What Is SOC 2 Type II Readiness?
Prove your security controls work over time. Build client trust. Close enterprise deals. palmiq delivers the readiness assessments, technical implementation, continuous monitoring, and auditor coordination you need for a clean SOC 2 Type II report.
SOC 2 Type II at a Glance
- 5
- Trust Services Criteria — Security required, the other four scoped in as your clients demand
- 3–12 months
- The Type II observation window — palmiq monitors and collects the evidence throughout
Sound Familiar?
These are the problems organizations bring to palmiq when preparing for SOC 2 Type II.
“We Don’t Know Where to Start or What’s in Scope.”
palmiq conducts a comprehensive readiness assessment that maps your existing security controls against the AICPA Trust Services Criteria, identifies every gap, and produces a prioritized remediation plan before you engage an auditor.
“Our Policies and Documentation Are Incomplete.”
Our team writes, reviews, and organizes your security policies, risk assessments, vendor management documentation, incident response plans, and access control procedures — all aligned with the TSC your audit will cover.
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“We Can’t Prove Our Controls Work Over Time.”
palmiq deploys and configures the monitoring, logging, alerting, and evidence collection tools needed to demonstrate operational effectiveness throughout your entire 3–12 month audit observation window.
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“We Don’t Have Internal Resources for This.”
As your full-service MSP and cybersecurity provider, palmiq handles everything from readiness assessment through remediation, continuous monitoring, and auditor coordination — so you never need multiple vendors.
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What palmiq’s SOC 2 Type II Services Include
End-to-end compliance services from initial assessment through clean audit report and annual renewal.
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Readiness Assessment & Gap Analysis
- Evaluate current security posture against all applicable TSC
- Identify gaps in policies, technical controls, and documentation
- Map existing controls to SOC 2 requirements
- Determine which TSC categories to include in scope
- Deliver prioritized remediation roadmap with timelines
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Policy & Documentation Development
- Information security and acceptable use policies
- Risk assessment and risk treatment documentation
- Incident response and business continuity plans
- Vendor and third-party risk management procedures
- Change management and SDLC documentation
- Access control and identity management policies
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Technical Control Implementation
- Access controls, MFA, and identity management (Entra ID, Okta)
- SIEM and centralized logging (Sentinel, Splunk, Elastic)
- EDR/XDR endpoint protection (CrowdStrike, SentinelOne)
- Automated vulnerability scanning and patch management
- Encrypted backup and disaster recovery (Acronis, Datto)
- Network segmentation, firewall rules, and IDS
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Continuous Monitoring & Evidence Collection
- Automated evidence collection across all in-scope systems
- Continuous control monitoring with real-time alerting
- Quarterly access reviews and user entitlement audits
- Monthly vulnerability scanning with CVSS prioritization
- Audit-ready dashboards and compliance reporting
- Direct auditor coordination and evidence submission
The Five Trust Services Criteria
Every SOC 2 audit covers Security; the other four are scoped in based on what your clients demand:
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Security
The required baseline for every SOC 2 report — protection against unauthorized access, disclosure, and damage, covering access controls, firewalls, MFA, and intrusion detection.
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Availability
Whether systems are operational and usable as committed — uptime monitoring, capacity planning, backup, and disaster recovery. Include it when clients depend on your service being up.
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Processing Integrity
Whether processing is complete, accurate, timely, and authorized. Relevant when your platform transforms or calculates client data — billing, transactions, analytics pipelines.
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Confidentiality
Whether information designated confidential — contracts, intellectual property, business data — is protected through encryption, access restriction, and secure disposal.
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Privacy
How personal information is collected, used, retained, disclosed, and disposed of, measured against your privacy notice and the AICPA's privacy criteria.
SOC 2 Type I vs. Type II: Which Do You Need?
palmiq recommends going directly to Type II whenever possible. Most enterprise buyers now require it.
| Aspect | SOC 2 Type I | SOC 2 Type II (recommended) |
|---|---|---|
| What it proves | Controls are properly designed at a point in time | Controls operated effectively over the observation period |
| Timeline | 1–3 months | 3–12 month observation window |
| Buyer acceptance | Increasingly rejected by enterprise buyers | Required by most enterprise buyers |
| Assurance | Design only | Design and operating effectiveness |
| Best for | Unblocking an urgent deal while Type II is underway | Winning and keeping enterprise clients |
| palmiq's role | Readiness and audit coordination | Manages the entire observation period |
From Readiness Assessment to Clean Audit Report
A proven six-step process built from years of guiding organizations through SOC 2 compliance.
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Scoping & Readiness Assessment
We evaluate your security posture, determine which Trust Services Criteria to include, map existing controls, and identify every gap that needs to be closed before engaging an auditor.
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Policy & Documentation Development
palmiq creates or updates all required security policies, risk assessments, incident response plans, vendor management documentation, and operational procedures aligned with the AICPA TSC.
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Technical Control Implementation
Our engineers deploy and configure access controls, monitoring tools, encryption, backup systems, and network security infrastructure required to meet your selected TSC categories.
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Observation Period Monitoring
During the 3–12 month Type II observation window, palmiq provides continuous monitoring, automated evidence collection, quarterly access reviews, and real-time alerting to ensure every control operates effectively.
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Auditor Coordination & Evidence Submission
palmiq works directly with your CPA firm to coordinate the audit, organize evidence packages, respond to auditor inquiries, and resolve any findings before the final report is issued.
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Ongoing Compliance & Annual Renewal
SOC 2 is not a one-time event. palmiq provides continuous monitoring, annual control reviews, policy updates, and recurring audit preparation so you maintain attestation year after year.
Built for Compliance. Backed by Engineering.
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Assess + Implement + Monitor
One team runs the readiness assessment, builds the missing controls, and operates them through the observation period — no hand-offs between consultants and engineers.
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Azure AD, Sentinel, Defender
Deep Microsoft-stack expertise as a Gold Partner, so identity, SIEM, and endpoint evidence comes from tools configured properly rather than bolted on for the audit.
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Enterprise Backup & DR
Acronis Platinum-backed backup and tested recovery, covering the Availability criterion with evidence auditors accept.
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SOC 2+ Ready
Controls mapped once and reused across ISO 27001, CMMC, and HIPAA engagements, so each additional framework costs less than the first.
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Ashburn, Virginia
A U.S.-based team in the D.C. metro area, with a 24/7 Security Operations Centre behind it.
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English & Spanish
Genuinely bilingual delivery and support, not translation after the fact.
SOC 2+: Combine SOC 2 with Additional Frameworks
Reduce duplication of effort and lower total compliance costs by mapping controls to multiple standards within a single audit engagement:
ISO 27001
The international ISMS standard — much of a SOC 2 control set maps directly onto Annex A.
CMMC Level 2
For defense contractors: the same access, audit, and incident controls serve NIST 800-171.
NIST 800-171 Gap Assessment
Where CUI obligations overlap your SOC 2 scope, one assessment feeds both.