A former CISO wrote recently that the first compliance platform to publish real customer outcome data will own a position nobody else in the category can touch. We agree. So here is ours.
These numbers come from our advisory team. They are not marketing projections or best-case scenarios. They reflect what our customers actually experience when they build a compliance program with Carbide.
How long it takes to get audit-ready?
The realistic timeline from starting a compliance program to completing an audit is eight to ten months.
That range depends heavily on what a company has in place when they start. A team that already has documented security policies, active access controls, and a history of vendor reviews will move faster than one building those programs from scratch. The compliance work reflects the security work. If the security foundation is solid, the audit preparation compresses. If it is not, the timeline reflects what it actually takes to build something defensible.
The platforms that promise “SOC 2 certification in weeks” regardless of your current security state are either working with companies that are already largely prepared, or they are moving customers through documentation workflows without verifying that the underlying programs are real. Eight to ten months of program-building is worth more than a certificate that arrives in thirty days but does not reflect how your company operates.
SOC 2 audit results
SOC 2 is an attestation report, not a pass/fail certification. An auditor reviews your controls over an observation period and issues an opinion on whether those controls operated effectively. The meaningful question is whether customers who completed audits received clean reports.
Every Carbide customer who completed a SOC 2 audit received an agreeable report.
That outcome reflects what happens when advisor review is built into the process. Controls are verified before the auditor sees them. Gaps are closed during preparation and the evidence submitted reflects activity that actually happened.
ISO 27001 certification results
ISO 27001 is a certification standard with a formal audit process and specific nonconformity findings when controls fall short. Two Carbide customers, Virtual Hallway and WonderMD, achieved ISO 27001 certification with no major nonconformities in both year one and year two audits.
Passing year one matters. Passing year two with the same result confirms that the program built in year one was real and continues to operate as designed. Surveillance audits are where programs built on documentation rather than practice tend to show gaps. Neither customer had that problem.
How much advisory time do customers receive?
Carbide advisors work with customers on a schedule that adjusts to where they are in the compliance cycle. Early in a program, that typically means meetings every two to three weeks with larger deliverables expected between sessions. As an audit approaches, the cadence moves to weekly.
Across the full engagement, customers receive between 60 and 110 hours of credentialed advisor time depending on the complexity of their program and the frameworks they are pursuing. That range is wide because the need varies. A company adding a second framework on top of an established SOC 2 program requires less foundational work than one building its first compliance program from scratch.
Those hours go toward confirming that documentation reflects real activity, closing gaps before the auditor finds them, and preparing customers to answer auditor questions about their own programs accurately.
Why this matters
Customers and partners rely on compliance certifications when making real decisions about your business. They expect a program that operates as described and stands up to scrutiny. When it doesn’t, those gaps tend to surface at the worst possible time: during a customer security review, a breach investigation, or a year-two surveillance audit.
Publishing this is how we hold ourselves to the same standard we ask our customers to meet. If you want to talk about what these outcomes would look like for your business, talk to a Carbide advisor.
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