FedRAMP High at Half the Cost: How RegScale Cracked the Code in 6 Months

Summary

RegScale achieved a coveted FedRAMP® High Approved status with agency sponsorship from the Department of Homeland Security. Using our own AI-driven Continuous Controls Monitoring solution, we completed the entire process in 6 months for less than half the typical cost.

Challenge: Achieve FedRAMP High with limited resources

If you’re a company selling cloud services to the US federal government, you know that achieving a FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) High designation is more than a gold star — it’s a critical benchmark for any company that intends to sell cloud services to the government. It’s also a remarkable achievement, almost unheard of for a Series A startup operating with a limited staff and budget, that we set our sights on.

Organizations designated as FedRAMP High on the FedRAMP Marketplace have successfully demonstrated that they possess the stringent security protocols required for the most sensitive unclassified data in cloud environments, including data that involves the protection of life or the prevention of financial ruin.

Even with enterprise-level resources, preparing the package for a FedRAMP Authority to Operate (ATO) typically takes 18 to 24 months, costs approximately $2 million, and requires arduous manual documentation. We needed to forge a faster, more cost-effective path to FedRAMP High with our small but mighty security team and our AI-driven automation platform.

Solution: Streamline FedRAMP High package prep with RegScale’s own cloud-based Continuous Controls Monitoring platform

To automate and accelerate the FedRAMP process, RegScale turned to its own Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM) platform. Our solution helped us drastically streamline manual tasks like writing compliance packages and gathering evidence with a small team and limited resources.

Leveraging our AI Author feature, we were able to draft control implementation statements that were already 80-85% complete upon initial generation, requiring only review and editing rather than writing from scratch. We also used AI Author to review existing implementation statements and see documentation gaps in a single pane of glass. And we used one-click exports to generate FedRAMP artifacts and packages in Microsoft Word and Excel formats as well as NIST OSCAL.

Result: RegScale saved 50% in prep costs and achieved our FedRAMP High ATO in just 6 months

With the help of our own platform, we received our FedRAMP High ATO in just 6 months and at 50% of the average cost. Using AI Author, we were able to write a package of 410 controls in just 2 weeks, a process that typically takes 12-16 weeks. 

We also accomplished the certification with just three hardworking security experts: a feat that our ROI calculator estimates would normally take 8-10 full-time employees. Thanks to the platform’s AI, automation, and OSCAL-enabled compliance as code, we ultimately achieved the FedRAMP High ATO 3-4x faster than the typical timeframe.

These results demonstrate that with the right technology and approach, even resource-constrained companies can navigate complex compliance requirements and unlock opportunities with the world’s largest buyer, the US federal government. RegScale has proven that FedRAMP High certification is not just reserved for large enterprises — and we’re proud to be paving the way for other innovative companies to follow suit.