For this edition of Partner POV, we spoke with Ryan Lieser, VP of Partnerships at Paramify, about what FedRAMP 20x changes for cloud-native SaaS companies, why managing frameworks separately is breaking compliance teams, and how Drata and Paramify together turn a commercial compliance foundation into a head start on federal certification.
Meet Paramify: Federal-Grade GRC for the Hardest Frameworks
Paramify is a GRC platform built for federal and regulated frameworks, including FedRAMP, CMMC, FISMA, and DoD Impact Levels 2 through 6. More than 30% of FedRAMP-certified organizations run on it, making it the most widely used GRC tool in the federal market. The platform has been AI-powered since 2022, and Paramify is itself FedRAMP 20x Class C (Moderate) certified, so the tool customers use to pursue federal certification has been through the same rigorous process it helps them navigate.
Paramify's differentiation rests on a few pillars:
A capability-based model called Risk Solutions: rather than managing 724 FedRAMP control requirements one at a time, Paramify manages the security capabilities behind them and maps each one to every requirement it satisfies.
Native coverage of the most demanding frameworks: FedRAMP, FedRAMP 20x, CMMC, FISMA, and DoD Impact Levels 2 through 6, with machine-readable outputs built in.
A platform that has certified itself: Paramify holds its own FedRAMP 20x Class C (Moderate) certification, a claim no competitor can make.
AI from day one: automation and no-code AI agents have been core to the product since 2022.
Why Teams Often Underestimate FedRAMP 20x
When we asked Ryan what organizations aren't taking seriously enough, he pointed straight at FedRAMP 20x and what it does to the competitive field.
"FedRAMP 20x is the most underestimated shift in our market right now," Ryan said. "By removing the agency sponsorship requirement, it opens federal certification to thousands of SaaS companies that were locked out before—either because they couldn't find a sponsor or couldn't sustain the cost of a years-long process. We expect a significant wave of newly certified products to hit the marketplace over the next 12 to 18 months."
The new pathway also raises the technical bar. A 20x package now expects:
Machine-readable submissions rather than static documents
A live Trust Center that exposes real-time control status
Automated evidence collection and validation on a continuous basis
That combination is where teams freeze, according to Ryan.
"Most organizations have never built a live Trust Center, let alone a machine-readable submission. They don't know where to start." The challenge compounds when a team is carrying several frameworks at once. "Organizations are routinely asked to maintain SOC 2 and FedRAMP and CMMC at the same time, each with its own documentation requirements, control language, and audit cadence," he said. "Managing these separately is unsustainable for any team smaller than a dedicated compliance department."
The harder problem shows up after the certification is in hand. "Getting certified is only half the battle," Ryan said. "Staying certified—monthly POA&Ms, ingesting scan results, handling deviation requests, tracking remediation timelines—is where most teams break down."
How Paramify Is Responding: From Insight to Action
Paramify's answer to the duplication problem is the Risk Solutions model. By managing capabilities instead of individual controls, a single change propagates everywhere it applies.
"Your SSO solution appears in 59 different places in a FedRAMP SSP," Ryan said. "In Paramify, you manage it once, and every reference updates with it. Need CMMC as well? That same entry maps across hundreds more control points." The result, he said, is reporting that teams complete up to 90% faster, with output that stays audit-ready and current.
For the continuous monitoring work that trips teams up after certification, Paramify automates POA&M management, scan ingestion, deviation requests, and remediation tracking, then connects it to the engineering teams responsible for fixes through Jira and ServiceNow. That speed shows up at the start of the process too. As the most widely used GRC tool among FedRAMP and FedRAMP 20x certified organizations, Paramify has moved customers from gap assessment to package-ready in under 30 days. "One of our customers had a single person collect all the required evidence, assemble the certification package, and submit within two weeks," Ryan said.
Why Drata and Paramify Are Better Together
Each platform leads in its own domain. Drata delivers continuous monitoring and evidence collection for commercial frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA. Paramify delivers native federal certification with machine-readable outputs and a track record of completed submissions. We asked Ryan what customers get when they run both.
"Drata and Paramify together give customers the only coordinated compliance program that spans both commercial and federal requirements without duplicating work," Ryan said. A customer can maintain their SOC 2 and ISO 27001 program in Drata while pursuing FedRAMP Class C (Moderate) or CMMC Level 2 in Paramify, with the same underlying security capabilities mapped across both.
Two workflows carry most of that value. The first is evidence reuse. "Evidence collected for Drata's continuous monitoring directly supports Paramify's FedRAMP evidence requirements," Ryan said. "One collection effort, two frameworks covered." The second is cross-framework control mapping—shared controls like access management, encryption, and vulnerability management stay synchronized across both platforms when either one changes.
There's an outcome Ryan says he sees often enough that he’s no longer surprised by it: "Customers who've completed a Drata-powered SOC 2 audit are significantly more prepared for FedRAMP readiness than organizations that haven't gone through a rigorous commercial process first," he said. "The habits of continuous evidence collection, control documentation, and structured auditor response translate directly into FedRAMP readiness. Drata has, in effect, already done a meaningful portion of the foundation work that accelerates federal certification."
Customer Spotlight: From SOC 2 to FedRAMP in Weeks
Ryan shared a recent example. A mid-market SaaS company came to Paramify after finishing their SOC 2 audit through Drata. They had landed a federal agency prospect and needed FedRAMP Class C certification to close the deal, usually an 18-to-24-month journey.
For this team, it ran far shorter. Because their controls were already documented and continuously monitored in Drata, they entered the gap assessment with real clarity about their baseline. Access management, encryption standards, vulnerability management, and incident response were already in place and evidenced.
With that head start, the company moved through gap assessment quickly, with a targeted remediation roadmap instead of a multi-year rebuild. They generated a complete FedRAMP Class C (Moderate) package from work already underway and submitted to a 3PAO within weeks. "The discipline they'd built through commercial compliance directly unlocked a federal revenue opportunity that would have otherwise taken far longer to pursue," Ryan said.
Looking Ahead: Always-On, Machine-Readable Compliance
Ryan expects the move toward continuous, machine-verifiable compliance to accelerate, and sees the two platforms building toward the same end state. The near-term opportunity he's most excited about is deeper evidence integration between Drata and Paramify, working toward shared evidence repositories that satisfy commercial and federal requirements at the same time.
"FedRAMP 20x pioneered the machine-readable, continuous model for federal, and we expect commercial frameworks to follow," Ryan said. "Both Drata and Paramify are investing in the infrastructure for a future where compliance is always on, always current, and always machine-verifiable."
His advice for any company watching the federal market open up is direct. "If you're a cloud-native SaaS company with any line of sight to federal customers, start the 20x process now. Don't wait for the perfect opportunity. The certification you earn today is the competitive moat your competitors will spend the next two years trying to replicate."
With Drata keeping commercial compliance continuously ready and Paramify extending that same work into federal certification, customers can pursue enterprise and government markets from a single, coherent security program. If your team serves enterprise customers today and sees government customers on the horizon, connect with the Drata team and learn more about getting started with Paramify.
