The Discovery Problem
Ask an IT team during due diligence what they’re running, and they’ll give you a list. Ask them what they don’t know they have, and you’ll get a longer pause.
Most M&A discovery tools run 5-12 modules. They scan what they can see. They report what they find. What they miss is the point.
What 89 Modules Finds That 5 Miss
Azure Discovery (25 modules)
The ones most platforms run: subscriptions, VMs, storage accounts. What most miss: Managed identities with expired rotations. Service principals with key credentials about to expire. Azure PIM role assignments with permanent elevation. Azure Policy assignments in non-compliant state. Hidden resource groups from a pilot project that was never formally closed.
AWS Discovery (11 modules)
The ones most platforms run: EC2 instances, S3 buckets, RDS databases. What most miss: Cross-account IAM roles that allow resource access from partner accounts. Lambda functions with overprivileged execution roles. EKS cluster configs that allow container escape. Route 53 hosted zones with orphaned records.
Active Directory (10 modules)
The ones most platforms run: users, groups, OUs. What most miss: Domain trusts that are never used but create attack surface. GPOs with disabled security settings that were never removed. Administrative accounts in protected groups that were never cleaned up after project completion. DNS zones with records pointing to decommissioned infrastructure.
Entra ID / Azure AD (10 modules)
The ones most platforms run: users, groups, enterprise applications. What most miss: App registrations with redirected reply URLs that point to decommissioned endpoints. External identities with guest access that never got deprovisioned. Application permissions granted to certificates that have since expired.
Microsoft 365 (20 modules)
The ones most platforms run: mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint. What most miss: Teams channels with external guest access still active. Exchange mailboxes with full access delegation to service accounts that no longer exist. SharePoint sites with unique permissions that break inheritance. Power Automate flows running on behalf of former employees.
The Dependency Problem
Most discovery tools give you an inventory. ACQI gives you a dependency graph:
- Service account → AD group → application → SaaS dependency → business criticality
- Cloud resource → IAM role → cross-cloud trust → data sensitivity
- User account → M365 license → downstream SaaS → contract value
When you can see the graph, you can see which findings matter. When you only see the list, you’re guessing.
The Parallel Execution Point
89 modules run in parallel, not sequentially. A traditional assessment takes 3-4 weeks. ACQI completes full discovery in 48-72 hours.
This matters because deal timelines don’t pause for discovery. If you have to choose between running complete discovery and meeting your signed LOI timeline, you’ll always choose the timeline.
Parallel execution at scale is the only structural answer. You’re not running 89 modules faster. You’re running them simultaneously across the entire IT estate in the time it takes to configure credentials.
89 modules. 48 hours. Complete clarity. Book a demo to see what ACQI finds in your next target.