SOC 2 compliance is a component of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA)'s Service Organization Control reporting platform, whose goal is to ensure that systems are enabled to support the five trust service principles: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of customer data. The SOC 2 auditing procedure is specifically designed for service providers storing customer data in the cloud. That means SOC 2 applies to nearly every SaaS company, as well as any organization that uses the cloud to store its customers' information. For security-conscious businesses handling sensitive customer data, SOC 2 compliance is a minimal requirement when considering a SaaS provider.