Vendor risk assessment used to be based on security questionnaires, which is no longer the case. The supply chains of the modern world are based on cloud infrastructure, continuous integrations, and distributed teams that cannot be compared to older methods of assessment in speed. In the efforts of organizations to accelerate onboarding, heighten security demands, and provide real time visibility, cloud telemetry has become the technology that will determine vendor assurance in 2025.

Cloud telemetry is the automated gathering of real time security information of the cloud environment of a vendor. Vendors provide controlled and permission based access to real-life signals in their infrastructure, instead of responding to long questionnaires or sending outdated PDFs. It consists of configuration states, policy compliance, identity and access logs, encryption settings, network behavior, and other objective indicators of the level of security of an environment at any point in time.

It is simple to make the request. Paper-based surveys are cumbersome, subjective and become outdated very fast. They rely on self reported data which captures a point in time. The majority of them are done manually adding additional labor to the vendor and the organization that acquires it. Follow up questions, evidence requests and attempts to decode nontechnical responses into risk conclusions are commonplace in teams that do it and spend weeks in the process.

Cloud telemetry transforms the model completely. A vendor is able to demonstrate a security posture instead of describing it. The risk team can access updated data that is accurate and automatically updated. Vendors help to decrease the number of repetitive requests. The two parties can be sure of the evaluation process since the evidence is not based on interpretation but on facts.

The time was never more appropriate. The number of breaches of the supply chain is increasing, and regulators are becoming more attentive to the issues of third party security. Models such as DORA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and the emerging US approach to cybersecurity focus all on continuous monitoring and evidence based compliance. Meanwhile, companies are moving to cloud native computing, which generates telemetry by default. The change in manual reporting, which is replaced with an automated insight, is not a trend but a natural development.

This is due to a number of reasons why cloud telemetry will surpass questionnaires in 2025. The first is speed. Risk teams are able to check the posture of a vendor within minutes as opposed to weeks. Onboarding is faster and enhances the responsiveness of operations and lowers the friction of sales and procurement teams.

The second is accuracy. Immediate information helps highlight misconfigurations and policy drift and new problems that can never be detected in questionnaires. A vendor may claim to have MFA in place, but the telemetry will reveal whether it is on or off with all users at any given time. It is possible that a questionnaire ensures encryption policies, but the telemetry can indicate the presence of any unencrypted storage buckets. Such insights assist organizations to be more confident in making decisions with regard to whom to trust.

The third is scalability. Enterprises with large volumes of business usually deal with thousands of suppliers. It is almost impossible to handle manual questionnaires on this scale. Cloud telemetry enables automatic scoring, continuous alerts, and a regular assessment system that remains in touch with security best practices.

The fourth is transparency. Telemetry benefits vendors since it lessens redundant inquiries by consumers and portrays them as proactive and contemporary. They do not have to complete dozens of questionnaires with similar requests since they can distribute validated evidence once and use it in their customer base. This makes the process more predictable and effective to both parties.

Telemetry based assessment does not imply that questionnaires will be completely eliminated. They can still still have a use in early stage companies or in verifying non-technical signal policies. Nonetheless, the major burden of the vendor security assurance will change to automated data.

Companies that cope with this model in 2025 will mitigate risk, speed up procurement and establish stronger relationships with vendors with strong security concerns. The ones that remain using manual questionnaires might end up struggling with slower work processes and less credible visibility.

Cloud telemetry is not simply an upgrade of the technology. It is the next needed step of making the digital ecosystem safer and more efficient. Real time evidence will emerge to be the standard of trust as threats evolve to be more complex and supply chains increase in length.