The Vanta integration with Datadog automatically collects user access information and cloud infrastructure monitoring evidence. It means if you are using Datadog instead of or along with your cloud provider to monitor your cloud infrastructure, we will automatically collect all the evidence required for different compliance and security frameworks (no manual uploads required!).
With the Datadog integration:
- Admins can see who has access to Datadog on the Access page in Vanta and satisfy controls around access management. Also, Vanta will remind you to remove access when an employee leaves your company.
- Auditors can verify evidence for infrastructure monitors that you may have created in Datadog to satisfy controls around infrastructure monitoring.
How to connect Datadog to Vanta?
Step 1: To add a Datadog account to Vanta, you will need to navigate to the Connections page, scroll to the Monitoring services section and click "Connect", and select Datadog in the dropdown:
Step 2: After clicking "Connect Datadog", you will be prompted to enter the Application Key, API Key, and select a region.
- For the Application key, create an application key on the Teams Page (EU link here) in Datadog and input the key value in Vanta.
- For the API key, create an API key from the Organization Settings Page (EU link here) in Datadog and input the key value in Vanta. Note: Only Datadog Admins can create API keys.
- For Region, choose US or US3 or EU. See these instructions to determine your region.
Step 3: Click “Store token” to complete the connection flow. To make updates or modifications, admins can go to the Connections page, scroll to the Monitoring services section and select the ... and select Edit:
Once you complete the connection, Vanta will automatically enable all the Datadog related tests in your environment. You can verify this by going to the Tests page, entering Datadog in the search box, and seeing a list of all the Datadog related tests based on your Datadog monitoring setup. Note: Except for the account access tests, all the other tests are in the Monitoring Alerts category on the Tests page.
Note: Each passing or failing tests have a description or remediation steps accordingly to provide you with all the information.
Example of a passing test:
Example of a failing tests
FAQ
1. What Datadog tests are enabled upon connection?
- The Datadog integration is verifying that
- every Datadog account is associated with an active employee in your company and the access is removed when an employee leaves
- there are infrastructure monitors based on your cloud provider and integration with Datadog
- Load balancer health, latency, and errors
- Server CPU utilization
- Database read capacity, write capacity, free memory, and storage space
2. Should we use cloud providers' native monitoring solutions like AWS Cloud Watch or third-party monitoring tools like Datadog to satisfy monitoring controls?
- Both cloud providers' native solutions and Datadog, monitor infrastructure to satisfy monitoring controls. Based on your company's use cases, you can decide which solution works for you.
- Vanta integrates with both these solutions and checks for infrastructure monitoring evidence. As part of our cloud provider integration, we automatically enable monitoring tests in your instance and collect evidence to satisfy controls. We look for similar evidence by enabling Datadog related monitoring tests when you connect it to Vanta. Both these sets of tests are identical and look for similar evidence i.e. the existence of monitors. Based on which solution you use, you can deactivate one or the other set of tests in Vanta and mention a reason.
- If you use cloud providers' solutions for monitoring but still connected Datadog to Vanta, then you can deactivate Datadog monitoring tests. You can find the lists of these tests by going to the Monitoring alerts category tests on the Tests page.
- If you use Datadog for monitoring, then you need to deactivate cloud provider monitoring tests in Vanta. You can find the lists of these tests by going to the Monitoring alerts category tests on the Tests page.
3. What if we are using both cloud providers' solutions and Datadog for cloud infrastructure monitoring?
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- This should not be a problem in Vanta. We have a separate set of tests for both these solutions and you can keep both of them running in Vanta to satisfy monitoring controls.
4. Which cloud providers are supported in this Datadog integration?
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- We currently support AWS, Azure, and GCP cloud provider monitoring as part of Datadog integration.
5. What if we are using Datadog for logging and other use cases?
- We currently support cloud infrastructure monitoring as part of our Datadog integration. You will have to upload evidence for other controls into Vanta.
If you have any additional questions please feel free to email support@vanta.com so we can help!
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