Microsoft Is Simplifying IT Compliance With Compliance Manager

Is your business constantly playing catch-up with compliance requirements? Achieving and maintaining compliance for your cloud-based resources is a constant battle.

Regulatory agencies update compliance requirements daily, so keeping tabs on all company and industry updates never ends. If you don’t have a technical background, interpreting compliance requirements can also feel like translating another language.

Microsoft is making strides toward simpler compliance management with its new Compliance Manager. The tool helps you manage the end-to-end compliance process and regulatory requirements for your Microsoft cloud solutions.

In this post, we’ll explore how.

Key Features of Microsoft Compliance Manager

Compliance Manager enables you to manage your compliance from a single dashboard and provides recommended actions for improving your compliance posture.

Compliance Manager also includes a tool for you to bolster data protection capabilities and easily implement controls across departments. You can also perform real-time risk assessments to prepare for auditing.

Compliance Manager consists of three key components:

1. Real-Time Risk Assessment

Compliance Manager’s summarized dashboard shows your compliance posture against the regulatory requirements that matter for your Microsoft cloud services.

In each control framework, you get a compliance score. The score is based on the operating effectiveness of Microsoft’s controls and the controls you manage. The compliance score reflects your real-time posture and helps you make risk assessments on the spot.

2. Actionable Insights

You will receive rich insights into the state of Microsoft’s controls and your business’s controls.

For each control that Microsoft manages, you have visibility into the control implementation and testing details, test date and results. For the controls you manage, you will also receive recommended actions that include guidance for implementation and testing.

3. Simplified Compliance

Compliance Manager makes it easy to prepare for an audit. You can produce audit-ready reports within minutes, reducing the need for users across departments to manually collect information.

This tool enables compliance and security officers to perform proactive pre-assessments at any time. It alleviates the stress of being blindsided by an audit and scrambling to gather information last minute.

Which Cloud Services Does Compliance Manager Cover?

Microsoft Compliance Manager is currently available for public preview. During the preview period, Compliance Manager covers Office 365. When Microsoft releases the full version of Compliance Manager in 2018, the service will work across Office 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure.

What Compliance Offerings Come With Compliance Manager?

The full version of Compliance Manager will include GDPR, NIST 800-53, ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 standards.

Related content: What is PCI DSS? Your Guide to Credit Card Compliance

How Much Does the Compliance Manager Cost?

The preview version is free for Microsoft 365, Azure and Dynamics 365 users. Microsoft has not released pricing for the full version yet, but more information will become available closer to general availability in 2018.

Achieve IT Compliance the Easy Way

Agile IT is a proven expert in cyber security and compliance. As your cloud managed services provider, we handle your software compliance requirements and keep you industry-compliant — so you can focus on running your business.

Have questions about Microsoft Compliance Manager? Or need help shaping up your IT compliance? Schedule a free call with one of our compliance experts today.