controls in place, consider a solution with integrated security.

Reporting Features. For better or for worse, a core element of any compliance regime is reporting. When evaluating different tools look for the reporting features your auditors ask for.

In this Datamation top companies list, we spotlight the vendors that offer the top cloud compliance tools

• Cavirin
• Checkpoint CloudGuard Dome9
• CloudPassage Halo
• Lacework
• Nutanix Xi Beam
• Qualys Cloud Platform
• Sophos Cloud Optix
• Symantec Control Compliance Suite
• Vendor Comparison Chart

Cavirin

Value proposition for potential buyers. Cavirin is a good choice for organizations looking to gain a better understanding of their overall risk and cyber-posture, in addition to compliance.

Key values/differentiators:

• Integrated compliance mapping against multiple security frameworks including NIST and guidelines including PCI-DSS, HIPAA and GDPR.

• Can help to identify potential areas of vulnerability across both cloud and on-premises deployments.

• Among the more unique key features of Cavirin is the platform’s CyberPosture scoring that provides a high-level overview of IT assets and how well everything is secured.

• The platform can also be integrated with development and DevOps workflows to help make sure that compliance is baked in while application are being developed.

Checkpoint CloudGuard Dome9 Compliance

Value proposition for potential buyers. CloudGuard Dome9 is a good choice for organizations looking to both secure and enable compliance for cloud workloads. It’s also an obvious option for those that are already making using of other parts of CheckPoint’s broader portfolio. In that case interoperability would be strong.

Key values/differentiators:

• The Dome9 Arc platform was acquired by CheckPoint in October 2018 for $175 million and has since been rebranded as CheckPoint CloudGuard Dome9.

• A key benefit for organizations is the real time view of cloud asset compliance as well alignment with industry best practices.

• Among the platform’s key differentiators is the Identity and Access Management (IAM) integration which can be used to help secure workloads, with just-in-time privilege elevation for certain workloads when required.

• Remediation is another core element, helping companies to fix gaps and misconfigurations to enable compliance.

• Compliance reporting is enabled with printable status reports that can be provided to auditors.

Lacework

Value proposition for potential buyers. For organizations concerned about compliance across multiple clouds as well as detecting potential outlier and malicious items, Lacework is a great choice.

Key values/differentiators:

• Beyond compliance, the key differentiator for Lacework is its Polygraph feature, which provides a visual representation of how everything relates across cloud workloads, APIs and account roles to provide proper context.

• In terms of compliance, Lacework can monitor cloud workloads for secure configuration as defined by the Center for Internet Security (CIS) cloud benchmark, as well as monitor for compliance with frameworks including PCI-DSS and HIPAA.

• Continuous compliance is a key attribute of the Lacework platform enabling users to track compliance trends over time.

• Integrated security capabilities provide controls for the Host-Based Intrusion Detection (HIDs) and File Integrity Monitoring (FIM).

CloudPassage Halo

Value proposition for potential buyers. CloudPassage Halo is geared to help companies of any size identify and remediate cloud risks.

Key values/differentiators:

• CloudPassage offers automated security visibility and compliance monitoring for workloads that run on-premises, and across public cloud or hybrid cloud deployments.

• The Halo platform helps to identify and monitor cloud assets for multiple compliance frameworks including CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark, HIPAA, ISO 27001, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, HIPAA and PCI DSS.

• Integrated security features also help to enable compliance and Halo is particularly well suited for PCI DSS, with the inclusion of file integrity monitoring, configuration management, intrusion detection, and log management features.

• Cloud Service Management (CSM) and Software Vulnerability Assessment tools are key differentiators for the platform, enabling organizations to really understand what the greatest risks are from different types of cloud application workloads.

Nutanix Xi Beam

Value proposition for potential buyers. Xi Beam is an obvious choice for organizations that have already bought into other elements of the Nutanix cloud portfolio, while still being a solid standalone option as well.

Key values/differentiators:

• One of the key features of Xi Beam is a global summary dashboard, which shows cloud health across all accounts on a global basis, customizable for different levels of granularity.

• Regulatory compliance monitoring and audit checks for GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA and CIS benchmarks are part of the platform, with over 250 automated audit checks.

• Provides the ability to see trends over time with a compliance summary visually displays compliance over time against different compliance requirements.

• Among the key differentiators of Xi Beam is the ability to create custom policies via python scripts, for best practices and configuration.

• Compliance audit reports can be scheduled for sending on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to stakeholders.

Qualys Cloud Platform

Value proposition for potential buyers. Qualys’s compliance capabilities are a modular part of the company’s cloud platform, enabling organization to pick and choose only what they need. The overall platform offers the promise not just of compliance, but IT asset and vulnerability management as well.

Key values/differentiators:

• The PCI-DSS compliance module is a particular strength and key differentiator as a very focused and comprehensive solution. The module can first scan all devices to see what is in scope for PCI-DSS and then identify the compliance status.

• While generating reports is common across all compliance solutions, the PCI-DSS module goes a step beyond, with a PCI Executive Report that can be automatically sent to a financial institution to document PCI compliance.

• Compliance is also about best practices which is what the Policy Compliance module enables with automated security configuration assessments across on-premises and cloud assets. The compliance checks can be done to align with different best practices including Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks.

• Of particular note is the Out-of-Band Configuration (OCA) module for compliance monitoring which extends compliance monitoring to assets that are not easily located or scanned otherwise.

Sophos Cloud Optix

Value proposition for potential buyers. Cloud Optix is an ideal solution for organizations that are looking for a compliance platform that can integrate with ServiceNow or Jira for workflow and IT service management.

Key values/differentiators:

• Cloud Optix employs an agentless approach to discover assets and identify security posture in a largely automated way, which can be a real time saver for organizations.

• Compliance and best practices monitoring can align against CIS, SOC2, HIPAA, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS and others with templates, as well as the option to create customized policies and practices.

• Continuous scanning of assets is core feature, with visibility into status availability via an intuitive dashboard that provides a high-level overview into compliance status, with the option to dig deeper to see what’s actually going on.

• Among the key differentiators for the Ability to set ‘guardrails’ to restrict changes to critical settings that could leave the organization exposed to a potential compliance violation.

Symantec Control Compliance Suite

Value proposition for potential buyers. Control Compliance suite is one of the best options for mid to large sized organizations looking for a robust set of compliance and best practices monitoring and analysis capabilities.

Key values/differentiators:

• The suite encompasses up to five core modules that can be used individually or together, including the standards manager for discovery, vulnerability manager, assessment manager for procedural controls, policy manager for aligning with best practices and compliance regimes, and risk manager.

• Wide coverage of different types of IT assets is a key differentiator with the ability to identify cloud, mobile, internet of things (IoT) and network assets to make sure they’re all aligned with required compliance demands and best practices.

• Going beyond just making sure items are correctly configured and patched the integrated vulnerability management capability employs threat analytics that can also help to identify and isolate higher-risk assets.

• Compliance coverage is second to none with integrated capabilities to report on OBIT, GLBA, HIPAA, HITRUST, ISO, ITIL, NERC-FERC, NIST, PCI, SOX and others, across over 15,000 configuration checks that the platform can conduct.

Vendor Comparison Chart