Hey everyone! I'm trying to get a better understanding of where sysadmins and ops teams are spending most of their time when it comes to audits and compliance. Even with ITSM and monitoring tools, it often feels like the process is still quite manual and reactive. I'm curious about what takes the most time for you all during these audits. Is it figuring out what's in scope for regulations, collecting evidence like screenshots and logs, explaining past tickets, making duplicate updates across different tools, having meetings with auditors, or do audits not really impact you? Any insights on how ITSM or monitoring tools could improve this process would be super helpful!
3 Answers
Oh man, don’t even get me started on PCI/DSS! The amount of time we waste on self-assessments is ridiculous. It's not just about collecting evidence, but also figuring out exactly what assessors want, which can vary from one consulting firm to another. It feels like a black hole of time.
I think you're definitely onto something with the manual nature of audits. For me, the biggest hassle is explaining to clients why they need to invest in the right tools. It’s frustrating when they spend loads on salaries but balk at reasonable licensing fees. It often feels like we're battling the client's reluctance to invest in compliance.
Totally get that! My experience is that it often comes down to explaining the value proposition. Getting them to see that compliance isn’t just an expense but also protection can be a tough sell.
For me, it's less about gathering raw evidence and more about the context around it. Understanding what's in scope and explaining that weeks later takes up so much time. Using tools to clarify scoping ahead of time has really helped reduce the back-and-forth mess.
Exactly! I've seen similar issues. Knowing what assessors expect and how they prefer the information presented is key, but it often means creating extra documentation to cater to each firm's unique demands.