Carleton, a provider of compliant financing calculation and document generation solutions, recently announced that it has successfully completed its 2016 SOC 2 compliance audit, conducted by Crowe Horwath.

The company highlighted SOC 2 compliance has quickly become a hot topic in today's world of technology and cloud computing, as service organizations such as Carleton must demonstrate its adherence to this mission-critical mandate for security and data management control.

In a data-dependent world that is routinely exposed to potential security threats, Carleton explained SOC 2 compliance is a strategic standard for technology companies to assure their integrity within the financial infrastructure.

The company pointed out that SOC 2 audits are intended to meet the needs of a broad range of information and assurances pertaining to controls within a service organization on security, availability, and processing integrity, including any systems used to process user’ data and the confidentiality and privacy of the information itself.

The principals upon which SOC 2 are based are modeled to address four basic areas:

— Policies
— Communications
— Procedures
— Monitoring.

Each of these principles have defined criteria (controls) which must be met to demonstrate adherence to the principles and produce a successful independent SOC 2 audit.

 “We recognize that SOC 2 certification on a yearly basis has become the standard by which strategic partners are measured,” Carleton president Pat Ruszkowski said in a news release.

“Over the last two years, Carleton made major investments in personnel, technology, and training to successfully complete its SOC 2 audit,” Ruszkowski continued. “It has been a top priority that Carleton met and/or exceeded the compliance requirements of our lending partners and customers.”

As Carleton updated its operational practices to meet SOC 2, Ruszkowski went on to mention the company recognized that implementing the newer standards was far more than a “connect-the-dots” exercise.

Since SOC 2 applies to nearly every SaaS company, as well as any company that uses the cloud to store its customers’ information, overall standards were expanded to include more current elements of data controls,” according to Carleton.

The SOC 2 audit included Carleton’s CarletonDocs, CarletonCalcs and CarletonAccess application infrastructures.

“Carleton’s successful SOC 2 audit validates its commitment to excellence by adhering to the mandated industry standards for delivery of secure products and services to its client partners,” the company said.