Somewhere right now, a security analyst is taking a screenshot of an MFA settings page, pasting it into a spreadsheet, and naming the file “evidence_final_v3.xlsx.”

That screenshot will be stale by Friday. The auditor will accept it anyway. Everyone will agree to believe it for a year.

We think that’s absurd. So we shipped the alternative.

What We Shipped

RealCISO now connects directly to the platforms your infrastructure already runs on: Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Okta. It collects compliance evidence continuously.

The numbers at launch:

• 7 supported integrations
• 110 evidence collectors
• 160+ live data sources queried
• 309 automated findings

Connect an integration and RealCISO pulls your live configuration every 4 to 24 hours, snapshots it, and grades it against pass/fail compliance checks mapped to your frameworks. No screenshots. No spreadsheets. No document uploads.

How It Actually Works

Two pieces do the work.

Evidence collectors are automated jobs that pull live configuration from a connected system on a schedule and store a point-in-time snapshot. That snapshot, timestamped and pulled straight from the provider’s API, is your audit evidence. Not a screenshot someone took. The actual state of the system, on the record.

Automated findings are pass/fail checks that evaluate each snapshot. “All S3 buckets are encrypted.” “MFA is enforced for privileged roles.” “Conditional access policies are active.” Each result surfaces directly against your assessment questions and frameworks.

Collectors gather. Findings judge. You see where you stand. Continuously, not annually.

What Each Integration Delivers

Integration	Collectors	Findings	Coverage highlights
Microsoft Azure	39	106	VMs, storage, SQL, Key Vault, networking, RBAC, backup, Defender, AKS, Cosmos DB
AWS	32	97	IAM, S3, EC2, RDS, KMS, CloudTrail, GuardDuty, Secrets Manager, backup, security alerting
Google Cloud	19	63	IAM, Cloud SQL, GKE, KMS, firewall, logging & alerting, DNS, API keys, service accounts
Microsoft 365	17	37	Entra ID identity & MFA, conditional access, privileged roles, SharePoint sharing, access reviews
Google Workspace	7	19	Admin roles, 2SV/MFA, Drive external sharing, Gmail security, group governance, SSO
Okta	6	12	MFA enforcement, password & session policy, SSO coverage, network zones, access review
RealCISO Platform	5	7	Policy reviews, risk register, vendor inventory, TPRM assessments

One detail worth knowing: Entra ID identity coverage (MFA, conditional access, privileged roles) ships through either a Microsoft 365 or an Azure connection. Whichever you connect first, you get it.

More Than Half Your Assessment, Answered

Across our 289-question assessment library, these integrations automatically evidence up to 57% of a full security assessment, without you uploading a single document.

In the technical domains, it’s higher. Access control, platform security, and monitoring run 80–96% automated coverage.

The questions that remain are the ones that deserve a human: governance, process, people. Machines are better at configuration checks anyway. They don’t get bored of checking, and they don’t skip a week because an RFP came in.

Why Continuous Beats Point-in-Time

A point-in-time assessment is a photograph. Your environment is a movie.

Configuration drifts. A conditional access policy gets disabled during an incident and nobody re-enables it. A new storage bucket ships without encryption. An admin role gets granted “temporarily.” The annual assessment doesn’t know. It already happened.

Continuous compliance means the check re-runs every few hours. When something drifts, it shows up as a failing finding, mapped to the control, the question, and the framework it affects. You fix it now, not at next year’s audit.

For MSPs and vCISO practices, multiply that across your book of business. Evidence collection is the hidden tax on every client engagement. Connect each client’s platforms and that tax largely disappears. Your team stops collecting and starts advising.

What’s Next

More integration categories are in active development and releasing shortly: mobile device management, endpoint detection and response, version control systems, task trackers, HRIS, security awareness training, and vulnerability scanners.

Same model. Connect the tools you already run, and the evidence takes care of itself.

See Your Own Findings

Continuous compliance integrations are available now to RealCISO customers.

The fastest way to understand this is to see it against your own environment. Connect an integration and watch your assessment fill itself in: live findings, real configuration, within hours.

Questions? Find me on LinkedIn or email me directly. I read the replies.

Brian Haugli, CEO, RealCISO. NIST CSF author. Built compliance programs at every scale from startup to enterprise. This is what I’d build for myself.