Whether you're pursuing your first SOC 2 examination or maintaining an existing report, Operlity gives your team a structured platform to manage every Trust Services Criteria, collect and organize audit evidence, track control implementation, and maintain continuous compliance — so your next examination is the easiest one yet.
SOC 2 is an auditing framework developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants that evaluates an organization's controls relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy — known as the Trust Services Criteria. Unlike ISO 27001, SOC 2 is not a certification — it results in an independent auditor's report attesting to the design and operating effectiveness of your controls over a defined period.
SOC 2 reports come in two types: Type I, which evaluates the design of controls at a specific point in time, and Type II, which evaluates both the design and operating effectiveness of controls over a period of typically 6–12 months. For most enterprise buyers, a SOC 2 Type II report is the minimum acceptable evidence of a vendor's security posture — making it one of the most critical compliance milestones for SaaS companies, technology providers, and any organization that processes customer data.
SOC 2 is uniquely demanding because it evaluates not just whether controls exist, but whether they operate effectively over time — and the evidence burden reflects that.
Unlike frameworks that assess control design at a moment, SOC 2 Type II requires evidence that controls operated effectively throughout the entire examination period — typically 6–12 months of continuous operation.
Auditors require extensive evidence across every applicable Trust Services Criteria — access reviews, change management logs, incident records, vulnerability scans, policy acknowledgements — collected, organized, and presented in a structured format.
SOC 2 lets organizations choose which criteria to include (security is mandatory; availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy are optional) — but scoping decisions must be defensible and consistent with customer expectations.
Mapping your organization's actual controls to SOC 2 criteria requires detailed understanding of both your operational environment and the Trust Services Criteria framework.
The gap between examinations is where compliance programs deteriorate. Without continuous monitoring, organizations spend the first months of each new examination period remediating gaps from the previous period.
Organizations pursuing SOC 2 alongside ISO 27001, HIPAA, or other frameworks duplicate significant effort without a platform that maps controls across frameworks.
Operlity provides a structured, end-to-end platform for SOC 2 compliance — covering scoping, control implementation, continuous evidence collection, and examination preparation for both Type I and Type II.
| Trust Services Criteria | Operlity Capability |
|---|---|
| Security (Common Criteria) | Access governance, change management tracking, incident management, vulnerability management, policy lifecycle management |
| Availability | Business resiliency — BC/DR planning, BIA, drill management, and uptime monitoring evidence |
| Processing Integrity | Control implementation tracking with evidence of processing accuracy, completeness, and timeliness |
| Confidentiality | Data governance — classification, access controls, retention policies, and encryption evidence |
| Privacy | Privacy compliance management — consent tracking, data subject rights, privacy policy management, and DPIA workflows |
| Monitoring | Continuous compliance monitoring with real-time control status and evidence completeness tracking |
| Risk Assessment | Enterprise and cyber risk assessment workflows feeding directly into SOC 2 control justifications |
| Vendor Management | Third party risk management with vendor assessments and oversight evidence for service provider criteria |
Define which Trust Services Criteria apply to your organization — security (mandatory) plus any combination of availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy — with documented scoping rationale aligned to your customer and market expectations.
Map your existing controls to the applicable Trust Services Criteria, identify gaps, and produce a prioritized remediation plan that guides your team on what needs to be implemented or improved before the examination period begins.
Implement controls to close identified gaps — with structured tracking, ownership assignment, and evidence collection beginning from the moment each control is operational.
Collect evidence of control operation throughout the examination period — using automated evidence workflows to capture access reviews, change logs, scan results, and other operating effectiveness evidence on a continuous, scheduled basis.
Review your compliance posture before the examination — validating evidence completeness, control operating status, and gap resolution across all applicable criteria.
Support your auditor through the examination with organized evidence, clear control narratives, and structured documentation. Post-examination, maintain continuous compliance monitoring so your next examination period starts from a position of strength, not remediation.