๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—œ ๐——๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐—˜๐˜…๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜ ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ช๐—ฒ ๐—ฅ๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ข๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—ฉ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฎ

When Vanta was first rolled out in our org, I saw it as just more admin โ€” another tool with more tasks. But it quickly shifted my perspective from ticking boxes to tuning in. Vanta gives real-time visibility into whatโ€™s really happening across our systems and helps us move from reactive compliance to proactive preparedness. Itโ€™s less about passing audits and more about staying ready โ€” like running fire drills, not just testing smoke alarms.

Dawn Thiart

3/29/20251 min read

two women facing security camera above mounted on structure
two women facing security camera above mounted on structure

When my leader introduced ๐—ฉ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฎ into the business, my first thought was: โ€œ๐˜Ž๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ต... ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ด๐˜บ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ. ๐˜”๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ฌ๐˜ด. ๐˜”๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ.โ€

And in some ways, that was true.

It did mean more logins, more integrations to connect, and more policies to formalise. But what I didnโ€™t expect was how quickly it started shifting my mindset โ€” from ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜…๐—ฒ๐˜€ to ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐—ป. Because Vanta doesnโ€™t just hand you a checklist and walk away.

It nudges you to look closer.

It gives visibility into whatโ€™s actually happening across systems โ€” whatโ€™s secure, whatโ€™s out of date, where the gaps are.

It forces a kind of ๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ thatโ€™s easy to lose in the busyness of day-to-day IT operations.

At some point, it clicked:

> This isnโ€™t just compliance.

> Itโ€™s ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€.

It reminded me of fire drills.

Traditional compliance is like checking the batteries in the smoke alarm once a year and hoping nothing goes wrong.

What weโ€™re doing now is like running actual drills:

โœ… Testing exits

โœ… Checking the sprinklers

โœ… Making sure everyone knows their role ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ something happens.

Yes, it might be more effort. But itโ€™s also more ๐—ธ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜'๐˜€ ๐—ด๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐—ป. And ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜ ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜.

Iโ€™m still learning what the platform can really do. It's proving to be a way to keep our ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐—น๐˜€๐—ฒ of our organisations security health.

And when something does go wrong?

Weโ€™ll hopefully be ready โ€” not reacting.