SOC 2 is an auditing standard from the AICPA that reports on how a service organization manages customer data against five Trust Services Criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. A licensed CPA firm performs the audit and issues an attestation report. Software and SaaS vendors use SOC 2 reports to prove their security controls to enterprise customers.
In practice, SOC 2 is the report enterprise buyers ask for before they sign. Their procurement and security teams read the report instead of running their own audit of your environment, so a clean SOC 2 shortens sales cycles.
The security criterion (the Common Criteria) is mandatory; the other four are optional and scoped to what your product actually does. Most startups start with a Type I covering security only, then add a Type II observation period and additional criteria as customers demand them.
traztech delivers SOC 2 readiness and audit coordination for startups and growth-stage companies, led by a published CVE researcher.
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