Automated CIS Compliance Platform for Multi-Vendor Network

Problem

The client's network spanned Cisco, Palo Alto, and Check Point devices across 50+ sites. Compliance assessments were performed manually using spreadsheets, taking the team 6-8 weeks per quarterly audit cycle. Results were often stale by the time reports were delivered, and there was no mechanism to detect configuration drift between audit periods. The CISO needed a way to demonstrate continuous compliance rather than point-in-time snapshots.

Approach

We built a modular Python platform that connects to network devices via API and SSH, extracts running configurations, normalizes them into a vendor-agnostic data model, and evaluates them against CIS benchmark controls mapped per platform. The platform generates HTML and PDF reports showing pass/fail/exception status per control, per device, and per site. We added a drift detection module that compares current configs against approved baselines and alerts on deviations. The entire platform runs as a scheduled job with results pushed to a dashboard and archived for audit evidence.

Results

• Audit cycle reduced from 6-8 weeks to on-demand (under 4 hours for full estate)
• 2,000+ devices assessed against CIS benchmarks automatically
• Configuration drift detection running daily with automated alerting
• Audit evidence generated programmatically, eliminating manual screenshot capture
• Platform maintained by client's internal team after knowledge transfer