Automated Compliance Monitoring in Multi-Cloud Environments: A Framework for Real-Time Regulatory Adherence

Abstract

Multi-cloud computing adoption has changed the enterprise IT infrastructures by introducing workload distribution among the heterogeneous cloud service providers. However, the constant adherence to regulation in these settings is a critical issue because of the heterogeneity in configurations, a decentralized control plane and dynamic regulatory architectures. The old periodical audit controls are not adequate in dynamic cloud-native ecosystems which have Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and continuous deployment. The current paper is a proposal of a detailed system of automated compliance monitoring in the context of multi-cloud systems that can be used to maintain real-time regulatory compliance. The framework combines formalization of policy-as-code, configuration validation with continuous and consistent configuration, hybrid risk evaluation with deterministic policy checks and anomaly detection using machine learning. Experimental analysis proves to exhibit better compliance visibility, less drift and scalable performance over broad network cloud structures. The architecture proposed moves proactive regulation governance on the contemporary cloud ecosystems.