Meet Clearwater Analytics (CWAN)

In the financial services sector, with its stringent regulations and relentless cyber threats, maintaining operational efficiency and airtight security are paramount. That’s why over 1,400 insurers, asset managers, corporations, pension plans, governments, and nonprofits trust CWAN Analytics to safeguard and streamline their investment operations.

As a cloud-native SaaS platform, CWAN automates the intricate work of investment accounting, performance tracking, compliance, and risk reporting. Its technology distills complex, multi-asset data from numerous sources into a single, daily-updated source of truth. CWAN meets the strict demands of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Section 1, with Section 2 in progress), the GDPR, and is advancing toward compliance with the Digital Operations Resiliency Act (DORA).

CWAN faces the ongoing challenge of balancing robust security with operational efficiency while ensuring clients maintain real‑time access to their data, and the platform keeps that data secure. 

Balancing security with operational efficiency

Clients frequently inquire about CWAN’s data protection and cybersecurity measures, from encryption at rest and in transit to encryption algorithms, key storage, and employee access controls. To meet these expectations, CWAN employs a "defense in depth" strategy, layering protections such as edge controls, firewalls, intrusion prevention, malicious artifact scrubbing, and data accuracy checks. Internally, the company uses data loss prevention and endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools.

CWAN has always embedded security into its operations, from application development to customer service. For example, security checks are built into the CI/CD pipeline, allowing vulnerabilities to be caught before code reaches production, with a real-time feedback loop for remediation. When CWAN moved to the cloud, it designed its platform around its security components. It also features a private instance of Microsoft Copilot, ensuring that users don’t plug sensitive information into a public AI platform. CWAN even uses Island’s own AI features to help with policy design, and with deployment – for example, creating a custom user interface element that indicates a site where security policy is enforced.

“Our trust and reputation are foundational to CWAN’s core attributes,” says Sam Evans, Chief Information Security Officer at CWAN. “Our most sensitive data is our clients data. Our security strategy is to protect our clients data at all costs.”

Evans aimed to bring security closer to end users without disrupting workflows. His priorities included blocking the copying, screenshotting, or sharing of sensitive data to external sites or social media, as well as defending against increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks. He sought a frictionless endpoint solution offering secure browsing, BYOD protection, and granular, real‑time controls tailored to users or groups. His ultimate goal was to ensure strong data protection with a seamless user experience.