Cloud provider security assessment: technical due diligence checklist

To evaluate a cloud provider securely, treat it as a structured technical audit: map your data and compliance needs, run a control-by-control review, demand objective evidence, and document gaps with remediation plans. This checklist is tailored to due diligence for Brazilian companies and helps a provedor de nuvem seguro avaliação go beyond marketing claims.

Essential security criteria at a glance

• Map data types, residency requirements and retention rules before talking to vendors.
• Require strong identity and access management with least privilege proven in practice.
• Verify encryption in transit and at rest plus robust key management options.
• Check segmentation, network controls and connectivity patterns against your threat model.
• Assess monitoring, logging and incident response maturity, including tested runbooks.
• Review compliance reports, audit trails and third-party attestations for your exact scope.
• Document all findings in a checklist de segurança para provedores de nuvem and revisit annually.

Data residency, classification and lifecycle controls

This section fits companies in Brazil that handle regulated or sensitive data and need requisitos de conformidade e segurança em cloud computing clearly addressed before migration.

It is not ideal to apply this heavy approach for short-lived experiments with only non-sensitive test data, where a lighter due diligence técnica em provedores de cloud may be enough.

• Identify business units that will use the cloud and their data sensitivity.
• List legal and contractual constraints: LGPD, sector regulators, customer contracts, cross-border rules.
• Define mandatory residency options: Brazil only, Latin America, or global with safeguards.
• Classify data (for example: public, internal, confidential, highly confidential) with usage examples.
• Specify retention periods and deletion triggers for each data class.
• Clarify backup, archive and legal hold requirements, including where backups may reside.

When you evaluate como escolher provedor de nuvem seguro para empresa, ensure the vendor can:

• Pin storage and processing to required regions, including at least one region appropriate for Brazilian workloads.
• Provide clear documentation of data flows, including replication and failover locations.
• Offer configurable retention and deletion policies per service or dataset.
• Support customer-managed keys or customer-supplied keys where residency is sensitive.
• Prove deletion with logs or certificates for decommissioned storage and terminated tenants.

Identity and access management: policies and proofs

Strong IAM is the core of any provedor de nuvem seguro avaliação. Before the due diligence session, prepare:

• List of internal identity sources: corporate directory, IdP, MFA solution, PAM tools.
• Role model for admins, developers, contractors, support and automated workloads.
• Policy on privileged access, break-glass accounts and emergency elevation.

Ask the provider about their IAM capabilities and demand verifiable artifacts, not only statements.

Control	What to ask	Acceptable evidence
Single sign-on and federation	Do you support SAML or OIDC integration with our IdP and conditional access policies	Technical docs, reference integration guide, demo tenant showing SSO enabled
Least privilege for admins	How are admin roles scoped and separated between platform, project and billing	Role matrix, sample IAM policies, screenshots of scoped roles in a test account
Multi factor authentication	Is MFA enforced for all privileged accounts and API access paths	Policy configuration extracts, baseline security standard, audit snapshots
Access review process	How often do you review and revoke stale or orphaned accounts	Procedure document, anonymized review reports, evidence of last completed review
Customer access segregation	How do you enforce tenant isolation and prevent cross customer access	High level architecture, penetration test summary, attestation of isolation controls

• Ensure the vendor can integrate with your IdP and support central policy enforcement.
• Verify that default roles are not broadly privileged and that custom roles are supported.
• Request process descriptions for joiners, movers and leavers in their support and operations teams.
• Check whether you get detailed audit logs for console logins, API calls and permission changes.
• Confirm options for just in time elevation and time bound access tokens.

Encryption, key management and cryptographic hygiene

This is a safe step by step way to verify encryption controls without accessing any sensitive vendor internals. Focus on practical proofs and configurations the provider can show or document clearly.

1. Map where your data will be stored and processed

   Start by listing services you plan to use and the types of data each one will process. This helps you ask targeted questions rather than generic ones.

   • Databases and data warehouses.
   • Object storage and file services.
   • Messaging, queues and streaming platforms.
   • Analytics and machine learning services.
2. Confirm encryption at rest for every planned service

   Ask if encryption at rest is enabled by default for each service and what algorithms are used. Focus on how keys are managed instead of debating minor cipher details.

   • Check if any planned service has optional rather than mandatory encryption.
   • Request configuration examples that show per resource encryption settings.
   • Ask how snapshots, backups and replicas inherit encryption settings.
3. Verify encryption in transit and supported protocols

   Ensure all external access and internal service to service communications are protected in transit. Make sure there is no downgrade to legacy protocols for convenience.

   • Confirm minimum TLS version and supported cipher suites.
   • Ask how certificate management and rotation is handled.
   • Request documentation on how they prevent plaintext access over internal networks.
4. Decide on key management model

   Choose how you will control encryption keys based on your risk appetite and compliance needs. Evaluate options side by side before committing to a pattern.

   • Provider managed keys: simpler operations but less control.
   • Customer managed keys: you control key lifecycle using the vendor key service.
   • Customer supplied keys: most control, but more complexity and responsibility.
5. Evaluate key lifecycle and separation of duties

   Ask how keys are created, rotated, stored and destroyed, and who has access to each phase. Look for clear segregation between key management and data access roles.

   • Minimum rotation intervals and automation capabilities.
   • Procedures for emergency key revocation and incident handling.
   • Evidence that provider employees cannot bypass key usage controls.
6. Check logging, monitoring and reporting around cryptography

   Ensure key usage, failed decryption attempts and policy violations are logged. Confirm that you can export those logs to your own security monitoring stack.

   • Availability of detailed key usage logs per service and per identity.
   • Support for alerting on unusual key access patterns.
   • Standard reports or dashboards for compliance audits.

Fast-track mode for encryption due diligence

• Limit scope to your top three critical data stores and confirm encryption at rest by default.
• Ensure TLS is mandatory for all external access with modern versions only.
• Pick one key management model, preferably customer managed keys, and request configuration examples.
• Verify that key usage and access attempts are logged and exportable to your SIEM.
• Document gaps and ask for clear remediation timelines before production use.

Network segmentation, perimeter controls and connectivity

Use this checklist to confirm that the provider network model supports your risk appetite and architecture standards.

• Tenant and project isolation model is clearly documented, with no shared networks across customers.
• Fine grained network segmentation is supported, including per subnet and per security group rules.
• Default security posture is deny by default, not allow all, for inbound and outbound traffic.
• Managed firewall or security group rules can be versioned, audited and automatically deployed.
• Private connectivity options exist for links to your data centers and offices without public internet exposure.
• DDoS protection and rate limiting controls are available and enabled for internet exposed services.
• Network level access logs are provided, including flow logs and firewall decision logs.
• Segregation between management plane and data plane networks is enforced and documented.
• Third party security tools, such as IDS or WAF, can be integrated without unsupported workarounds.
• Remote access used by provider staff for support is strictly controlled and fully logged.

Operational resilience, logging and incident response readiness

Typical mistakes when running due diligence técnica em provedores de cloud in this area:

• Accepting uptime marketing claims without seeing concrete architecture patterns and failure modes.
• Ignoring recovery objectives and assuming backups alone guarantee acceptable recovery times.
• Not checking how logs are protected, retained and made tamper evident for investigations.
• Failing to ask for documented incident response playbooks that include communication with customers.
• Overlooking how the provider handles insider threats and misuse of privileged access.
• Assuming multi region deployment is always available and affordable for your workloads.
• Skipping questions about dependency chains, such as sub processors and critical third party services.
• Neglecting to test escalation paths and support responsiveness during real or simulated incidents.
• Not defining who owns which part of the shared responsibility model for monitoring and response.
• Relying on a single contact person at the provider instead of documented processes and support tiers.

Compliance posture, audit trails and third‑party attestations

There are several ways to approach requisitos de conformidade e segurança em cloud computing during due diligence, and the right choice depends on your size, sector and risk profile.

• Standards driven assessment

  Anchor your checklist on established frameworks such as ISO controls or SOC criteria. This works well for larger organizations that already use standard control catalogs internally.

• Regulation focused assessment

  For highly regulated sectors in Brazil, align the review with regulator specific requirements and LGPD obligations. This is useful for financial, health or public sector entities with strict oversight.

• Risk based lightweight assessment

  For smaller companies or low risk workloads, focus on a reduced set of high impact controls. This can be a pragmatic como escolher provedor de nuvem seguro para empresa approach when time and resources are limited.

• Third party attestation heavy approach

  Rely mainly on independent audit reports and certifications, complemented by a minimal custom checklist de segurança para provedores de nuvem. Suitable when the provider has mature compliance programs and you have limited audit capacity.

Regardless of the chosen path, always request:

• Recent independent audit reports relevant to your scope, with clear coverage statements.
• Evidence that your specific region and services are included in the attestations.
• Sample audit trails showing how privileged actions and configuration changes are recorded.
• Clarification of shared responsibility boundaries for each control type.

Targeted clarifications for technical due diligence

How deep should a mid sized company go when evaluating a cloud provider

Focus on controls that directly affect your most critical data and systems. Use a structured provedor de nuvem seguro avaliação checklist that covers IAM, network, encryption, logging and compliance, and document only the evidence that you would need during an incident or external audit.

What if the provider refuses to share detailed security documentation

That is a red flag for due diligence técnica em provedores de cloud. Ask for anonymized or redacted examples and third party audit summaries instead. If those are still not available, treat the risk as high and consider alternative vendors.

How often should we repeat the security assessment of a cloud provider

Revisit your checklist de segurança para provedores de nuvem at least annually and whenever you add critical new services or regions. Also reassess when the provider undergoes major changes, such as acquisitions, outages or new legal obligations.

Do we always need customer managed keys for encryption

Not always. Customer managed keys add control but also complexity. For low risk workloads, provider managed keys may be enough if combined with strong access controls, logging and clear requisitos de conformidade e segurança em cloud computing coverage.

How can a small team run due diligence without a dedicated security department

Use a focused checklist, prioritizing IAM, encryption, network boundaries and incident response. The fast track steps in this guide give a practical como escolher provedor de nuvem seguro para empresa approach that small teams can execute safely with limited time.

What is the role of contracts and SLAs in cloud security

Contracts and SLAs turn provider promises into enforceable commitments. Ensure they reference concrete controls, reporting obligations, breach notification timelines and the shared responsibility model instead of generic high level language.

How do we align technical findings with business risk appetite

Translate each gap into potential business impact, such as regulatory penalties, customer trust loss or operational downtime. Present options and compensating controls so leadership can decide whether the residual risk is acceptable.