Azure Compliance: 3 Keys for Getting Started

As enterprise businesses accelerate innovation in the cloud, the concepts of threat detection, data privacy and compliance audits have never been more important. Indeed, violations can lead to costly security breaches, regulatory actions and loss of brand equity. Microsoft, which launched its cloud services platform Azure back in 2011, clearly understands the importance of compliance, establishing itself as a trusted player in this space. And, according to Microsoft Vice President of Azure Data, there is still work to be done. In fact, he lumped Microsoft’s ability to manage exabytes of data in the cloud in with a handful of other big names like Google and Facebook, that must make investments in compliance if they are going to protect the security of their customers and retain trust.

With this in mind, here are three important considerations for getting started with Azure compliance:

#1 Understanding Azure and ISO Compliance

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide compliance agency that offers baseline standards for almost every industry and sector. These standards also extend to cloud computing including specific guidance on how to manage security in the cloud.

Courtesy of Microsoft

Meeting ISO standards is one way that Microsoft lives up to its commitment to protect consumers by establishing trust. They also do this by focusing on the following three core tenets. These are:

• Experience in the tech industry as an early adopter of cloud technology
• Transparency about practices and resources for security and compliance; and
• Responsibility shared between individual users and organizations

Because Azure is based on these foundational principles, by design, it complements ISO standards easily.

Furthermore, Microsoft makes achieving new certifications a priority to increase trust and esteem in the brand. For example, a tool called the Microsoft Service Trust Center, which is home to a compliance repository resource that will be discussed in more detail below, tells us that Microsoft is ISO 9001:2015 certified.

According to Microsoft, the certification requires a rigorous audit by an independent organization. Passing means meeting ISO 9001:2015 management standards. Azure was one of the platforms audited for this certification. The Microsoft Service Trust Portal allows you to view their certificate and full audit.

#2 Explore Compliance Manager

In February, Microsoft announced it would be rolling out a new tool called Compliance Manager in the Service Trust Center.

Compliance Manager is designed to help enterprise businesses feel secure in their choice to transition to Microsoft cloud services, like Azure. It solves the following problems for enterprises business leaders:

• Makes security data available for easy consumption: Using dashboards with charts and graphs, Microsoft shares how their products hold up against audits and standards like ISO compliance.
• Allows for assigning and tracking: Enterprise businesses can assign, track and report on compliance goals and standards within their organization.
• Offers security in the form of a repository for files and compliance data.
• Reporting features are rich: Offering a number of reporting options to mine the most productive data available on compliance within your organization.

With Azure, Microsoft understands that in order to be competitive to enterprise businesses in a heavily populated cloud marketplace they have to keep rolling out new features like Compliance Manager for general use.

Here’s how your business can benefit from this new feature:

• Replace spreadsheets for tracking compliance with comprehensive dashboards and digital tracking tools.
• Free for Azure ID customers which means that security comes to your organization at no additional cost.
• Assign ownership of compliance controls to members of your organization, designate roles etc.
• Compare controls against other standards like GDPR.
• Implement and log control tests to determine how compliant your organization is and where your vulnerabilities lie.
• Get compliance recommendations from Microsoft the experts in GDPR and ISO compliance.
• Export compliance information to Excel for audits by third-party vendors.
• Access to data is well-controlled through a four-level hierarchy:
  • enterprise enrolment administrator
  • department administrator
  • account owner
  • service administrator
• Service Trust portal integration allows users to have access to important security data about Microsoft.
• Offers compliance scores that tell you how impactful compliance failures are to your organization’s success.

In short, Microsoft offers robust reporting and dashboard capabilities that make it easy for enterprise businesses to understand their compliance needs. And track and compare them against a growing list of industry standards.

Azure leverages Microsoft’s long history as a partner that enterprise businesses can trust. When you partner with Microsoft you can rest assured they are making investments to roll out new tools, like Compliance Manager, that meet your enterprise needs.

In addition to the above mentioned ISO standards, Microsoft’s compliance offerings include regional certifications for global locales and other international standards organizations. For a full list of compliance offerings from Microsoft click here.