Savant Labs is a Silicon Valley company with an innovative solution for automated analytics that is poised to disrupt its industry. The company decided to build in the right security processes for compliance from the very beginning, and use compliance automation to help reach its security goals.
Savant Labs needed to put in place a security and compliance process that was robust and comprehensive. “We knew that we wanted to build a strong foundation for compliance in our company, right from the very start. If you do it early in the life of the company, and build it right, it’s far easier than if you go back and try to put it in place later,” said Yunfeng Yang, CTO.
Furthermore, Savant Labs knew that its customer prospects would be very demanding in terms of proof of compliance. “We sell to both SMBs as well as many enterprises. If you don’t have SOC 2, you can’t even get in the door with them. So we knew we needed to achieve that right away,” continued Yunfeng.
After evaluating several compliance automation platforms, Akitra was chosen for two main reasons. First, the automated features of its monitoring of cloud services and for the automated collection of evidence from those services to be able to demonstrate compliance. Second, since the company needed guidance in putting compliance processes in place, it selected Akitra for its depth of compliance expertise and its ability to provide guidance.
“Akitra helped us assess which compliance policies and processes we really needed,” said Yunfeng. “They helped us focus on the ones to put in place first, such as doing pen tests to identify gaps.” He added that all these policies and controls could be put in place with the tools they already had, plus those provided by Akitra, such as Akitra’s Shield module for automated monitoring and evidence gathering from employee workstations.
In terms of the level of support and guidance that Savant Labs received from Akitra, Yunfeng noted three aspects: “First, you made sure you gave us an overview of the whole scope of the compliance process from beginning to end. Second, you provided quick turnaround on all of our questions and issues. Third, you guys at Akitra were very proactive – you gave us excellent suggestions on how to move forward efficiently to put the right security processes in place.”
Savant Labs is now SOC 2 Type 2 certified, and is making sure that it stays continuously compliant with Akitra’s 24/7 monitoring of key systems and services. Yunfeng observed that he was very pleased that the ongoing, post-audit relationship with Akitra’s Customer Success team continues with periodic meetings to review status, look at key reports, and in general make sure that the compliance program always stays on course.
In terms of Savant Labs’ sales process with customers, it is now smoother and faster. “We can answer our customers’ compliance questions much more quickly and confidently, and show them the actual detailed compliance reports if they want to see that evidence.”
Equally important, Yunfeng says that the company is now poised to scale more rapidly.
