A 15-person engineering software company in the APAC region had built its enterprise compliance program on a platform that stopped delivering. Delayed documentation reviews, unresponsive engineering support, and no path to support a complex white-label compliance model pushed the decision to terminate to the executive level. With an ISO 27001 certification that could not lapse and a SOC 2 audit on the horizon, the company needed a replacement platform operational before their existing contract expired. They found one they already trusted.
[ The Problem ]
A Compliance Platform That Couldn't Keep Up With the Business
The company's white-label model, delivering sign language translation services to enterprise customers who rebrand and deploy the platform downstream, created a compliance requirement no standard tool could satisfy. Each enterprise customer could require a distinct ISO posture or custom framework, and the incumbent offered no pathway to support it.
At the same time, vendor execution had deteriorated to the point of operational disruption. A three-day delay in documentation review from the incumbent's engineering team, significant for a lean 15-person operation, escalated from a consultant-level frustration to an executive termination decision. With the contract expiring and no certification continuity plan in place, the cost of inaction was losing the enterprise relationships the business was built on.
[ What they needed ]
Before selecting Drata, the team needed to:
- Replace an incumbent compliance platform before ISO 27001 certification coverage lapsed
- Validate framework support for both ISO 27001 and SOC 2 within a single environment
- Confirm integrations with a cloud-native stack spanning AWS, Azure, Microsoft 365, Jira, and GitHub
- Evaluate custom framework creation capabilities to support a multi-tenant, white-label compliance model
- Structure a contract that eliminated the financial risk of paying two platforms simultaneously
- Establish a migration path with enough overlap to transfer historical compliance evidence without gaps
[ Why Drata won ]
Selected over Thoropass, Drata won because a trusted consultant had already validated the platform across his portfolio and commercial flexibility eliminated the only remaining blocker.
Pre-established consultant trust: the vCISO managing the compliance program had direct experience with Drata across multiple client accounts. That existing conviction meant competitive evaluation was effectively concluded before formal sales engagement began, with Vanta and Laika eliminated through internal advocacy rather than a formal bake-off.
Custom framework capability for a white-label model: Thoropass had no answer for a compliance architecture that needed to flex across multiple downstream enterprise customers with distinct requirements. Drata's custom framework feature mapped directly to this need and was the strategic differentiator that made the platform choice defensible at the executive level.
Commercial flexibility that removed the cash flow blocker: a delayed contract start date aligned to the incumbent's expiration date resolved the only friction point in the deal. Without that structural accommodation, the spending freeze would have continued to block closure indefinitely.
Channel partner access to the right buyer: the managed service partner's referral introduced Drata into a consultant-led buying process where trust and prior experience carried more weight than any sales motion. That warm introduction was the entry point that made everything else possible.
[ How Drata solved it ]
A seven-day sandbox POC gave the team direct access to validate what mattered most. Drata's GRC platform confirmed ISO 27001 and SOC 2 framework support, control mapping, and policy management within the existing cloud-native stack, with integrations to AWS, Azure, Microsoft 365, Jira, and GitHub all tested and confirmed. The CTO declared satisfaction after reviewing the POC results, with no further technical evaluation required.
Drata's custom framework capability addressed the company's most strategic requirement directly: the ability to maintain distinct compliance postures for each downstream enterprise customer, including custom standards and varying ISO configurations, within a single platform environment. This was the capability the incumbent could not offer and the one most critical to protecting the AWS white-label partnership long term.
Drata's TPRM added vendor risk coverage to the compliance foundation, extending the program beyond certification readiness into ongoing third-party oversight. On the commercial side, a delayed contract start date aligned to the incumbent's expiration eliminated the double-payment concern entirely, removing the last remaining blocker and allowing the deal to close within six days of reactivation.
[ Before and after Drata ]
Before Drata, the company was locked into a platform that had stopped performing, with no path to support the custom compliance requirements its white-label business model demanded and a certification expiration date creating a hard deadline.
After, ISO 27001 coverage transferred without a lapse, a SOC 2 audit path is defined, and the platform can now support distinct compliance postures for each downstream enterprise customer.
[ Business outcome ]
The company entered its Drata onboarding with ISO 27001 certification continuity intact, no gap in compliance coverage, and a structured migration path from the incumbent platform. The SOC 2 audit, deferred to the second half of 2026, now has a defined platform foundation to build on.
More significantly, the custom framework capability positions the company to scale its white-label compliance model without rebuilding its compliance program for each new enterprise customer. The AWS partnership and future enterprise expansion conversations no longer depend on a platform that cannot support them. A compliance infrastructure that was a liability is now a commercial enabler.