Compliance Made Simple: How Elestio Handles ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR For You

Last month, a SaaS founder asked me what it takes to become SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliant. When I told them that hosting on a compliant provider like Elestio is a key requirement, they realized they were already halfway there.

Here's the thing about compliance: it's designed to be complicated. ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR. Each comes with its own audits, documentation, security controls, and ongoing maintenance. For most companies, compliance isn't a project. It's a full-time job.

But what if your infrastructure provider already handled the hardest part?

The Certifications You Inherit

When you deploy on Elestio, you're not starting from scratch. You're building on infrastructure that's already passed the audits. While you still need to handle your application-level compliance, your infrastructure foundation is already certified.

ISO 27001 is the international gold standard for information security. It means third-party auditors have verified our security processes, risk management, and incident response. Your applications run on that certified foundation.

SOC 2 proves we handle your data securely. Annual audits by certified public accountants verify our controls across security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. When your enterprise customers ask about your infrastructure's SOC 2 status, you can point to ours.

HIPAA requires strict technical safeguards for Protected Health Information (PHI). Elestio's infrastructure meets these requirements. HIPAA Business Associate Agreements (BAA) are available for Enterprise plan customers.

GDPR requires strict data protection for EU citizens. We offer EU-based data storage, data processing agreements, and full data portability. No vendor lock-in means you can migrate anytime, which is actually a GDPR requirement.

What's Actually Protecting Your Data

Certifications are just paperwork without real security controls. Here's what's running behind the scenes:

Dedicated VMs, not shared hosting. Every deployment gets its own virtual machine with kernel-level isolation. No noisy neighbors, no shared vulnerabilities. You get full access to underlying resources.

End-to-end encryption. Every connection between your computer, the Elestio dashboard, and your services uses TLS. Data in transit is always encrypted.

Configurable firewalls. Each service has its own firewall. Lock down access to specific IP addresses or ranges. Only authorized users get through.

Automated security patches. Vulnerabilities don't wait for business hours. We automatically apply OS and software security patches so you're protected against the latest threats without manual intervention.

Encrypted networking across regions. Need to connect services deployed in different datacenters? Our encrypted virtual networking (powered by Nebula) creates secure tunnels between your services, wherever they are.

Backups That Actually Work

Data loss is a compliance nightmare. Here's how we prevent it:

All backups use Borg with deduplication for efficient storage. They're stored on the same continent as your service but in a different datacenter, so a regional outage won't take out both your service and your backups.

The best part: you can mount backups and browse them. Need to restore a single file? Do that. No full restoration required.

Deploy Where Regulations Require

Elestio operates in 100 cities across 40 countries. This matters more than you might think.

GDPR requires EU data residency? Deploy in Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, or 10+ other European locations.

Need US data sovereignty? Choose from New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, or Silicon Valley.

Serving Asia-Pacific customers? Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Bangalore, and Mumbai are available.

You pick the location. Your data stays there.

Who Actually Needs This

Healthcare organizations can deploy patient management systems, telehealth platforms, and EHR systems on infrastructure that meets HIPAA technical requirements. Enterprise plans include BAA signing.

Financial services get audit trails, encrypted communications, and geographic data residency options that regulators require.

SaaS companies building for enterprise customers need compliant infrastructure. Instead of building it yourself, you deploy on ours.

Government and public sector get data sovereignty and security controls that meet public sector compliance frameworks.

The Compliance Checklist

Here's what you get automatically when you deploy on Elestio:

• ISO 27001 certified infrastructure
• SOC 2 compliant security controls
• HIPAA-ready infrastructure (BAA available on Enterprise plan)
• GDPR compliant with EU data options
• End-to-end TLS encryption
• Dedicated VMs with kernel-level isolation
• Configurable firewalls per service
• Automated daily backups
• Automated security patches
• 24/7 monitoring
• Third-party security audits
• No vendor lock-in

Every hour your team spends on infrastructure security is an hour not spent on your product. With Elestio, you get the compliant infrastructure foundation you need, starting at $16/month.

That SaaS founder? They deployed their application the same day we talked. One major compliance requirement checked off the list.

Thanks for reading!