New regulations in the US and the EU clearly show that cloud compliance is no longer a niche or purely technical topic—it has become a mandatory responsibility for every organization using cloud services, AI, and data. Responsibility for security and compliance does not lie with the provider, but with the organization itself, which must control configuration, access, identities, and processes. Without a clear strategy, regular audits, and automation, cloud environments quickly become unmanageable and exposed to regulatory and operational risk. CNAPP-type platforms address this complexity by combining security and compliance into a single view, simplifying audits, reducing costs, and enabling the shared responsibility model to be implemented in practice.

Gartner predicts that in 2025 as many as 99% of cloud security failures will result from customer-side errors.

A new wave of regulations in the United States

The year 2025 brought significant changes to the legal landscape governing cloud environments. Both existing regulations, such as the Cloud Act, and new requirements introduced by the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) have gained importance.

Within the US legal system, the Cloud Act authorizes federal law enforcement agencies to request access to data stored by technology companies, even if that data is physically located outside the United States. This demonstrates how far legal jurisdiction now extends and how national regulations can have a real impact on cloud-based operations.

At the same time, the European Union is finalizing preparations for the implementation of the AI Act, a regulation that will apply not only to model creators, but also to organizations integrating ready-made AI solutions into their own systems. For example, if a company uses MLaaS tools in a cloud environment, it will also be required to implement full compliance documentation.

Compliance is no longer limited to the financial, healthcare, or public sectors. It applies to every company using the cloud, AI, and data in general.

What does cloud compliance mean in practice?

Cloud compliance means ensuring that data and processes handled in cloud environments comply with applicable laws, industry standards, and internal company policies. This includes international regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, as well as newer acts such as DORA, NIS2, and the AI Act.

Compliance is not limited to personal data protection. It also includes identity and access management, data encryption, event logging, incident response, process documentation, and control over who, where, and how uses cloud infrastructure.

In practice, this primarily means implementing clear policies, using tools that automate the detection of misconfigurations, and being ready to immediately provide audit evidence.

Regulatory compliance in the cloud is the foundation

From a security perspective, compliance enforces best practices such as access control, encryption, monitoring, and vulnerability testing. From a business perspective, it structures processes, supports audits, and increases market trust. It is also a key prerequisite for cooperation with financial institutions, public bodies, and international partners.

Moving to the cloud often involves additional data protection requirements—addressing them requires specialized teams and tools. Without proper control and configuration mechanisms, cloud resources remain exposed to attacks. Where do these risks come from? Most often, they result from two types of errors: those on the provider side or on the customer side.

• Provider-side issues – e.g. platform vulnerabilities, outdated components, misconfigured services.
• Customer-side issues – lack of security policies, excessive permissions, lack of data encryption.

This is precisely why it is crucial to understand that responsibility for data security lies not only with the cloud provider, but above all with the end user—the organization using the services.

Properly implemented cloud compliance allows organizations to:

• reduce their digital footprint and attack surface,
• organize data (e.g. eliminate duplicates),
• improve data integrity, confidentiality, and availability,
• minimize financial and legal risk,
• accelerate audits and build organizational reputation.

Cloud compliance is the organization’s responsibility, not the provider’s

Despite growing awareness, many companies still operate under the assumption that compliance is the cloud provider’s responsibility. This is a misconception. The shared responsibility model clearly states that it is the end user—the organization using the provider’s services—that is responsible for data, service configuration, access management, and how cloud resources are used.

How to build an effective cloud compliance strategy?

Identify applicable regulations and risks

Determine which regulations apply to your organization. Depending on industry and location, these may include GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, DORA, the AI Act, and NIS2.
Map your data: where it is stored, who has access to it, and which data is processed automatically.

Conduct a cloud audit and gap analysis

Assessing your current cloud environment is fundamental. Review:

• IAM permissions and access policies,
• container and virtual machine configurations,
• data encryption levels,
• log visibility and alerting systems.

Implement compliance automation

Automate reporting, misconfiguration detection, and permission control. In multi-cloud environments, compliance simply does not work without automation.

Define roles and responsibilities

Introduce a responsibility management model and formalize it in SLAs. This is critical in SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS models. In the event of an incident, you must be able to clearly demonstrate who was responsible for what and how they responded.

SentinelOne as support for compliance processes

In response to the growing complexity of cloud environments, SentinelOne offers a solution known as CNAPP – Cloud Native Application Protection Platform. It is a tool that combines security and compliance capabilities within a single ecosystem.

In most organizations, cloud security is fragmented—separate tools for infrastructure scanning (CSPM), runtime protection (CWPP), identity management, and incident response. This approach creates visibility gaps, policy inconsistencies, and delayed responses. As a result, teams lack full context and control over cloud-native environments.

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP), on the other hand, provides a centralized, holistic security view—a true single pane of glass. With clear visualizations, workflow automation, and contextual alerts, it enables rapid identification of potential attack vectors, including those that remain invisible in traditional solutions.

Key CNAPP capabilities:

CNAPP improves collaboration between teams by delivering actionable remediation guidance. It provides full visibility into complex multi-cloud environments and supports informed, risk-based security decisions.

One of the core CNAPP components is so-called guardrails—built-in security mechanisms that distribute responsibility for security across the organization. This represents a significant shift: security teams no longer need to be the sole line of defense. Controls are enforced at every stage of the DevOps lifecycle, enabling developers to take responsibility for the quality and security of their own code. The result? Fewer conflicts between DevOps and security teams and more efficient execution of a DevSecOps strategy.

CNAPP can significantly reduce operational costs. Many organizations still rely on separate tools: CSPM for misconfiguration detection, runtime agents, and alert correlation systems. CNAPP consolidates these functions into a single platform—with lower licensing costs and reduced administrative overhead. It also reduces complexity and simplifies cloud security management.
You can read more about CNAPP in this SentinelOne article: https://www.sentinelone.com/cybersecurity-101/cloud-security/what-is-a-cnapp/#benefits-of-using-cnapp

CNAPP as a response to regulatory challenges and cloud complexity

Organizations operating in multi-cloud models, using containers, Kubernetes, and serverless functions gain the most from CNAPP adoption. These are precisely the environments where traditional security approaches—based on separate tools for configuration, workload protection, and access management—become insufficient. CNAPP consolidates these capabilities into a single platform, delivering a consistent view and real-time threat response.

DevOps and DevSecOps teams also benefit, as CNAPP enables security integration at the code development stage. Infrastructure as Code, container registries, and CI/CD pipelines can be scanned before applications ever reach production.

Compliance is another critical aspect. Organizations in regulated sectors—such as finance, healthcare, and public administration—gain better control over compliance with standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. CNAPP enables automated deviation detection, risk mapping, and the creation of auditable compliance trails.

Ultimately, CNAPP is a tool for organizations that need not only greater visibility into their cloud environments, but above all—the ability to make fast, context-aware decisions based on correlation and threat prioritization.

If you want to be sure your organization is ready for new cloud requirements—get in touch with us.

This article was prepared by a 4Prime expert and subsequently edited with the support of artificial intelligence tools.