10/12/2026
Most providers treat a SOC 2 Type II report as something that stops at the commercial market.
Under FedRAMP’s Consolidated Rules for 2026 (CR26), it doesn’t have to.
FedRAMP 20x Class A Certification, the program's new entry level on ramp, requires no agency sponsor. A SOC 2 Type II completed within the past 12 months serves as one of the core qualifying prerequisites to get a foot in the door.
But that’s the opening, not the finish line. A SOC 2 report does not automatically equal being FedRAMP Certified, and it does not satisfy the program requirements indefinitely. Class A is explicitly a two year transitional on ramp designed to get you listed in the Marketplace while you prepare to complete a full Class B or C certification.
Here’s where it bites a provider: if "we have a SOC 2" gets treated as "we’ve finished the FedRAMP work," you carry forward a security gap that no recognized assessor has validated against federal standards.
The same CR26 rules reshape the rest of the program. The legacy Low, Moderate, and High labels are gone. They have been replaced by Certification Classes B, C, and D. Under the modern 20x framework, scoping is governed strictly by the Minimum Assessment Scope, and standard control narratives are replaced by machine readable evidence (OSCAL) that proves Key Security Indicators (KSIs) are met.
The window for the old way of doing things is officially shutting. Applications for legacy, document heavy Rev5 Certifications tentatively close June 2027. If you want into the federal market, the future is continuous, machine validated compliance.
Register, with a replay for anyone who can’t attend live:
The Consolidated Rules for 2026 replace the FedRAMP program cloud service providers have known for a decade — new Certification Classes, a new approach to ...
