Third-Party Risk Management: Reduce 90% of Vendor Cloud Audit Costs with CloudVRM®

A recent analysis shows 82% of breaches occur in third-party ecosystems, yet 74% of organizations still use manual audits and spreadsheets to measure vendor risk. Security questionnaires or static audits can take months; clicking through them is like piloting through a hurricane using a paper map. Responsible Third-Party Risk Management can make all the difference, as one misconfigured AWS S3 bucket or Azure SQL database can potentially leak millions of records filled with PII, invoke regulatory fines, and even damage customer confidence. Meanwhile, frameworks like the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) demand continuous oversight, not point-in-time compliance.

CloudVRM® by Findings plays a significant role in addressing these challenging problems. It is a real-time vendor cloud audit platform adopted by global banks, Ministries of Defence (MODs), and critical infrastructure providers. Furthermore, by automating daily telemetry pulls from AWS, Azure, and GCP, CloudVRM® cuts audit costs by 90%, accelerates vendor approvals by 85%, and, ultimately, turns months of manual work into 24/7, encrypted compliance workflows.

This guide unpacks how CloudVRM® is reevaluating third-party risk management for the cloud era and why automation is no longer optional.

Why Traditional Third-Party Risk Management Fails in the Cloud Era

Manual third-party risk management or TPRM processes are a liability in three critical ways:

1. Time Delays That Kill Agility

Vendor onboarding often takes 6–12 months due to back-and-forth emails, incomplete questionnaires, and delayed audits.

2. Blind Spots in Dynamic Cloud Environments

Traditional audits usually capture risks at a single moment. Yet 63% of cloud misconfigurations (e.g., accidental public storage buckets and unpatched CVEs) emerge post-assessment. Additionally, spreadsheets can’t track real-time changes, exposing enterprises to supply chain attacks like SolarWinds.

3. Compliance Gaps in a Shifting Regulatory Landscape

Effective January 2025, DORA requires financial institutions to monitor third-party ICT risks continuously. Static reports fail this mandate. Manual processes also struggle to align with ISO 27001:2022 updates and SOC 2’s new “Continuous Monitoring” criteria.

How CloudVRM® Real-Time Risk Monitoring Works for the Cloud

To begin with, CloudVRM® integrates directly with vendors’ cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) via encrypted APIs, automatically pulling configuration data every 24 hours. Subsequently, here’s the technical breakdown of its third-party risk management:

1. Direct Cloud Integration

• Securely connects to vendors’ cloud accounts with read-only access, ensuring no operational disruption.
• Supports multi-cloud and hybrid environments (e.g., AWS EC2 + Azure Active Directory).

2. Daily Telemetry Updates

• Automatically scans for 150+ risk indicators, including:
  • Misconfigurations: Publicly exposed storage, weak IAM policies, and unencrypted databases.
  • Compliance Drift: Deviations from DORA, ISO 27001, or SOC 2 controls.
  • Vulnerabilities: Unpatched CVEs (e.g., Log4j, Zero-Day exploits).

3. Compliance Automation

• Maps findings to 15+ frameworks (DORA, NIST, HIPAA) and generates audit-ready reports.
• Example: Instantly prove compliance with DORA Article 28 (“Third-Party Risk”) using pre-built templates.

4. Encrypted Collaboration Hub

• Replace email threads with a secure portal where vendors and customers can:
  • Resolve issues via encrypted messaging.
  • Share evidence without exposing sensitive data.
  • Track remediation SLAs in real time.

Case Study of CloudVRM® as Third-Party Risk Management

CloudVRM® automates data collection, analysis, and reporting, turning months of audits into minutes. Here is one of the several case studies.

A Tier-1 EU bank reduced vendor approval time by 85% using CloudVRM®. By automating AWS and Azure configuration checks, the bank eliminated 400+ hours of manual review per vendor and resolved 92% of risks before contracts were signed.

How CloudVRM® Aligns with the EU’s DORA Compliance

The latest DORA compliance is a game-changer for financial institutions, and its strict third-party risk mandates are a wake-up call for them. Their key requirements include:

• Continuous Monitoring: Real-time oversight of ICT third-party risks (Article 28).
• Evidence for Regulators: Proof of operational resilience during audits.

CloudVRM®’s DORA-Specific Features:

• Automated Control Mapping: Every misconfiguration or vulnerability is tagged to DORA’s 53 resilience requirements.
• Real-Time Evidence Logs: Export timestamped reports showing compliance over 30/60/90-day periods.
• Collaboration with Legal Teams: Pre-built templates for contract clauses mandating vendor participation in CloudVRM®.

Why Tier-1 Banks and MODs Are Adopting CloudVRM®

Importantly, CloudVRM® achieves a 90% cost reduction and an 85% faster vendor approval process. Consequently, it delivers quantifiable results across three key axes:

1. Cost Savings
   • Manual Audit Costs: $500K/year (5 FTEs + consultant fees).
   • CloudVRM® Cost: $50K/year (unlimited vendors, automated workflows).
   • ROI: 10x cost reduction + 400 hours/year reclaimed.
2. Speed
   • Vendor approvals accelerated from 6 months to 14 days (85% faster).
   • Example: A healthcare provider onboarded 120 HIPAA-compliant vendors in 4 months (vs. 18 months previously).
3. Risk Reduction
   • 24/7 monitoring cuts breach risks by 63% (based on 12 months of early adopter data).
   • Proactive alerts resolved 89% of misconfigurations before exploitation.

Customer Spotlight: Ministry of Defense
An EU MOD reduced vendor audit workloads by 90%, reallocating 15 FTEs to strategic initiatives like zero-trust migration.

Manual vs. CloudVRM® Third-Party Risk Management ROI

Metric	Manual TPRM	CloudVRM® TPRM	Improvement
Annual Audit Costs	$500,000 (5 FTEs + consultants)	$50,000 (flat fee)	↓ 90%
Vendor Approval Time	180 days	27 days	↓ 85%
Manual Review Hours per Vendor	400+ hours	~0 hours automated	↓ 100%
FTEs Reallocated	0	4	+4 strategic hires

Why is Third-Party Risk Management Automation Non-Negotiable in the Future?

Three Trends Driving Demand for CloudVRM®

1. Cyber Threats: In just 2023, the supply chain attacks increased by 78% (Gartner). Vendors are the weakest link.
2. Regulatory Pressure: DORA, SEC’s Cybersecurity Rules, and GDPR fines up to 4% of global revenue.
3. Cloud Complexity: Enterprises now manage 3.4 cloud platforms on average (Flexera), making manual oversight impossible.

Organisations clinging to spreadsheets will face breaches, fines, and customer attrition. CloudVRM® turns risk into resilience by starting Day 1.

Transform Third-Party Risk Management in 2025 and Ahead

The era of static vendor risk assessments is over. Moreover, as cloud environments grow more dynamic and regulations like DORA demand continuous oversight, manual audits and spreadsheets have become liabilities rather than solutions. Consequently, CloudVRM® changes the game in third-party risk management, offering around-the-clock visibility into AWS, Azure, GCP, and more, thereby removing the blind spots that the old way could never see.

Automated compliance with standards like DORA, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and HIPAA transforms months of audit work into real-time, encrypted workflows. By integrating contract analytics software, organizations can automatically extract, review, and monitor compliance clauses, adding another layer of intelligence to their risk management. As a result, enterprises slash audit costs by 90%, accelerate vendor approvals by 85%, and reclaim hundreds of hours previously lost to manual processes. Ultimately, for regulated industries such as finance, defense, and healthcare, this isn’t just about efficiency but a matter of survival.

FAQs