Prepared for: Enterprise AI Teams and AI/Security Leadership
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- About Windsurf
- Certifications & Third-Party Assessments
- Deployment Options & Data Residency
- End-to-End Data-Flow Anatomy
- Privacy / Zero-Data-Retention Posture
- Enterprise Controls & Admin Tooling
- Full Sub-processor & Model-Provider List
- Risk Analysis & Recommended Mitigations
- Adoption Road-map
1 Executive Summary
Windsurf (formerly Codeium) offers an IDE plug-in, standalone editor, and agentic coding assistant built expressly for regulated enterprises. The platform is SOC 2 Type II and FedRAMP High accredited, supports HIPAA BAAs, and defaults to zero-data retention for all paid seats. Three deployment modes—Cloud, Hybrid, and Self-Hosted—let security teams choose where code lives and where inference runs, with SAML SSO, RBAC, and full audit logs available across tiers. In short, Windsurf matches (or exceeds) the security envelope demanded by finance, healthcare, and public-sector orgs, while still shipping cutting-edge AI features such as the Windsurf Editor and Cascade agent. (windsurf.com)
2 About Windsurf
| Aspect | What it is | Why it matters to an enterprise buyer |
|---|---|---|
| Product family | • IDE plug-ins (VS Code, JetBrains, Eclipse)• Windsurf Editor – secure VS Code fork with built-in policy guardrails• Cascade Agent – multi-step refactor & docs bot | Choice of integration depth: light-touch plug-in, hardened standalone editor, or fully agent-driven workflows. Lets security teams phase adoption. |
| Coverage & language support | 40+ languages (incl. Java, C/C++, Rust, Go, Python, TypeScript) + natural-language chat. | Broad stack support avoids “shadow assistants” for edge languages and keeps all AI usage inside the approved tool. |
| Core value props | 1. 50-200 % velocity uplift (internal A/Bs)2. 60-80 % test-coverage automation (unit-test generator)3. Semantic code search & “explain-this-diff” for auditability | Clear ROI levers people care about—speed, quality, compliance. |
| Security differentiators | FedRAMP High, SOC 2 Type II, zero-data-retention by default, on-prem/self-host options. | Meets or exceeds typical finance / healthcare / public-sector bars without feature loss. |
| Ideal users | Enterprises with ≥200 engineers that need local context, fine-grained audit logs and OSS-licensing indemnity. | Scales from small regulated teams to 10 k-dev orgs while keeping lawyers happy. |
Elevator pitch: Windsurf compresses coding, refactoring, and doc-writing cycles by up to 3× while giving CISOs the knobs (zero-retention, FedRAMP, RBAC) they need to sleep at night.
3 Certifications & Third-Party Assessments
- SOC 2 Type II (report available via Trust Center).
- FedRAMP High ATO delivered through Palantir FedStart on AWS GovCloud.
- Annual third-party penetration test (last completed 13 Feb 2025).
- HIPAA-ready; BAAs offered for covered entities. (windsurf.com)
4 Deployment Options & Data Residency
| Tier | Compute Location | Code at Rest | Feature Set | Typical Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud | Windsurf US / EU / GovCloud | None (zero-retention) | Full (Editor + Cascade) | Start-ups & enterprises satisfied with transient processing |
| Hybrid | Code/embeddings in customer tenant; GPU inference in Windsurf cloud via outbound Cloudflare Tunnel | Customer tenant | Full | F500, finance, pharma needing in-tenant data |
| Self-Hosted | 100 % in customer VPC / on-prem | Customer VPC | Editor & API (Cascade roadmap) | Air-gapped, defense, national security |
5 End-to-End Data-Flow Anatomy
- Trigger – keystroke (autocomplete), chat prompt, or agent step.
- Payload – minimal code snippets + context; never entire repo.
- Routing – Client ➜ Windsurf edge (GCP) ➜ selected LLM (OpenAI, Anthropic, Vertex, xAI, etc.). Hybrid keeps snippets inside customer tenant; Self-Hosted runs the whole chain locally.
- Logging – Usage metadata only; zero-retention strips code unless the org explicitly enables features like remote indexing. (windsurf.com)
6 Privacy / Zero-Data-Retention
- Enabled by default for Teams & Enterprise.
- All code snippets discarded after inference; transient cache ≤ a few hours.
- Admins may enable retention-required modules (remote indexing, memories) which store data only in the customer tenant (Hybrid / Self-Hosted). (windsurf.com)
7 Enterprise Controls & Admin Tooling
| Control | Details |
|---|---|
| SAML SSO | Okta, Entra ID, Google Workspaces |
| RBAC | Seat-level model & feature toggles |
| Audit logs | Accepted completions + chat preserved in customer storage (Hybrid/Self-Hosted) |
| Attribution filter | Fuzzy-hash block on non-permissive OSS; enterprise indemnity available |
| Network allow-list | *.codeium.com / *.windsurf.com; Cloudflare Tunnel for Hybrid |
| SCIM | Provisioning guide for Entra ID & Okta (currently private-beta) |
8 Full Sub-processor & Model-Provider List
8.1 Providers That May See Code Data
| Provider | Purpose | Retention | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud Platform | Usage analytics; retained indexes (Cloud) | Zero (code) | Same as inference cluster |
| Crusoe | GPU training & hosting (custom models) | Zero | US |
| Oracle Cloud | GPU training; EU (Frankfurt) cluster | Zero | EU |
| Palantir FedStart + AWS GovCloud | FedRAMP hosting | Zero | US GovCloud |
| AWS (Bedrock) | Anthropic models | Zero | GovCloud / Zurich |
| OpenAI | Optional LLM inference | Zero | Admin can disable |
| Anthropic | Optional LLM inference | Zero | Admin can disable |
| Google Vertex AI | Optional LLM inference | Zero | Admin can disable |
| xAI | Optional LLM inference | Zero | Admin can disable |
| Fireworks (DeepSeek) | Optional LLM inference | Zero | Admin enables |
| Bing API | Web-search tool (Cascade) | Not zero-retention → must be enabled | Global |
8.2 Providers That Never See Code Data
PagerDuty • Slack • Google Workspace • Firebase • Okta • Stripe • Vercel • Mintlify • Zendesk • Salesforce • Hubspot • Brevo (windsurf.com)
8.3 Observability / Dashboard Tools (Code-view ONLY if zero-retention is off)
Google Cloud Platform
Crusoe
Oracle Cloud
Palantir FedStart + AWS GovCloud
AWS (Bedrock)
OpenAI
Anthropic
Google Vertex AI
xAI
Fireworks (DeepSeek)
Bing API
PagerDuty
Slack
Google Workspace
Firebase
Okta
Stripe
Vercel
Mintlify
Zendesk
Salesforce
Hubspot
Brevo
Retool (opt-out)
Metabase (opt-out)
Tableau (opt-out)
9 Risk Analysis & Mitigations
| Risk | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Agentic mis-execution (Cascade) | Errant file edits or terminal cmds | Human-in-the-loop; approve high-risk commands only (windsurf.com) |
| Cloud multi-tenancy | Cross-tenant leakage | Choose Hybrid or Self-Hosted; leverage FedRAMP enclave |
| Bing API retention | Search queries logged | Keep disabled by default |
| OSS license leakage | Legal exposure | Built-in attribution filter + indemnity |
| Observability tools | Code in dashboards if retention on | Keep zero-retention; store logs in tenant only |
10 Adoption Road-map
- Select Deployment – Pilot Hybrid for four weeks; measure velocity & security KPIs.
- Lock Policy – Enforce zero-retention, disable Bing API & remote indexing during pilot.
- Integrate Logs – Pipe Windsurf audit stream to your SIEM (Splunk / Datadog).
- Red-Team – Prompt-injection & agent safety tests; verify terminal approval flow.
- Contract – Request SOC 2, pen-test, FedRAMP ATO, and subcontractor DPAs; finalize BAA if needed.
- Enablement – Publish internal “AI generates, human validates” guidelines; require SAST/DAST on AI commits.
Final Verdict
Windsurf delivers a rare combination of FedRAMP High, SOC 2 Type II, default zero-data-retention, and deployment flexibility (Cloud, Hybrid, Self-Hosted). These controls meet the bar for even the strictest regulated verticals, while still giving developers the productivity boost of next-gen agentic coding. With proper policy tuning and audit-log integration, Windsurf stands out as the most enterprise-ready AI coding assistant on the market today.
Infinite Couch 