Understanding cloud compliance tools
Cloud compliance tools are solutions that help businesses adhere to regulatory frameworks, cloud compliance security standards, and internal policies. Given that almost 40% of legal, compliance, and privacy leaders see a proactive compliance program as a top-5 priority, assembling the right cloud compliance toolstack is imperative.
A few years ago, compliance management relied on manual processes and static checks. Most of the time, compliance audits took place after regulatory incidents. But now that cloud technologies form the bedrock of most mission-critical operations, enterprises ``need to look for cloud compliance tools that can keep up with cloud-specific trends and challenges, including increasingly fast infrastructure and high DevOps velocities.
Why the rush to shift from manual, audit-focused compliance to continuous, automated monitoring that integrates with modern cloud operations? Today, businesses are under increasing regulatory scrutiny, and maintaining a healthy compliance posture in sprawling multi-cloud estates while meeting developer requirements isn’t straightforward. And let’s not forget the urgent need for real-time visibility across the cloud; the cloud is simply too complicated and frenetic to deal with compliance issues after the fact.
Another crucial factor is tool consolidation. Disparate compliance tools create silos and regulatory blind spots in the cloud. That’s why businesses are advancing cloud compliance tools and solutions that can unify diverse regulatory controls into a single interconnected platform.
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What to look for in cloud compliance tools
The cloud compliance industry is expected to top $59 billion by 2027, potentially overwhelming businesses with numerous options to choose from. Here’s a checklist with key considerations and must-haves that can help streamline your decision-making process:
Comprehensive framework coverage
Compatibility with cloud compliance frameworks like SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, NIST, ISO 27001, and emerging standards like NIS2 and DORA
Complete, detailed topology of compliance controls
Ability to assess whether frameworks keep up with evolving regulations
Customization to meet industry- or use case-specific requirements
In a multi-cloud world, no single framework covers everything. Leading tools map controls across multiple standards and automate gap analysis, reducing duplicate work for overlapping requirements.
Multi-cloud and hybrid visibility
Unified multi-cloud compliance visibility and monitoring across leading cloud providers, like AWS, Azure, and GCP, and on-premises environments
Agentless deployment that simplifies comprehensive compliance coverage—and keeps it affordable
Regulatory safeguards for containers, serverless workflows, and Kubernetes-heavy infrastructure
Context-aware risk prioritization
Correlation capabilities, i.e., matching compliance findings with risk factors like network exposure, identity privileges, and data sensitivity
Attack path analyses; the ability to identify toxic combinations of misconfigurations that compromise business-critical processes or data
Visibility into business context and impact scoring instead of contextless technical severity ratings
Developer workflow integration
Easy unification with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code tools, and developer platforms
Policy-as-code support for compliance enforcement at development time
Actionable remediation recommendations
Automated evidence collection and reporting
Automatic threat telemetry analysis and forensics
Customizable dashboards and audit-ready reporting
Real-time compliance status tracking and alerting
Top 10 cloud compliance tools compared
1. Wiz
Wiz is a cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) with comprehensive compliance capabilities built on a unified security graph. CNAPPs like Wiz are ideal for organizations seeking unified visibility across their entire cloud stack and context-aware risk prioritization.
Wiz unifies compliance across 100+ frameworks in a single CNAPP, correlating findings with real risk factors like data sensitivity, identity exposure, and network reachability. Agentless deployment means teams can start continuous compliance monitoring in minutes, without disrupting developer workflows.
These features add up to a top-of-the-line platform: Wiz is trusted by more than 50% of Fortune 100 companies and snagged the #1 spot on G2’s CNAPP Report Summer 2025.
G2 rating: 4.7/5
Key features
Unified platform
Agentless deployment
100+ cloud compliance frameworks
Toxic combination detection
2. Orca Security
With a range of out-of-the-box compliance features, Orca Security helps businesses achieve quick operationalization and visibility. The platform analyzes more than 150 cloud security compliance standards and provides automated remediation workflows to address regulatory risks, but deep visibility and contextual risk-based prioritization in complex cloud environments may be a limitation.
G2 rating: 4.6/5
Key features:
Agentless scanning via SideScanning technology
Customizable frameworks
Comprehensive asset discovery
Data-centric risk prioritization
Automated remediation
3. Check Point CloudGuard
Check Point CloudGuard is an all-in-one cloud security tool that has compliance enforcement capabilities baked in. Some key CloudGuard features include compliance-security unification, 1,000+ best-practice recommendations, customizable policies, and automation of the full compliance lifecycle.
G2 rating: 4.5/5
Key features:
Interconnected security and compliance
Unified compliance policy management
Automated compliance lifecycle
4. Qualys Cloud Platform
Qualys is an end-to-end cloud security platform with many compliance capabilities. These compliance features include policy audits, file integrity monitoring, unified asset management, and myriad self-assessment tools to assess and demonstrate cloud compliance.
G2 rating: 4.5/5
Key features:
Customizable dashboard and pre-designed templates
Vast library of controls, policies, and standards
Holistic and business-focused risk management approach
5. Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Microsoft Defender is a CNAPP with compliance controls that’s ideal for businesses with Microsoft-dominant stacks and those that seek comprehensive hybrid cloud coverage.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud synchronizes with a broad array of regulatory and security frameworks, such as the EU’s 2022/2555 directive (NIS2), the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, GDPR, multiple NIST 800-series publications, FedRAMP, HIPAA, and the emerging EU AI Act.
G2 rating: 4.4/5
Key features
Native Azure unification
Multi-cloud support
Automated compliance assessment
6. Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud
Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud, previously known as Prisma Cloud, is a comprehensive and enterprise-grade CNAPP with a powerful compliance monitoring component. One of Cortex Cloud’s specialities is its compatibility with a diverse range of third-party tools. This makes it ideal for organizations operating out of complex multi-cloud and SaaS estates made up of services from disparate vendors.
G2 rating: 4.4/5
Key features
Multi-cloud coverage
20+ cloud security compliance standards
Wide-ranging third-party compatibility
One-click reporting
Code-to-cloud fixes
7. Lacework FortiCNAPP
Lacework FortiCNAPP offers behavior-based anomaly detection and compliance monitoring capabilities. With this unique behavioral analysis approach, Lacework FortiCNAPP continuously maps and cross-analyzes multi-cloud assets against cloud compliance standards. The platform also prioritizes cloud regulatory compliance risks based on impact.
G2 rating: 4.4/5
Key Features:
Machine learning–based behavioral analysis
Continuous cloud regulatory compliance assessments
Real-time policy checks
8. Trend Micro Cloud One
Trend Micro Cloud One is a cloud security services platform that addresses cloud regulatory compliance by zeroing in on vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across infrastructures. Cloud One is compatible with numerous cloud security compliance standards, like ISO 27001, ISO 27014, ISO 27017, SOC, and PCI DSS, and features a unified view of cloud environments along with comprehensive reports to help businesses maintain a strong regulatory posture.
G2 rating: 4.3/5
Key features:
Unified cloud topology
Granular reports
Risk-based prioritization
9. Aqua Security
Aqua Security is a CNAPP with an emphasis on cloud-native, container, and serverless technologies. This specialization gives its compliance features a unique edge in dealing with standards like PCI DSS, GDPR, and HIPAA in cloud-native environments with accelerated development pipelines.
G2 rating: 4.2/5
Key features:
Granular logging and reporting
Runtime protection
Container-specific compliance
Pre-defined compliance checks
10. Securonix
Securonix is a cloud-native threat detection, investigation, and response platform with built-in SIEM, featuring compliance modules and continuous monitoring capabilities. With unified compliance dashboards and automated alerting, it’s a good choice for businesses that want to blend security analytics with compliance oversight.
G2 rating: 3.9/5
Key features:
User behavior analytics
Out-of-the-box compliance controls
Customizable dashboards
Multi-cloud compliance reporting
Best practices for rolling out cloud compliance tools
To get the most out of cloud compliance tools, follow these steps:
1. Start with risk-based prioritization
Don’t just tick boxes; focus on business-critical risks. To identify the most critical compliance issues, map attack paths that lead to sensitive data and critical processes.
Measure the potential business impact and implications of compliance issues, and start from the top of that list.
Establish compliance risk thresholds; this is immensely helpful because continuous monitoring (more on that soon) will help flag anomalies.
Set up escalation plans and incident response playbooks for different types of noncompliance events.
2. Embed tools into existing workflows
Make sure all your cloud compliance controls are built in; no plasterwork.
Choose compliance tools that offer extensive support for third-party systems.
Connect these tools to your developer environments, ticketing systems, and security orchestration platforms.
Codify compliance policies into machine-readable formats. A policy-as-code strategy will help you catch regulatory issues early in development pipelines. Policy as code also enhances cloud compliance scalability, accuracy, and control.
Set up automated remediation workflows that revert cloud assets back to established regulatory baselines with a few simple mouse clicks. This will help you quickly address common misconfigurations and policy violations.
3. Establish continuous monitoring
Focus on achieving continuous, 24/7 monitoring. Choose tools that offer the same. Continuous, real-time monitoring is the only way to quickly mitigate regulatory abnormalities before they become more serious noncompliance incidents.
Set up automated alerting to catch and remediate compliance and policy drift in fast-paced cloud environments early.
To stay on top of shifting global cloud regulations, routinely assess and revise your compliance policies.
Advanced Cloud Security Best Practices [Cheat Sheet]
This cloud security cheat sheet exceeds traditional advice. It combines theory with real-world impact analysis, provides actionable steps, and even delves into hands-on code snippets for those who prefer a direct approach.
How Wiz can help you get started with cloud compliance
To navigate the minefield of new cloud tech and changing regulations, businesses need cutting-edge cloud compliance tools that focus on continuous and context-aware assessments.
Wiz tackles today’s cloud compliance challenges through a unified and risk-based approach to cloud security. Wiz focuses on the most profound aspects of cloud safety: First, you need to see your environments, so Wiz provides full visibility. Next, you need to know what security and compliance risks actually might cause you harm, so Wiz takes in diverse contexts and correlates them to assess their real-world implications.
Wiz pairs its 100+ framework library with cross-framework heatmaps, showing exactly where gaps overlap across standards. Its unified Security Graph correlates compliance findings with identity, data, and workload context – helping teams focus on the most business-critical risks. Continuous assessments, granular reporting, and automated remediation keep compliance posture resilient in fast-changing environments.
And since Wiz can connect to different cloud services in seconds (thanks to an agentless-first approach), scaling cloud compliance strategies is now a whole lot simpler.
Want to see how Wiz can support your cloud compliance goals? Get a demo now.
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