SaaS compliance and security
When you switch from a traditional transactional business model to SaaS, you have more responsibility for protecting your customers' data. You have to make sure that your solution is up-to-date with security standards and required compliance regulations.
Compliance
Here are several regulations you need to be aware of, depending on the regions where your customers reside and where you provide services.
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for companies whose customers reside in the EU
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
- Brazil's Lei Geral de Proteçao de Dados (LGPD)
- Canadian Digital Charter Implementation Act
- Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) in China
There are many other regulations, depending on the region.
Security
Besides making sure to comply with regulations, it's important to implement required security controls and procedures. SaaS companies, like other software companies, should follow methodologies like the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) to make sure that security is part of the ongoing product development process.
The SDL consists of a set of practices that support security assurance and compliance requirements. The SDL helps developers build more secure software by reducing the number and severity of software vulnerabilities, while reducing development cost. For more information about the practices Microsoft defines as part of the SDL, see Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle Practices.
When you use Microsoft Azure as a cloud provider for your solution, you can benefit from the work Microsoft already does to protect your and your customers' data and comply with the latest regulations. You can find more information about data protection, privacy, and the GDPR in the Microsoft Trust Center.
Azure offers many out-of-the-box services for protection of workloads. For more information about Azure security capabilities, see Strengthen your security posture with Azure.
Contoso scenario
Contoso must comply with the UK GDPR regulation, because they decided to focus on the UK market. When they grow and start providing services in other regions, Contoso must make sure to comply with all required regional regulations.