For cloud service providers (CSPs) looking to work with the federal government, achieving FedRAMP authorization is a major milestone — and a major undertaking. The process is notoriously complex, time-consuming, and expensive, often requiring hundreds of hours of manual work, costly assessments, and the coordination of cross-functional teams.

But that’s changing.

With the rollout of FedRAMP 20x, the federal government is modernizing its approach to cloud security. The program is moving away from point-in-time assessments and mountains of documentation toward automation, continuous monitoring, and real-time security validation. The goal is to make compliance more accessible, efficient, and scalable for both agencies and vendors.

This shift is good news, but only if CSPs are equipped to keep up. Cloud providers that can modernize their compliance programs will gain a clear competitive edge, while those clinging to manual processes risk falling behind. FedRAMP compliance solutions have become a strategic advantage for growing CSPs: they streamline the path to authorization, reduce long-term costs, and make continuous compliance achievable..

In this article, we’ll break down why so many organizations are turning to compliance automation platforms to achieve and maintain FedRAMP authorization, explore how FedRAMP 20x will leverage automation, and show how Secureframe helps streamline compliance from start to finish.

Why FedRAMP compliance is so resource-intensive

Preparing for FedRAMP authorization is a significant investment. The traditional path requires extensive planning, technical documentation, and coordination with multiple stakeholders, often over the course of 12 to 24 months.

Without automation, here’s what that process typically looks like:

• System Security Plan (SSP) development: Writing your SSP alone can take 300 to 500 hours. The document must describe in detail how each FedRAMP control is implemented, validated, and maintained across your environment.
• Gap analysis and remediation: Organizations often spend 3 to 6 months identifying and remediating control gaps. This may involve reconfiguring infrastructure, implementing new technical controls, drafting policies, and updating documentation.
• Policy and procedure creation: Dozens of policies are required for FedRAMP authorization, including incident response plans, audit log management procedures, and access control policies. Many organizations hire consultants to write these documents from scratch.
• Third-party assessments: A full FedRAMP Moderate assessment by a 3PAO can cost between $150,000 and $300,000. Add in pre-assessment readiness support, and the total can exceed $500,000.
• Continuous monitoring and maintenance: After authorization, CSPs must submit monthly security scans, incident reports, Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) updates, and more. This often requires a dedicated team to manage.

According to industry estimates, FedRAMP authorization can cost between $250,000 and $2 million when factoring in assessments, remediation, consulting, and ongoing compliance activities. For many small and mid-sized companies, this creates a steep barrier to entry.

How automation maximizes efficiency

FedRAMP compliance automation platforms streamline every phase of the authorization journey, turning a fragmented, manual process into a centralized, repeatable workflow. Rather than juggling spreadsheets, Word documents, and email threads, teams can rely on a single source of truth for managing security controls, collecting evidence, and staying audit-ready.

Here’s how automation changes the equation:

• Reduce time-to-authorization: Automation platforms can cut the FedRAMP prep timeline by hundreds of hours by eliminating manual evidence collection, enabling real-time gap analysis, and providing pre-built templates for every required document.
• Lower costs: By reducing dependence on consultants and minimizing the internal effort required to prepare for authorization, automation platforms can slash compliance costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Simplify continuous monitoring: Instead of manually compiling reports and chasing down evidence each month, automation tools continuously monitor your cloud environment, alert you to misconfigurations, and auto-generate compliance reports.
• Streamline SSP generation: Generating the System Security Plan (SSP) is one of the most time-consuming parts of FedRAMP prep. Automation platforms like Secureframe can dynamically pull in data from your environment to build out a complete, audit-ready SSP in a fraction of the time.
• Eliminate duplicate work: Cross-mapping controls across frameworks means evidence collected for FedRAMP can be reused for NIST 800-53, CMMC, ISO 27001, and others.

Secureframe customers report a 76% reduction in time-to-compliance and an average 27% reduction in annual compliance costs, making it one of the most efficient ways to achieve and maintain FedRAMP authorization.

FedRAMP 20x and the shift toward automation

FedRAMP 20x is a major step toward modernizing federal security compliance. The new framework emphasizes real-time monitoring, automated control validation, and self-attestation. It also replaces lengthy paperwork and manual assessments with API-based evidence collection and dashboard-driven security reporting.

Here are a few of the biggest changes introduced by FedRAMP 20x:

• Automated compliance reporting: CSPs will submit real-time evidence through standardized formats like OSCAL JSON, rather than uploading lengthy documents for review.
  Self-attestation: For some controls and authorization levels, CSPs will be able to self-attest to compliance rather than undergoing a full 3PAO audit.
  Shorter authorization timelines: FedRAMP aims to reduce review timelines to under two weeks for qualified systems.
• Lower costs: The move away from manual processes is designed to make compliance more affordable and accessible.
• Public Trust Centers: FedRAMP 20x requires each authorized cloud service to maintain a public-facing Trust Center that shares up-to-date security attestations, documentation, and compliance artifacts. This supports greater transparency and enables agencies to verify compliance in real time without needing to request individual documents.

The direction is clear. If you want to succeed in the federal space, you need an automation solution.

Features to look for in a FedRAMP compliance solution

A modern FedRAMP compliance platform should do more than track tasks or store documents. It should actively reduce the manual burden of compliance, simplify ongoing monitoring, and help your team stay ahead of regulatory changes.

Key features to look for include:

• Automated evidence collection: Integrations with your cloud environment, identity providers, vulnerability scanners, and other tools allow the platform to continuously collect compliance data without requiring manual input.
• Policy and document management: Your platform should offer templates written by former FedRAMP auditors, with easy customization, version control, and approval workflows for managing the full suite of FedRAMP documentation, including the SSP, POA&M, and incident response plans.
  Continuous control monitoring: Real-time alerts for control failures or system misconfigurations help you maintain a strong security posture and reduce the risk of falling out of compliance between audits.
• Cross-framework mapping: If you are also pursuing CMMC, NIST 800-53, or other frameworks, your platform should automatically map controls to eliminate redundant work.
• Expert support: Access to compliance experts who understand FedRAMP and can help guide your team through scoping, gap assessments, remediation, and authorization is essential for success.
• Scalability and flexibility: As your compliance needs grow, your solution should grow with you. Look for tools that support multiple frameworks and offer flexible implementation options to match your organization’s structure.
• 3PAO-friendly workflows: Choose a platform that 3PAOs are familiar with and comfortable using. Solutions that streamline evidence review, minimize manual data transfer, and clearly map controls to findings can make assessments faster, smoother, and less expensive.

Why Secureframe is the ideal FedRAMP compliance solution

Secureframe was built to simplify and accelerate compliance for cloud-first organizations. As one of the few platforms purpose-built for federal frameworks, it offers deep functionality tailored to the FedRAMP process, including features aligned with FedRAMP 20x’s push toward automation and continuous monitoring.

Here’s how Secureframe stands out.

Automation that saves time and money

Secureframe integrates with your tech stack to collect and validate evidence automatically, reducing the manual work required to prepare for FedRAMP authorization. Our customers report up to a 76% reduction in time-to-compliance across multiple frameworks, with 85% unlocking cost savings by eliminating manual effort and expensive consulting fees.

Real-time monitoring and remediation

Our continuous monitoring engine keeps an eye on your infrastructure and alerts you when something falls out of compliance. Comply AI for Remediation can even generate tailored guidance to fix issues faster, helping you stay audit-ready year-round.

Policy templates and document management

Secureframe includes templates for every document you need, from the SSP to the POA&M, all vetted by former FedRAMP and FISMA assessors. The platform also supports full policy lifecycle management with version history, owner assignments, approvals, and employee acknowledgments.

Built for FedRAMP 20x and beyond

Secureframe already supports real-time compliance reporting, and we are actively building features aligned with FedRAMP 20x requirements. Our team is monitoring updates closely, ensuring that your system will stay aligned with new standards as they evolve. We also support the KSI framework for CSPs participating in the FedRAMP 20x pilot.

Federal cloud integrations

We integrate with AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, and other federal environments to ensure secure, compliant evidence collection. Our custom integration builder enables deep, flexible integrations for more accurate insights and fewer false positives.

End-to-end expert support

Our team includes former FedRAMP auditors and federal security consultants who partner with you through every step of the journey. From scoping and gap analysis to audit readiness and continuous monitoring, we offer personalized guidance grounded in real-world expertise.

We also maintain direct relationships with leading C3PAOs, including Coalfire Federal, to help streamline the assessment process and ensure faster, smoother authorizations for our customers. 

Multi-framework readiness

With support for 40+ frameworks, including NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, CMMC, and CJIS, Secureframe allows you to reuse evidence, controls, and documentation across frameworks and speed up time-to-compliance as your business grows.

FedRAMP compliance is a major opportunity, but it can also be a major barrier without the right tools in place. As the federal government shifts toward automation and continuous monitoring with FedRAMP 20x, now is the time to modernize your approach.

Secureframe empowers cloud providers to streamline compliance, strengthen security, and unlock new growth in the federal market. Whether you are starting your first authorization or preparing to scale across multiple frameworks, Secureframe is built to help you succeed. Schedule a personalized demo to see how our solution can help you automate, accelerate, and scale your federal compliance program.