Most MSPs decide between four options for cloud compliance: keep doing it by hand, stand up CIPP, lean on Microsoft Lighthouse, or run Beacon. The first three are built around the Microsoft estate; Beacon scans Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud from one platform. Each has a real place. Here is a fair read on where each one fits.
Engineers pull posture from each tenant by hand and track it in spreadsheets or a shared doc.
Free tooling, high labour
You manage one or two tenants and reviews are rare.
A capable open-source MSP toolkit you host and operate yourself across client tenants.
Free software, you run it
You have the engineering time to deploy and maintain it.
Microsoft's own multi-tenant view, included with eligible partner subscriptions.
Free with partner status
You want a baseline Microsoft 365 overview and little else.
A managed service that scans every tenant continuously and hands you report-ready findings.
From $59/mo, nothing to host
You want continuous coverage without running the tooling.
Same questions, four honest answers. We score Beacon highly because it is built for this, not to put the others down.
Whatever the engineer logs into; covering Azure, AWS, and GCP by hand means three separate review processes.
Built for the Microsoft estate (Microsoft 365 and Azure); AWS and GCP are out of scope.
A Microsoft partner view of Microsoft 365 and Azure only.
Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud scanned from one platform, with shared scoring, benchmarks, and findings across all three.
No setup, but every audit is hands-on work, every month.
You deploy, secure, update, and operate the host yourself.
Enabled through the partner portal with minimal setup.
One read-only connection per cloud account, then it runs itself.
Whenever someone runs the review, often monthly.
On demand or on whatever schedule you wire up and keep running.
A near-live Microsoft view, mostly Microsoft 365 focused.
Every tenant rechecked every 6 hours, with no babysitting.
As deep as the engineer who pulled it has time to go.
Strong on Microsoft 365 tenant management, lighter on Azure resources.
Centred on Microsoft 365 and endpoint health, not deep Azure posture.
190 checks across Azure, AWS & GCP — identity, network, storage, Key Vault, and Defender. Browse the catalog.
You format every report yourself from raw notes.
Operational dashboards, not built for handing to a client.
An internal partner view, not a per-client deliverable.
Scheduled per-client reports with scores, trends, and remediation steps.
Your team, every time, with no shared tooling to lean on.
You own hosting, patching, and uptime for the toolkit.
Microsoft runs it, but coverage is theirs to define.
We run the platform and the scan engine, you just review findings.
Dedicated asset-lifecycle platforms do this well — but they're a separate product, often a separate agent, and a separate line on the invoice. Beacon folds end-of-life tracking into the compliance scan you already run.
Purpose-built lifecycle and asset-intelligence platforms with deep hardware warranty coverage.
A second vendor, its own connectors/agent to deploy, and a per-endpoint bill on top of your compliance tool.
A spreadsheet of OS versions someone updates before the QBR — if they remember.
Silent EOL crossings, no risk ranking, and no evidence trail when a client or insurer asks.
Software EOL tracking built on the Intune / Defender / RMM / ITSM sources you already connect for compliance.
One vendor, one scan, one bill — with risk-ranked queues and billable client reports. Hardware/warranty depth is on the roadmap, not shipping today.
We would rather you pick the right tool than the wrong one with our name on it.
The pattern we hear most from MSP teams who switch to us.
Run your tenant count through the ROI calculator, then start with a read-only demo. No credit card needed.