Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Cloud and workloadsDetermine multicloud compliance requirements for AWS and GCP
In brief
The article was retitled and restructured with new overview and compliance-planning sections. It now explicitly covers assessing AWS and GCP compliance requirements and links to enhanced security features guidance.
What Defender admins need to know
Administrators can use the updated structure and links when planning multicloud compliance requirements; no action is required.
Summaries are generated from the documentation change itself.
Documentation change
View on Microsoft LearnThe comparison below shows only the changed extract. Use the full-page view for complete context.
Determine compliance requirements
Overview
This article is part of a series to provide guidance as you design a cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) solution across multicloud resources with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. It covers how to identify and assess compliance requirements for AWS and GCP environments, including default standards, available benchmarks, and custom assessments.
GoalCompliance planning goals
Identify compliance requirements in your organization as you design your multicloud solution.
Get started with compliance requirements assessment
Defender for Cloud continually assesses your resource configuration against compliance controls and best practices in the standards and benchmarks applied in your subscriptions.
- Every subscription with the GCP connector has the GCP Default benchmark assigned.
- For AWS and GCP, the compliance monitoring freshness interval is 4 hours.
After you enable enhanced security features,enhanced security features in a Defender plan, you can add other compliance standards to the dashboard. Regulatory compliance is available when you enable at least one Defender plan on the subscription where the multicloud connector is located.
Additionally, you can create custom standards and assessments to align with your organizational requirements. For guidance, see Custom standards and assessments for AWS and Custom standards and assessments for GCP.
@@ -1,20 +1,25 @@ ----title: Planning multicloud security compliance requirements guidance AWS standards GCP standards+title: Determine multicloud compliance requirements for AWS and GCP description: Learn about determining compliance requirements in multicloud environment with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. ms.topic: how-to-ms.date: 05/31/2026+ms.date: 07/03/2026 ai-usage: ai-assisted+ms.custom: msecd-doc-authoring-1013 --- # Determine compliance requirements -This article is part of a series to provide guidance as you design a cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) solution across multicloud resources with Microsoft Defender for Cloud.+## Overview -## Goal+This article is part of a series to provide guidance as you design a cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) solution across multicloud resources with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. It covers how to identify and assess compliance requirements for AWS and GCP environments, including default standards, available benchmarks, and custom assessments.++<a name="goal"></a>+## Compliance planning goals Identify compliance requirements in your organization as you design your multicloud solution. -## Get started+<a name="get-started"></a>+## Get started with compliance requirements assessment Defender for Cloud continually assesses your resource configuration against compliance controls and best practices in the standards and benchmarks applied in your subscriptions. @@ -25,7 +30,7 @@ Defender for Cloud continually assesses your resource configuration against comp - Every subscription with the GCP connector has the GCP Default benchmark assigned. - For AWS and GCP, the compliance monitoring freshness interval is 4 hours. -After you enable enhanced security features, you can add other compliance standards to the dashboard. Regulatory compliance is available when you enable at least one Defender plan on the subscription where the multicloud connector is located.+After you enable [enhanced security features](/azure/defender-for-cloud/enhanced-security-features-overview) in a Defender plan, you can add other compliance standards to the dashboard. Regulatory compliance is available when you enable at least one Defender plan on the subscription where the multicloud connector is located. Additionally, you can create custom standards and assessments to align with your organizational requirements. For guidance, see [Custom standards and assessments for AWS](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-defender-for-cloud/custom-assessments-and-standards-in-microsoft-defender-for-cloud/ba-p/3066575) and [Custom standards and assessments for GCP](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-defender-for-cloud/custom-assessments-and-standards-in-microsoft-defender-for-cloud/ba-p/3251252).