Modern enterprises’ most challenging task is to ensure that their networks are compliant with applicable regulations. By 2026, enterprises can no longer rely upon periodic audits, spreadsheets, and manual processes for network compliance monitoring.
This buyer’s guide provides a comprehensive overview of network compliance automation software, including what it is, why it is important now, and what to look for in a vendor when evaluating network compliance automation software.
So, let’s see how to choose network compliance automation software, which reduces risk, supports audits, and scales with evolving enterprise technology environments here at Netpicker.
Why is network compliance becoming more difficult every year?
The increasing pressure from regulatory agencies on all industries regarding regulatory compliance has increased the requirements for compliance frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR and new regulations that are developing throughout the world.
As enterprises adopt new technologies, including cloud-based platforms and hybrid devices, and develop remote access through third-party vendors to their internal networks, the complexity of compliance has increased significantly.
Manual compliance verification processes are no longer practical in this environment, as they require excessive time to verify compliance and are prone to human error.
By the time a compliance issue is identified, it may have already progressed to the point that it is in violation of established policies as per Netpicker.
What actually is network compliance automation software?
Network compliance automation software validates, monitors, and documents the compliance of network configuration with internal policy and external regulatory compliance.
While audits and quarterly reviews may validate network compliance, continuous network compliance validation is the objective of network compliance automation software, and it performs this validation in real-time by actively monitoring the network for misconfigurations, unauthorized changes, and policy violations as they occur.
Most network compliance solutions provide an automated way to collect data from network devices, cloud service providers, and configuration management systems.
Following data collection from above, compliance-related analysis occurs along with the production of mapping against compliance requirements, resulting in continuous access to current compliance status.
What factors influence enterprises to adopt compliance automation in 2026?
In the year 2026, the driving forces behind the adoption of compliance automation include
- Firstly, due to a significant change in the expectation of auditors,
- Secondly, cost savings that can be realized from reducing the risk associated with regulatory fines, legal exposure, and reputation damage.
- Thirdly, due to the lack of available resources in the IT industry,
- Additionally, automation of compliance allows IT teams to focus on the high value work rather than daily reoccurring checks.
According to Forrester, organizations that automate compliance reporting are able to reduce their audit reporting preparation time by up to 70%.
Therefore, compliance automation is no longer a convenience; it is operationally resilient as per Netpicker.
Which are the key capabilities to consider in a network compliance automation software solution?
- Continuous configuration monitoring
- Policy-based validation for compliance
- Automated evidence collection
- Change tracking & impact analysis
- Multi-vendor & multi-cloud support
- Real-time alerts & reporting
The ability to customize reports for each audience (engineers, executives, and auditors), provides clarity for leadership on compliance status through easy-to-read dashboards.
What questions should buyers ask before evaluating vendors?
- During vendor assessments, buyers need to look at each vendor’s features but also consider the following for each vendor:
- What is the vendor’s approach and capability to manage configuration drift in dynamic environments?
- How easy is it to map policies to the specific frameworks used for regulatory requirements?
- What is the amount of manual effort required to maintain rules and integrations?
- How much manual effort is necessary to keep the vendor’s rules and integrations up to date during production operation?
- How easily does the vendor’s product expand across business divisions or geographic areas?
Buyers can also obtain helpful information about how the vendor’s product performs in the real world by obtaining references from other companies that have very similar practices to their own as per Netpicker.
What to avoid?
There are typical mistakes made by companies when using network compliance automation software, which are as follows:
- The most common mistake made by many organizations with compliance automation tools is they concentrate their efforts on reporting compliance but not on remediation activities.
- Another mistake made when selecting compliance automation software is the choice of a product that will only support a limited number of devices and/or environments. As a result, this results in “blind spots” of devices and could jeopardize the credibility of the compliance automation.
- Finally, companies tend to underestimate how usable a compliance automation tool is. If the engineers using the compliance tools find them overwhelming or inefficient, the opportunity for use will be diminished.
How to measure ROI beyond compliance?
The value of compliance automation extends far beyond the work performed for an audit. The significant reduction of downtime, faster troubleshooting, and improved confidence in change agility have measurable benefits, resulting in increased productivity for teams and allowing for a greater focus on improving network performance and security.
Executives can now be assured that the controls are functioning on a continuously and not just on paper. This extensible value can be obtained even in organizations with an established track record of being compliant.
So, what is the future of compliance automation?
Looking forward to 2026 and beyond, compliance automation will be more predictive and provide integrated capabilities for organizations.
Machine learning will provide organizations with assistance in identifying risk patterns before a violation occurs. Furthermore, compliance automation will continue to become an instrument for supporting remediation, as well as providing efficiencies in auditing and reporting.
In 2026, the question for senior IT and security leaders will no longer be whether they will automate compliance processes, but how fast and effective they can implement automation. To know more about network compliance automation software, contact us at Netpicker!