Press Release
Last Updated on January 17, 2024
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) deployments continue to gain popularity—but security remains the top barrier to adoption. How can you achieve competitive differentiation by demonstrating to clients and prospects that you are fully committed to securing their data, and that your SaaS offering is architected and operated in a highly secure and reliable manner? By achieving ISO 27001 certification.
The Industry Standard for Cybersecurity in SaaS
As the only globally accepted information security standard, an ISO 27001 certification demonstrates that you have put the full spectrum of security best practices in place. It also demonstrates that you have a mature, managed and verifiable approach to information security that encompasses not just risk, but also compliance and governance.
This is why more and more companies in industries like financial services, government and heavy industry—predominantly in Europe and Asia, and increasingly in the US—require their SaaS vendors to be ISO 27001 certified. Businesses worldwide are rapidly “getting the message” they need to mitigate third-party risk. And the easiest way to validate a SaaS vendor can meet your basic security requirements is to check whether they have an information security attestation.
In other words, if your SaaS is not ISO 27001 certified (and/or SOC 2 certified), it’s increasingly likely you won’t make a security-conscious prospect’s short list for further evaluation. You might also see increased attrition among the clients you already have.
Industry Leaders are Setting the Bar
If you’re considering going for ISO 27001 certification to help drive the success of your SaaS offering, you’re in good company. Leading SaaS providers that have achieved ISO 27001 certification for their SaaS and other aspects of their cloud business include Salesforce.com (since 2008), Oracle (which also has HIPAA, SOC 1 and SOC 2 certificates) and Microsoft.
At the current point on the adoption curve for ISO 27001, the sooner a SaaS firm can achieve ISO 27001 certification, the more sustained competitive leverage they can derive from it.
Preparing Your Company for ISO Certification
If you want to gauge how prepared your company is for the certification, you can use our ISO 27001 requirements checklist to get started. This pre-test will give you a set of guidelines to consider in preparation for your assessment.
If you’re ready to talk with our expert team on what it would take for your SaaS business to achieve ISO 27001 certification, including costs, timeframes and how best to scope the effort, contact Pivot Point Security.
