What can Drata automate for SOC 2 and what does it miss?
What Drata Automates
Drata connects to your cloud providers and SaaS tools to continuously monitor security configurations. Here's what it handles well:
| Automated by Drata | Examples |
|---|---|
| Cloud config monitoring | AWS security groups, S3 bucket policies, encryption settings |
| Identity provider checks | Okta/Google Workspace MFA status, inactive accounts |
| Endpoint monitoring | MDM enrollment, OS patch status |
| Employee tracking | Security training completion, background checks |
| Vendor management | Tracking vendor SOC 2 reports and review dates |
What Drata Misses
Drata's automation stops at the infrastructure layer. It has no visibility into your application code, your deployment workflows, or how your product actually enforces security controls.
Application-level evidence: Drata can confirm AWS has encryption enabled, but it can't show that your application enforces role-based access control or that your feature flag changes go through approval.
Policy writing: Drata provides policy templates, but they're generic. Your auditor wants policies that describe your systems — your CI/CD pipeline, your authentication provider, your data retention rules. Someone still has to customize those templates.
Compliance expertise: Drata assumes you know which controls apply to your organization, how to map evidence to Trust Services Criteria, and what "operating effectively" means for each control. Most startups don't.
The Gap That Matters
The evidence gap between what Drata captures (infrastructure configs via APIs) and what auditors need (proof that your application works as your policies describe) is where most startups get stuck. That gap usually gets filled by a $10K–$15K consultant and hours of manual screenshot collection.
Screenata fills that gap with AI — reading your codebase to write accurate policies and automating the application-level evidence that Drata can't reach.