Compliance Management: A Four-Part Symphony

As we discussed in our previous article "Compliance as Code: The Future of Meeting Your Obligations with a Smile", compliance as code is the future of ensuring that your organization meets its obligations. This article delves into the four-part harmony of compliance management and some example of tools that you can use to achieve it. Just like in good harmony, each part of compliance management is just as important as the other and with the right tools, you'll be able to meet your compliance goals in a streamlined, automated way. By leveraging the power of compliance as code, you'll be able to ensure that your organization stays compliant with its obligations, now and in the future.

Planning: The Conductor of the Orchestra

Planning is like a conductor of a symphony, providing direction and ensuring the success of the performance. Just as a conductor must be familiar with the score, you should understand your compliance objectives and the tools required to achieve them. A well-structured plan will help you avoid potential issues before they arise.

Planning Tools:

• SecurityRAT: It is a security risk assessment tool that helps you evaluate your cloud infrastructure and applications for security risks and vulnerabilities.
• CIS Benchmark: It is a security benchmark that provides a comprehensive checklist of security best practices for various technology domains, such as cloud, containers, and operating systems.

Prevention: Playing the Right Note at the Right Time

Preventing problems is like playing the right note at the right time. And with the tools in this category, you'll be able to catch problems before they happen.

Prevention Tools:

• Static Code Analysis Tools: Tools like Checkov or Terrascan scan your code for security problems before it goes into production.
• Azure Policy: Azure Policy is a tool offered by Azure that helps you enforce rules and regulations on your resources. By using this service, you can create and manage policies that ensure your resources comply with your organization's standards and service agreements. The policies you create will have a specific effect on your resources, maintaining compliance with your requirements.
• Cloud Formation Guard: CloudFormation Guard is an open-source tool that helps you check your AWS CloudFormation templates for policy compliance using a simple, policy-as-code approach.

Detection: A Good Ear for Notes Out of Place

Detection is like having a good ear for notes that are out of place. With the tools in this category, you'll be able to spot problems before they become real issues.

Detection Tools:

• AWS Config: A service that provides an AWS resource inventory, configuration history, and configuration change notifications to enable security and governance.
• Cloud Asset Inventory: Cloud Asset Inventory is a service in GCP that helps you discover, manage, and analyze your GCP resources and assets, so you can understand the configuration and state of your
• Open Source License Tools: Tools like Fossology or Snyk help ensure that your software complies with open-source licenses.

Remediation: Fixing the Notes Out of Place

And finally, remediation is like fixing the notes that are out of place. With the tools in this category, you'll be able to resolve compliance problems quickly and efficiently.

Remediation Tools:

• Chef Automate: This is a comprehensive automation platform that provides a single place to manage, develop, and deploy automation workflows. It includes features such as continuous compliance and security reporting that allow users to remediate compliance issues.
• Puppet Enterprise: This is a powerful automation platform that enables IT teams to manage the entire lifecycle of their infrastructure, including compliance and security. It provides users with the ability to automate the remediation of compliance issues.

So there you have it: the four-part harmony of compliance management! With the right tools, you'll be able to keep your compliance goals in tune and avoid the embarrassment of a flat or sharp note.