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CMMC Technology Readiness Services

CMMC Technology Readiness Services for Microsoft Environments

Prepare Your Microsoft Environment for CMMC Assessment

Prepare your Microsoft environment for CMMC assessment with senior-led technology compliance consulting, targeted remediation, and audit-ready evidence.

For defense contractors handling Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), CMMC compliance is no longer optional. Organizations operating on Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform, and Azure face a significant gap between licensing the platform and being assessor-ready. Configuration, governance, access controls, audit logging, and evidence preparation require specialized expertise most internal teams don’t have the bandwidth or CMMC focus to sustain alongside daily operations.

i3solutions delivers hands-on CMMC technology readiness services inside real Microsoft environments, combining assessment, remediation planning, technical implementation, and evidence preparation aligned to applicable requirements. Our role is to shorten the path between where you are today and an assessor-ready posture, with enforceable controls in place, evidence organized, and your team prepared to support a C3PAO assessment.

Compliance Note:

i3solutions provides advisory and implementation services to support CMMC technology readiness and alignment to applicable requirements (including NIST SP 800-171 where relevant). We do not act as a C3PAO, we do not perform certification assessments, and we cannot guarantee certification outcomes. Final certification determinations are made by accredited assessors based on your environment and evidence available at the time of assessment. This content is for informational purposes and is not legal advice; consult your compliance and legal stakeholders for program decisions.

Get Audit-Ready Today

Partner with our senior-led compliance experts to assess, remediate, and prepare your Microsoft environment for CMMC. Move from gaps and guesswork to a defensible, evidence-backed posture that’s ready to support a C3PAO assessment.

Talk to a CMMC Technology Readiness Specialist

What Is CMMC and Why It Matters Now

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is the Department of War’s framework for verifying that contractors protect sensitive information. For organizations in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), CMMC represents a fundamental shift from self-attestation to verified compliance.

The change that matters: NIST SP 800-171 is the federal standard that defines the security requirements for protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in non-federal systems. Previously, contractors self-attested to NIST SP 800-171 compliance and submitted a score to the Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS). CMMC changes this by requiring third-party assessment for most organizations handling CUI. Self-attestation is ending; verified compliance is becoming the standard.

The three levels of CMMC:

  • Level 1 (Foundational): Covers 17 basic cyber hygiene practices for organizations handling only Federal Contract Information (FCI). Annual self-assessment with affirmation remains the requirement. If your organization handles only FCI without CUI, Level 1 may be sufficient.
  • Level 2 (Advanced): Covers 110 security practices aligned to NIST SP 800-171. This is where the majority of defense contractors land. Any organization handling Controlled Unclassified Information typically requires Level 2. For most contracts, third-party assessment by an accredited Certified Third-Party Assessment Organization (C3PAO) is mandatory.
  • Level 3 (Expert): Covers 134 practices, including additional controls from NIST SP 800-172. Applies to organizations handling the most sensitive CUI. Government-led assessments are required. Few contractors need Level 3.

Why timing matters:

Prime contractors are already flowing CMMC requirements down to subcontractors in anticipation of contract requirements. Regardless of official DoW timelines, if your prime is asking for evidence of CMMC technology readiness, your timeline is now. C3PAO assessment capacity is limited. Organizations that wait until requirements are fully enforced will compete for limited assessment slots. Starting readiness work now provides scheduling flexibility and time to address gaps properly.

The business reality:

Contract eligibility increasingly depends on demonstrated compliance. Organizations that cannot show readiness risk losing existing contracts and being excluded from new opportunities, regardless of their technical capabilities or past performance.

Aerial view of a major aerospace manufacturing facility representing the complex proposal management environment that the Virtual Proposal Center was built to serve

Who This Is For

This service is designed for:

  • Defense contractors and subcontractors in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) who handle Controlled Unclassified Information and must demonstrate CMMC Level 2 compliance
  • IT and compliance leaders preparing for third-party C3PAO assessments who need specialized expertise that their internal teams lack
  • Organizations with Microsoft-heavy environments, including Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power BI, Power Apps, Azure, Dynamics 365, or custom .NET applications where CUI is processed or stored
  • Companies that have invested in Microsoft GCC or GCC High and now need to operationalize compliance, turning license capabilities into implemented, documented controls
  • Organizations with an existing SPRS score that need to close gaps and prepare evidence before assessment
  • IT teams without dedicated CMMC expertise who need to accelerate readiness without pulling resources from critical operations

This is not a fit if:

  • You only need Level 1 self-assessment support. Level 1 requirements are straightforward enough that many organizations can address them internally. We focus on Level 2 readiness, where the complexity justifies external expertise.
  • You’re looking for a C3PAO to perform your official assessment. We support readiness and evidence preparation. The certification assessment itself must be performed by an accredited C3PAO. We can help you prepare; they certify.
  • You need a vendor to guarantee certification outcomes. No one can guarantee you’ll pass your assessment. We prepare you thoroughly, but certification decisions belong to your assessor based on your environment and evidence at assessment time. Be cautious of any vendor claiming otherwise.
  • Your organization doesn’t actually handle CUI. If you only handle FCI, a Level 1 self-assessment may be appropriate. We help organizations confirm their scope, but our readiness services focus on Level 2.

The CMMC Challenge in Microsoft Environments

Most defense contractors run on Microsoft. That’s an advantage because Microsoft provides GCC and GCC High environments specifically designed to support compliance requirements. But having the right licenses and environment doesn’t mean you’re compliant.

The misconception: Purchase GCC High, configure some policies, and you’re CMMC-ready.

The reality: CMMC Level 2 requires 110 implemented security practices. Assessors verify these controls live in your environment during your assessment. They test configurations, review audit logs, examine permission structures, and validate that controls actually work. License capabilities are the foundation; implementation and evidence are what get assessed. Our CMMC Level 2 technology compliance consulting services help ensure these controls are properly configured, monitored, and documented, so you can demonstrate compliance with confidence.

The hard truth: CMMC technology compliance support for Microsoft environments is not a licensing problem. It’s an architecture, governance, configuration, and evidence problem. The platform provides capabilities; you must implement, document, and prove them.

Common gaps we encounter in Microsoft environments:

  • SharePoint permission sprawl: Assessors fail environments where CUI is accessible beyond need-to-know. Inheritance models get overridden. Ad-hoc sharing creates exposure. External sharing settings allow unintended access. What started as convenient collaboration becomes a compliance failure.
  • Power Platform governance gaps: Business users build apps and flows that solve real problems, and inadvertently process CUI through ungoverned connectors, unsecured environments, or automations that move data outside controlled boundaries. Without governance, Power Platform becomes a compliance liability.
  • Incomplete audit trails: CMMC requires evidence of access controls, configuration management, and incident response. Many organizations have logging enabled, but can’t produce coherent evidence on demand. Logs exist but aren’t retained appropriately, aren’t easily searchable, or don’t capture what assessors need to see.
  • Configuration drift: Security baselines configured during initial setup drift over time. Settings change. Exceptions accumulate. The environment you documented in your SSP no longer matches reality. Assessors test your controls live, not based on documentation from months ago.
  • Identity and access gaps: Conditional access policies have holes. Service accounts have excessive permissions. Privileged access isn’t properly managed. The access control families (3.1.x) require demonstrable least privilege, and most environments have accumulated exceptions that violate it.
  • Evidence preparation gaps: You may be doing the right things operationally, but if you can’t prove it with artifacts, such as configuration exports, screenshots, audit logs, and documented procedures, assessors can’t score it. Evidence preparation is frequently underestimated.

What Assessors Actually Test in Microsoft Environments

CMMC assessors do not evaluate your environment at a policy level. They test whether security practices are implemented, operating, and provable inside your live Microsoft systems. In CMMC Level 2 assessments, we consistently see assessors focus on:

  • Identity and access enforcement Conditional Access policies, MFA enforcement, service account permissions, privileged role assignments, and evidence that least privilege is actively implemented and monitored.
  • SharePoint and data access controls Site-level and library-level permissions, inheritance breaks, external sharing configurations, sensitivity labels, and whether CUI access is truly restricted to need-to-know users.
  • Audit logging and event retention Whether Microsoft Purview Audit, Entra ID logs, and workload logs are enabled, retained, and searchable, and whether your team can produce specific evidence during the assessment.
  • Configuration management and change control Proof that baselines are defined, changes are tracked, and security configurations are managed rather than drifting over time.
  • Power Platform and application governance Environment separation, DLP policies, connector usage, service principals, and whether low-code tools are moving CUI outside controlled boundaries.
  • Evidence quality and traceability Whether screenshots, exports, logs, SSP content, and procedures clearly map to control objectives, and whether staff can demonstrate how controls actually operate.

Assessors test what is real, not what is written. Organizations fail assessments not because Microsoft lacks capability, but because configurations, access boundaries, and evidence are incomplete, inconsistent, or undocumented.

Our CMMC Technology Readiness Services

We deliver hands-on assessment, remediation, and evidence preparation, not slide decks and generic checklists. Our work produces artifacts you’ll use during your assessment and controls that function in your actual environment.

Hire CMMC Technology Consultants

Need senior CMMC expertise embedded directly into your Microsoft environment? Hire experienced CMMC technology consultants to work alongside your IT and compliance teams on hands-on readiness execution. Our consultants support control remediation, configuration hardening, evidence preparation, and assessment readiness across Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform, and Azure environments – filling the gap when internal teams need specialized expertise and additional capacity.

This engagement model is designed for organizations already in motion. Whether you’re addressing known gaps, preparing for an upcoming C3PAO engagement, or sustaining readiness between assessments, our senior practitioners embed with your team to accelerate progress while maintaining defensible technical and compliance alignment.

Discuss Embedded CMMC Technology Expertise
View CMMC Specialists & Hiring Options

How We Work: From Assessment to Evidence Readiness

PHASE 1

Scoping and Discovery (Weeks 1-2)

We establish the scope before technical work begins:

  • Define CUI boundaries: what information is in-scope, where it’s stored, how it flows
  • Identify in-scope systems: which Microsoft workloads, applications, and integrations handle CUI
  • Review existing documentation: current SSP, POA&M, policies, and prior assessments
  • Align with your compliance and legal stakeholders to confirm scope and priorities
  • Establish an assessment timeline and coordinate with your C3PAO scheduling, if known

Deliverable: Scoping document confirming CUI boundaries, in-scope systems, and assessment priorities

PHASE 2

Gap Assessment (Weeks 2-4)

Validate current controls and evidence readiness:

  • Systematic review of your environment against CMMC Level 2 controls
  • Evaluate each of the 110 practices against your current implementation
  • Document current state: what’s implemented, what’s partially implemented, what’s missing
  • Identify technical gaps, policy gaps, and documentation gaps
  • Score findings by severity and assessment risk
  • Calculate your current SPRS score based on actual gaps

Deliverable: Gap assessment report with findings, risk scores, and prioritized remediation recommendations

PHASE 3

Remediation Roadmap (Weeks 4-5)

Prioritized action plan translating gaps into specific work:

  • Sequence remediation by risk, dependency, and effort
  • Identify quick wins that reduce risk with minimal effort
  • Plan longer-term remediation for complex gaps
  • Define resource requirements and timeline estimates
  • Align the roadmap with your assessment target date

Deliverable: Remediation roadmap with specific tasks, dependencies, and timeline by control family

PHASE 4

Technical Remediation (Weeks 5-12+)

Hands-on implementation of controls in your environment:

  • Configure technical controls in Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform, Azure, and Entra ID
  • Implement security baselines and validate configuration
  • Remediate access control gaps and permission structures
  • Establish governance controls and monitoring
  • Document all changes with evidence capture throughout

Deliverable: Implemented controls with configuration documentation and evidence artifacts

PHASE 5

Evidence Package and Preparation (Ongoing)

Build and organize assessment artifacts:

  • Compile evidence by control family: policies, procedures, configurations, logs
  • Finalize SSP and POA&M documentation
  • Prepare control demonstration scripts for assessor walkthroughs
  • Conduct mock assessment exercises with your team
  • Validate evidence completeness against assessment requirements

Deliverable: Organized evidence package ready for C3PAO assessment; prepared team

PHASE 6

Assessment Support

Support during your C3PAO assessment (within appropriate boundaries):

  • Remain available to help locate evidence and clarify implementation decisions
  • Support your team in responding to assessor questions
  • Address any findings that emerge during assessment
  • We do not interact directly with assessors on your behalf, but we ensure you’re prepared to do so confidently

Why Choose i3solutions for CMMC Technology Readiness

Preparing your Microsoft environment for CMMC compliance requires deep technical expertise, practical experience, and a focus on evidence-driven results. That’s why organizations trust us: we combine senior-led guidance, hands-on remediation, and a proven understanding of real-world Microsoft environments through our CMMC technology compliance consulting services. This ensures you’re not just compliant on paper, but audit-ready in practice. Here’s what sets us apart:

  • Microsoft environment expertise: We’ve delivered hundreds of Microsoft Fabric, Power Automate, Dataverse, and Azure projects for enterprise clients. We know where CMMC compliance breaks in real Microsoft environments, permission inheritance that creates exposure, ungoverned Power Platform apps, audit logging gaps, and configuration drift. We’ve remediated these patterns repeatedly.
  • Senior-led delivery: The consultants who assess your environment are the same ones who implement remediation. You work with experienced practitioners who make decisions and solve problems, and not junior staff learning on your project who escalate everything.
  • US-based team: All work is performed by US-based personnel. For organizations handling CUI with personnel security considerations, this matters.
  • Regulated industry experience: We work with defense contractors, financial services, healthcare, and other organizations where compliance and audit readiness are non-negotiable. We understand the stakes and the scrutiny.
  • Evidence-focused approach: We don’t just identify what to fix – we implement the controls and produce the evidence to prove it. Evidence preparation is built into every engagement, not an afterthought after remediation is complete.
  • No certification theater: We won’t promise outcomes we can’t control. Certification decisions belong to your C3PAO. We prepare you thoroughly so you can demonstrate compliance confidently, and we’re honest about what we can and cannot guarantee.
  • Implementation, not just advice: We configure controls in your environment, build your evidence package, and prepare your team. We don’t hand you a gap assessment report and disappear.

Security, Compliance, and Governance Considerations

  • Data handling during engagements: We work in your environment with appropriate access controls. We do not extract CUI from your systems. Evidence artifacts are prepared within your environment and stored according to your policies.
  • Personnel security: Our consultants supporting CMMC engagements are US-based. We can accommodate customer-specific personnel security requirements where contractually required.
  • Scope boundaries: We support CMMC technology readiness across your Microsoft environment. For non-Microsoft systems, we coordinate with your teams or other vendors to ensure comprehensive coverage. We define the scope clearly at engagement start.
  • Ongoing compliance: CMMC technology readiness is not a one-time event. We help you establish governance and monitoring practices that maintain a compliance posture between assessments. Annual affirmation requirements mean your controls must remain operational.
  • Integration with existing programs: If you have an existing NIST 800-171 program, SPRS score, or prior assessment work, we build on what exists. We don’t start from scratch when you have established foundations.
Aerial view of a major aerospace manufacturing facility representing the complex proposal management environment that the Virtual Proposal Center was built to serve

Engagement Options

CMMC Technology Readiness Assessment

Timeframe: 3-4 weeks

What you get:

  • Current-state gap analysis against CMMC Level 2 / NIST SP 800-171
  • Risk-prioritized findings report with specific remediation recommendations
  • Remediation roadmap with effort and timeline estimates
  • SPRS score calculation based on actual gaps
  • Executive summary suitable for leadership and stakeholder communication

Best for: Organizations that need to understand their current posture, build a realistic remediation plan, and make informed decisions before committing to full implementation work.

CMMC Remediation and Evidence Sprint

Timeframe: 8-12 weeks

What you get:

  • Technical control implementation in your Microsoft environment
  • Policy and procedure documentation for assessed control families
  • Evidence package: configuration exports, screenshots, and audit logs organized by control
  • SSP and POA&M artifact development
  • Assessment preparation support, including mock walkthroughs

Best for: Organizations with a known gap list, either from our assessment or your own analysis, ready to execute remediation and build their evidence package for assessment.

Ongoing CMMC Compliance Support

Timeframe: Monthly retainer

What you get:

  • Continuous evidence collection and documentation updates
  • Configuration monitoring and drift remediation
  • Policy review and updates as requirements evolve
  • Assessment preparation support as your C3PAO engagement approaches
  • Ongoing advisory for new systems, applications, or scope changes

Best for: Organizations that need sustained support to maintain compliance posture, particularly those with ongoing contract requirements or multiple assessment cycles.

Choose the Right CMMC Engagement Path

Whether you need a current-state assessment, a focused remediation and evidence sprint, or ongoing support to maintain readiness, we’ll align the engagement to your scope, timeline, and assessment target.

CMMC Engagement Options

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Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between CMMC Level 1 and Level 2?

Level 1 covers 17 basic cyber hygiene practices for Federal Contract Information (FCI) and allows annual self-assessment with affirmation. Level 2 applies to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and requires third-party assessment by a C3PAO for most contracts. Level 2 includes 110 practices aligned to NIST SP 800-171. If you handle CUI, you almost certainly need Level 2.

Can you guarantee we’ll pass our CMMC assessment?

No, and you should be cautious of any vendor who claims they can. Certification decisions are made by accredited C3PAOs based on your environment and evidence at assessment time. What we provide is thorough preparation: a clear gap assessment, implemented controls, and an evidence package that demonstrates your compliance posture. We prepare you to succeed; the assessor makes the determination.

Do we need to be on GCC High for CMMC Level 2?

Not necessarily. The requirement depends on your specific contract terms and the sensitivity of the CUI you handle. Many organizations meet Level 2 requirements on Microsoft 365 GCC. Organizations with ITAR data or specific contractual requirements may need GCC High. We help you evaluate your requirements and determine the appropriate environment.

How long does CMMC technology readiness take?

It depends on your starting point. Organizations with mature security programs and existing NIST 800-171 alignment may need 8-12 weeks of focused remediation and evidence preparation. Organizations with significant gaps, major architectural issues, or no prior compliance program may need 6+ months. Our assessment gives you a realistic timeline based on your actual environment and gap count.

What if we’re already working with a C3PAO?

That’s appropriate, and we support readiness while they perform the assessment. Many organizations engage us to prepare before their C3PAO engagement begins, or to remediate gaps identified in a pre-assessment or readiness review. We complement the C3PAO relationship; we don’t replace it.

What happens after we pass our assessment?

CMMC requires ongoing compliance, not one-time certification. You’ll need to maintain controls, collect evidence continuously, and affirm compliance annually. We can support ongoing compliance through retainer engagements or help you establish internal processes to maintain readiness independently.

Start Your CMMC Technology Readiness Program

Don’t wait for a customer or prime contractor to demand proof. Begin with a structured assessment and remediation roadmap that gives you clear visibility into gaps, prioritized actions, and a defensible path to an assessor-ready posture in your Microsoft environment.

C3PAO timelines and internal remediation cycles create real scheduling constraints – early readiness work protects your options.

Talk to a CMMC Technology Readiness Specialist

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