What are the requirements for achieving SOC2 and HIPAA compliance in a public cloud setup?

All answers to this question.

GCP is excellent for compliance, but you must opt-in. First, you need to sign the BAA with Google before storing any PHI (Protected Health Information). Be aware that not every GCP service is HIPAA-compliant; check their "covered services" list. For SOC2, focus heavily on the "Trust Services Criteria"—Security, Availability, and Confidentiality. You’ll need to prove that you have audit logging (Cloud Audit Logs) enabled, data is encrypted at rest and in transit (using CMEK for extra points), and that you have a formal incident response plan. Use the GCP Security Command Center to monitor your "Compliance Score" against these frameworks in real-time.

   Answered 2025-06-22 by Barbara Wilson

Have you started looking for an external auditor yet, or are you trying to use a compliance automation platform like Vanta or Drata to prep your GCP environment first?

   Answered 2025-07-10 by Daniel Martinez

• We actually just signed up for Drata. It’s helping us find gaps we didn't know existed, like a few old snapshots that weren't encrypted. It’s much better than trying to manage a massive spreadsheet of controls. The automated evidence collection is saving us a ton of time, but we still have to write our own internal policies for things like employee onboarding and hardware disposal.

     Commented 2025-07-20 by Thomas Wright

Make sure you turn on "Access Transparency" in GCP. It allows you to see the logs of whenever a Google employee accesses your data for support reasons.

   Answered 2025-08-05 by Susan Moore

• Great tip, Susan. Access Transparency is a must-have for SOC2 Type II audits to prove that even the provider's access is monitored.

     Commented 2025-08-12 by Jessica Thompson