The vendor-driven market treats compliance deadlines like feeding frenzies. Every security vendor suddenly has the 'compliance package' that happens to include everything on their price sheet. Platform vendors pitch all-in-one solutions that technically check the boxes but cost three times what targeted controls would. Consultants scope six-month engagements for problems that take six weeks.
Here's what that looks like in practice: a company receives a SOC 2 requirement from a customer. They call three vendors. All three scope a comprehensive security program — identity management, endpoint protection, logging infrastructure, the works. What the customer actually required was a specific set of controls that could be documented and implemented in six weeks for a fraction of the cost. The vendors weren't wrong that those additional controls were useful. They just knew the buyer wouldn't push back under deadline pressure.
You're under that same pressure right now. The vendor knows it. The pricing reflects it.
The controls you actually need are almost always simpler and cheaper than what vendors sell during a compliance fire drill.

