SOC 2, ISO27001, or FedRAMP? How to Match Controls to SaaS

Martin Snyder
Aug 22, 2025
7 min read

If you’re trying to tame a fast-growing SaaS estate while keeping auditors happy, here’s the practical path: Waldo Security gives you a living map of every SaaS app and account (including AI plug-ins and long-tail tools), automates identity and offboarding controls, and exports audit-ready evidence—so you can align to SOC 2, ISO 27001, or FedRAMP with far less drama. Start by discovering what’s really in use with Instant SaaS Discovery, then keep your evidence current with our SaaS Compliance Overview.

What each framework actually asks of you (in plain English)

SOC 2 (AICPA Trust Services Criteria): An independent report on whether your controls meet one or more of the five criteria—Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy—as they apply to your service. Customers pick which criteria they care about; you prove the controls work (Type II shows operation over time). (AICPA & CIMA)
ISO/IEC 27001:2022: A certifiable information security management system (ISMS) standard. It’s less about a single product and more about your organization’s risk-based program: policies, risk assessment, objectives, improvement loops, and Annex A controls that support your ISMS. (ISO)
FedRAMP: U.S. federal government authorization for cloud services. It tailors NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 controls into Low/Moderate/High baselines, adds specific documentation and assessment rigor, and requires continuous monitoring. If you sell to federal agencies, this is usually non-negotiable. (NIST Computer Security Resource Center, FedRAMP)

Why this matters for SaaS: controls aren’t abstract—they attach to how users authenticate, how data moves, which integrations exist, and how you monitor and prove it. The sooner you connect the paper to your actual app landscape, the fewer surprises at audit time.

A control-to-SaaS translation you can use tomorrow

Below is a quick “what this means in SaaS” translation for common control themes across the three programs.

Identity & Access
What auditors look for: strong authentication, least privilege, timely removal, and evidence it actually happened.
SaaS translation: SSO + MFA coverage for high-risk apps; scoped admin roles; OAuth scopes reviewed (especially persistent offline_access and any *.ReadWrite.All); automated offboarding that includes long-tail apps. SOC 2 Security and ISO 27001 controls expect this; FedRAMP requires tailored 800-53 controls like AC-2, IA-2, and family-level access management. (AICPA & CIMA, ISO, NIST Computer Security Resource Center)
Asset & Configuration Management
What auditors look for: you know what systems exist and how they’re configured, plus a process to keep them safe.
SaaS translation: a living inventory of sanctioned and unsanctioned apps, plug-ins, and tenants; baseline settings (external sharing, workspace creation, logging) continuously checked. ISO 27001’s ISMS hinges on knowing the scope of what you’re governing; SOC 2 asks whether relevant controls exist and operate; FedRAMP baselines make this explicit in required documentation and tests. (ISO, AICPA & CIMA, FedRAMP)
Data Protection & Privacy
What auditors look for: data classification, lawful processing, encryption, restricted sharing, retention, and proof.
SaaS translation: where sensitive data lives (drives, repos, mailboxes, data stores), external link governance, guest access controls, and logs showing who accessed or exfiltrated what. SOC 2’s Confidentiality/Privacy criteria, ISO 27001’s requirements + Annex A, and FedRAMP control families (e.g., MP, SC, PL, AU) each require this in different ways. (AICPA & CIMA, ISO, NIST Computer Security Resource Center)
Monitoring & Incident Response
What auditors look for: can you detect, respond, and learn?
SaaS translation: API-level audit logs, SIEM integration, alerts on risky OAuth grants/admin changes/external shares, and post-incident evidence. FedRAMP requires detailed plans and continuous monitoring; ISO 27001 requires measured effectiveness and continual improvement; SOC 2 evaluates design and operation of your monitoring controls. (FedRAMP, ISO, AICPA & CIMA)

“Which one do we chase?” (A practical decision tree)

Your customers are U.S. federal agencies → Start with FedRAMP Moderate or High, depending on data sensitivity. Expect rigorous documentation (SSP, RTMs) and 800-53-aligned controls. Build once, then reuse for other frameworks. (FedRAMP)
You sell broadly to enterprises → Many buyers expect SOC 2 Type II. Pick the Trust Services Criteria that reflect your service (Security is typical; Availability, Confidentiality, and Privacy are common additions). Keep your scope realistic and evidence automated. (AICPA & CIMA)
You want a programmatic, internationally recognized baseline → Choose ISO 27001. It gives you a complete management system—governance, risk, metrics, improvement—and plays nicely with regional buyers. (ISO)

Good news: these aren’t mutually exclusive. FedRAMP baselines are built from NIST SP 800-53, and NIST provides mappings to other frameworks, helping you reuse effort. Many organizations start with SOC 2 to unlock sales, then formalize the ISMS under ISO 27001, and pursue FedRAMP when public sector demand appears. (NIST Computer Security Resource Center)

The hidden blocker: you can’t match controls to SaaS you can’t see

Every program assumes you know your environment. In 2025, that’s the hard part. Between sanctioned suites, team-level tools, plug-ins, OAuth connections, and AI assistants, most of the risk hides in the long tail. That’s why “policy without inventory” turns into shelfware. ISO 27001 stresses scoping and inventory as ISMS foundation; SOC 2’s description criteria force you to describe the system you’re auditing; FedRAMP requires detailed inventories and traceability matrices tied to 800-53 controls. (ISO, AICPA & CIMA, FedRAMP)

This is exactly where Waldo helps first: we correlate identity, email, network, and spend signals to map every app and account in minutes—including shadow AI tools and unmanaged tenants—so your controls have a real target and your evidence isn’t a fire drill at renewals or audits.

Get your baseline with SaaS Discovery.
Keep proof tidy with exportable packets in our SaaS Compliance Overview.

How to align controls to SaaS—step by step

Step 1 — Build a living inventory (week 1).Aggregate from IdP, HRIS, email, network logs, browser extensions, and expense data. Tag each app with owner, department, auth method (SSO vs local), admin count, OAuth scopes, and data sensitivity. This satisfies “what’s in scope” for ISO 27001, strengthens SOC 2’s system description, and seeds FedRAMP documentation. (ISO, AICPA & CIMA)

Step 2 — Lock identity first (weeks 1–2).Enforce SSO + MFA for high-risk apps, reduce admin sprawl, set consent policies, and right-size OAuth scopes (watch offline_access and tenant-wide *.ReadWrite.All). These measures show up across all three programs and map cleanly to 800-53 AC/IA families. (NIST Computer Security Resource Center)

Step 3 — Tame data exposure (weeks 2–4).Locate sensitive data (PII/PHI/customer content/code), restrict external links and guest access, and ensure encryption and retention policies match your promises. Tie this to SOC 2 Confidentiality/Privacy, ISO 27001 Annex A, and FedRAMP SC/MP/PL families. (AICPA & CIMA, ISO)

Step 4 — Instrument monitoring (weeks 3–5).Stream SaaS audit logs to your SIEM, alert on risky scope grants, new admins, domain-wide shares, and failed offboarding. FedRAMP’s continuous monitoring and ISO’s “performance evaluation” clauses expect this; SOC 2 tests that you actually did it over time. (FedRAMP, ISO, AICPA & CIMA)

Step 5 — Automate offboarding & evidence (ongoing).Tie HR events to automated removals across all SaaS (not just the big suites), revoke refresh tokens, and transfer ownership. Generate monthly evidence: SSO coverage, scope diffs, admin changes, offboarding timestamps, data-sharing exceptions. FedRAMP RTMs and ISO’s continual improvement both benefit from repeatable proof. (FedRAMP)

A quick control-mapping cheat sheet

Control theme	SOC 2	ISO 27001 (2022)	FedRAMP (NIST 800-53r5)
SSO + MFA	Security TSC (CC Series)	Annex A (e.g., access control) within ISMS scope	IA-2, AC-2 and related
Least privilege & admin sprawl	Security/Confidentiality	Annex A access control	AC-6, AC-3
OAuth scope governance	Security/Availability	Annex A access/operations	AC, AU, SI overlays
External sharing & data egress	Confidentiality/Privacy	Annex A information protection	SC-7, MP, PL families
Logging & response	Security/Availability	Monitoring & improvement clauses	AU-2/6, IR-x families
Offboarding & token revocation	Security	Annex A user lifecycle	AC-2, IA-4

(Exact mappings depend on your scope and risk treatment; use FedRAMP’s RTM and NIST’s control catalog spreadsheets for precise cross-references.) (FedRAMP, NIST Computer Security Resource Center)

Common pitfalls (and how to avoid them)

Treating SaaS as a monolith. Each app has different controls and logs. Inventory first, then group by risk and fix the top 20% that cause 80% of your exposure. (ISO 27001’s risk-based approach aligns perfectly here.) (ISO)
Relying only on the big suites. Most incidents come from the long tail—unapproved plug-ins, stale OAuth grants, unmanaged tenants. SOC 2 and FedRAMP both expect coverage across the full environment you claim to operate. (AICPA & CIMA, FedRAMP)
Evidence at the end. Backfilling screenshots burns weeks. Automate collection as you go and reuse it across audits. FedRAMP’s templates are a good forcing function even if you’re not (yet) selling to government. (FedRAMP)

Where Waldo fits (and why teams pick us)

Instant visibility: Map sanctioned and shadow SaaS (including AI tools) from identity, email, network, and spend—fast.
Identity & scope governance: See SSO/MFA gaps, admin sprawl, and risky OAuth scopes in one place; right-size or revoke in bulk.
Offboarding that actually finishes: Remove access across long-tail tools and revoke tokens when roles change or users leave.
Compliance made boring: Export SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / FedRAMP-friendly evidence from a single source of truth via our SaaS Compliance Overview.

Bottom line: pick the framework your buyers need, but anchor it to the SaaS you actually run. With a real inventory and automated controls, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and FedRAMP all become much more achievable—and much less painful.

References & further reading

AICPA on SOC 2 and the Trust Services Criteria (Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, Privacy). (AICPA & CIMA)
ISO on ISO/IEC 27001:2022—ISMS requirements and family standards. (ISO)
NIST on SP 800-53 Rev. 5 (control catalog) and FedRAMP resources (RTMs, baselines, templates). (NIST Computer Security Resource Center, FedRAMP)

And if you’re not sure where to start, map your environment first. Once you can see every app and account, everything else—controls, evidence, and certification—gets a whole lot easier.