GLACIS vs Vanta

What Vanta Does Well

Vanta has earned its position as a market leader in IT compliance automation. Founded in 2018, the company has raised over $200 million and serves thousands of organizations seeking to streamline their compliance programs.

Vanta’s Core Strengths

Automated evidence collection. Vanta connects to your cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure), identity providers (Okta, Google Workspace), HR systems, and dozens of other tools. It continuously monitors configurations and automatically collects evidence that your IT controls are in place.

Framework coverage. Vanta supports the major IT compliance frameworks:

• SOC 2 — Security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy controls
• ISO 27001 — Information security management system certification
• HIPAA — Healthcare data protection requirements
• PCI DSS — Payment card industry data security
• GDPR — European data protection regulation

Streamlined audits. When it’s time for your SOC 2 audit, Vanta provides auditors with organized evidence, reducing the back-and-forth and shortening audit timelines from months to weeks.

Continuous monitoring. Rather than point-in-time assessments, Vanta continuously monitors your infrastructure and alerts you when configurations drift out of compliance.

What Vanta Monitors

Vanta excels at verifying that your IT infrastructure is properly configured:

• Access controls — Who has access to what systems, MFA enforcement, password policies
• Network security — Firewall rules, encryption in transit, VPN configurations
• Endpoint protection — Device encryption, antivirus, mobile device management
• Vendor management — Third-party security assessments and contracts
• HR policies — Background checks, security awareness training, onboarding/offboarding

What GLACIS Does Differently

GLACIS was built specifically for AI compliance—a fundamentally different problem than IT infrastructure compliance. While Vanta asks "are your IT controls configured correctly?", GLACIS asks "did your AI controls execute correctly on this specific inference?"

AI-Specific Runtime Attestation

Per-inference evidence. GLACIS generates cryptographic proof for every AI inference, documenting exactly what controls executed, what inputs were processed, and what outputs were produced. This isn’t configuration monitoring—it’s runtime attestation.

Control execution verification. When a regulator asks "did your bias detection system actually run on this decision?", GLACIS provides timestamped, cryptographically signed evidence that it did. Vanta can show you have a bias detection policy; GLACIS proves the bias detection actually executed.

AI-Specific Regulatory Coverage

GLACIS maps directly to AI-specific regulations that didn’t exist when IT compliance frameworks were developed:

• EU AI Act Article 12 — Automatic logging of high-risk AI system operations
• Colorado AI Act — Bias testing, disclosure requirements, consumer rights
• NYC Local Law 144 — Automated employment decision tool audits
• NIST AI RMF — AI risk management framework controls
• ISO 42001 — AI management system certification
• SR 11-7 — Federal Reserve model risk management

What GLACIS Monitors

GLACIS tracks what happens when AI systems actually run:

• Guardrail execution — Did content filters, safety checks, and output validators actually run?
• Bias and fairness testing — What were the demographic performance metrics on this inference?
• Consent verification — Was proper consent obtained before processing this data?
• Model transparency — Which model version produced this output? What was the confidence score?
• Human oversight triggers — When was a human reviewer involved, and what was their decision?

Side-by-Side Comparison

Why IT Compliance Tools Don’t Solve AI Compliance

Organizations sometimes assume their existing IT compliance infrastructure will cover AI regulations. This misunderstanding stems from conflating two distinct compliance domains.

The Proof Gap

IT compliance frameworks were designed for static infrastructure. They answer questions like:

• Is encryption enabled on this database?
• Does this user have MFA configured?
• Is there a documented security policy?

AI regulations require answers to fundamentally different questions:

• Did the bias detection system actually flag this decision?
• What guardrails executed on this specific inference?
• Can you prove consent was verified before processing this patient’s data?

Configuration vs Execution

Consider an analogy: Vanta is like a building inspector who verifies that smoke detectors are installed in every room. GLACIS is like a system that proves each smoke detector actually activated during a specific fire.

Both are valuable. But when a regulator investigating an AI incident asks "what controls were in place when this decision was made?", configuration evidence isn’t sufficient. You need execution evidence.

Article 12 of the EU AI Act

The EU AI Act’s logging requirements (Article 12) explicitly mandate that high-risk AI systems must "technically allow for the automatic recording of events (’logs’)" that enable "the traceability of the functioning of the AI system throughout its lifecycle."

This isn’t about whether you have a logging policy. It’s about whether your AI system actually produces logs that trace its functioning. IT compliance tools can verify you have a logging policy; they can’t verify what your AI system actually logged during a specific inference.

When to Use Each Solution

Choose Vanta When:

• You need SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA certification
• Your primary concern is IT infrastructure security
• You want to automate evidence collection for traditional compliance frameworks
• Your organization doesn’t deploy AI systems in regulated contexts

Choose GLACIS When:

• You deploy AI in healthcare, financial services, or other regulated industries
• You need to comply with EU AI Act, Colorado AI Act, or NYC Local Law 144
• Regulators may ask for evidence of how your AI behaved on specific decisions
• You need to prove AI controls executed, not just that they exist
• You’re preparing for ISO 42001 AI management system certification

Using Vanta and GLACIS Together

For organizations deploying AI in regulated industries, Vanta and GLACIS are complementary, not competing. Here’s how they work together:

Layered Compliance Architecture

Practical Example: Healthcare AI

A hospital deploying an AI diagnostic assistant needs both layers:

Vanta covers:

• HIPAA compliance for the infrastructure hosting the AI
• Access controls for who can configure the AI system
• Encryption of data at rest and in transit
• Vendor security for cloud providers

GLACIS covers:

• Proof that patient consent was verified before each AI analysis
• Evidence that clinical safety guardrails executed on each diagnosis
• Attestation that human oversight was triggered for high-uncertainty predictions
• Documentation of model version and performance metrics per inference

Without Vanta, the hospital can’t demonstrate their IT infrastructure is secure. Without GLACIS, they can’t demonstrate their AI behaved appropriately on specific patient cases.

Example: Financial Services AI

A bank using AI for credit decisions needs similar layered coverage:

Vanta provides: SOC 2 compliance, access controls for the credit system, network security, vendor risk management for AI providers.

GLACIS provides: SR 11-7 model risk documentation, evidence that fair lending controls executed on each decision, attestation that human review occurred for borderline cases, proof of model performance monitoring per the Federal Reserve’s expectations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Making the Right Choice

The question isn’t "GLACIS or Vanta?"—it’s "what compliance problems do I need to solve?"

If your organization only needs to demonstrate IT security and infrastructure compliance, Vanta is the right choice. It’s a mature, well-respected platform that streamlines SOC 2, ISO 27001, and similar certifications.

If you’re deploying AI in regulated industries—healthcare, financial services, insurance, employment—you’ll likely need both. Vanta for your IT foundation, GLACIS for your AI-specific compliance needs.

The regulatory landscape is clear: IT compliance and AI compliance are different problems requiring different solutions. Organizations that recognize this distinction early will be better positioned as AI regulations take effect.