We released the A-SCEND development roadmap, announcing powerful new features coming soon!  Learn how A-LIGN is investing in product development to deliver new capabilities and services to our clients.

The opportunity for new ideas and innovation in the compliance industry is at an all-time high.  A‑LIGN has always been at the forefront of cybersecurity compliance, relentlessly seeking ways to make audits and assessments more efficient while maintaining a high level of quality.  The investments we make in A-SCEND, our end-to-end compliance management platform, allow us to move much faster on new product development and will help us to deliver even more value to our clients. Our customers will be able to experience new capabilities and services through A-SCEND with ease.

As we look across the industry, with so many startups trying to ease the burden that compliance puts on resource-constrained security teams, we are proud to build on the experience of our A‑LIGN auditors, along with the unique features that A‑SCEND now has to offer:

• Deep experience in performing actual SOC 2 audits for 1000’s of clients over many years
• Over 3,300 customers, 12,000 projects, 2 million pieces of evidence – all informing our product design and user experience
• An active bench of top-notch auditors using the product every day to collaborate with clients, answer questions, and execute seamless audits as quickly as possible

It’s truly an exciting time here at A-LIGN, so in the rest of this post, we want to communicate some of the major capabilities that will be coming to A-SCEND as we leverage the Warburg Pincus investment to continue to build advanced technology into the A-SCEND platform.

ROADMAP: WHAT’S COMING

SOC 2 Readiness Assessment

The SOC 2 Readiness Assessment is a platform that provides you with everything you need to prepare for your SOC 2, simplifying the process and saving time.  By answering questions within A-SCEND we can help you discover issues with policies, procedures, and system configurations as you prepare for your SOC 2 assessment. In addition, we provide tips and recommendations for readiness, as well as live auditor guidance throughout the process.

Continuous Monitoring

This is a critical capability for modern compliance management platforms, allowing you to monitor cloud-based systems and alert for non-compliance. A-SCEND will integrate with popular platforms, check them at regular intervals, and trigger alerts where systems are in violation of a control. This is also a key part of any CISO’s playbook by automating the Prevention in a typical Prediction-Prevention-Detection-Response security lifecycle.

Automated Evidence Collection

If continuous compliance is the feature that alerts you when a control is not being met, automated evidence collection packages that information up for independent review by a third-party auditor. This feature dramatically reduces the time and effort required to collect audit evidence, associate it with the right controls, and post it for review by your auditor.

Risk Register & Risk Management

A large part of a sound security program is to understand where your risks are and prioritize them – across physical, cyber, and people dimensions. With this feature you can perform a NIST CSF risk assessment, identify what controls are in place, outline treatment and remediation, and manage those risks on a continuous basis.