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Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) make up 73% of companies in the DIB and many defense contractors simply do not have the resources to achieve CMMC compliance on their own. Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) with experience handling compliance can then be a game-changer, as MSPs have the knowledge, experience, and resources to help guide you through how to prepare for CMMC certification. The fact is that an MSP can be a vital partner that can not only ensure CMMC readiness, but they can also help you manage complex documentation, and maintain ongoing compliance even as federal cybersecurity regulations continue to evolve and change. Keep reading to learn more about MSPs and the vital role they play in CMMC certification.
A managed service provider is a third-party company that remotely manages an organization’s IT infrastructure and services, such as networks, cloud services, security operations, and compliance management, often offering these services through a subscription-based model. For SMBs with limited resources, MSPs can play a vital role by helping them manage IT tasks that their team does not have the time, experience, or resources to handle in-house. MSPs can be particularly valuable for defense contractors that must achieve CMMC certification, as an experienced MSP can help these organizations assess their compliance posture, implement necessary security controls, and help them with proactive ongoing compliance.
For organizations within the DIB who must achieve CMMC compliance, working with an MSP can be extremely beneficial, as they have the knowledge, resources, and experience to help streamline the compliance process. If you need to achieve CMMC 2.0 certification, here are just a few of the benefits you stand to gain by working with an MSP:
Specialized Compliance and Security Expertise: Achieving CMMC compliance is a complex process. Partnering with an MSP can then help simplify the compliance process, as you’ll have experienced professionals with specialized security and compliance expertise by your side to walk you through the CMMC certification process and help you create a roadmap for implementing the necessary security controls.
Cost-Effective: For SMBs within the DIB, achieving CMMC certification can be extremely cost-prohibitive, requiring investment in additional IT personnel as well as security infrastructure and software. Alternatively, by partnering with an MSP, you can receive expert compliance support at a more affordable price, as MSPs are able to leverage economies of scale. By paying a monthly subscription, you’ll get expert compliance guidance at a fraction of the price of managing your compliance journey in-house.
Faster Implementation: To achieve CMMC compliance, you must first implement the 110 security controls outlined in NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2. This can be an overwhelming and time-consuming process for organizations seeking certification (OSCs) with limited resources. Fortunately, working with an MSP can significantly accelerate the compliance process, as they have the staff to handle the implementation of these security controls, and they have the experience and proven frameworks to do so quickly.
Proactive Monitoring and Real-Time Reporting: MSPs also have the resources and manpower to provide proactive, real-time monitoring of your network and endpoints for suspicious activity. This allows them to provide real-time reporting of vulnerabilities and threats, which can help prevent a costly data breach.
Reduced Workload on Internal IT Teams: Outsourcing compliance to an MSP can significantly reduce the burden placed on your internal IT team’s limited resources. It frees up your team to focus on general support and revenue-generating initiatives critical to your core business. The fact is that your IT manager shouldn’t have to moonlight as a compliance officer, making partnering with an MSP for CMMC essential to make things easier for your team.
AGILE IT INSIGHT
Here’s the distinction that decides outcomes: a general MSP optimizes for uptime and tickets. CMMC readiness requires a partner that builds and configures your Microsoft 365 GCC High and Azure Government environment against all 110 NIST 800-171 controls — and can produce evidence an assessor will actually accept. Deploying the tools is not the same as demonstrating them under review. Before you sign with any MSP, confirm they’re a Cyber AB-accredited RPO that owns the implementation, not just the advice.
The fact is that having an MSP by your side can be essential in facilitating a streamlined compliance process, as an MSP can take much of the compliance burden off your shoulders. Just a few of the ways an MSP can help you prepare for CMMC Level 2 include:
Mapping NIST SP 800-171 Controls: As we previously mentioned, achieving compliance with the security controls in NIST SP 800-171 can be one of the most overwhelming parts of achieving CMMC certification. However, an MSP with experience in the CMMC ecosystem can help assess your current security posture to identify gaps, and they can then implement the necessary security controls to help you achieve compliance with NIST SP 800-171.
Assisting With Documentation: Documentation is another aspect of CMMC compliance that can prove to be daunting. Fortunately, MSPs have the experience to help walk you through the process of creating critical documents such as POA&Ms and SSPs. An MSP can then prove integral in helping you develop the policies, procedures, and documentation to achieve certification.
Providing Ongoing Support: Even after you’ve achieved CMMC Level 2 certification, an MSP can provide the ongoing support to maintain continuous compliance by monitoring for threats and vulnerabilities and assisting with remediation of any discovered compliance gaps. Additionally, as federal cybersecurity regulations continue to evolve, your MSP can be key in helping you maintain compliance.
AGILE IT INSIGHT
In practice, most CMMC rework doesn’t trace back to missing controls — it traces back to controls that were deployed but never evidenced. A commercial Microsoft tenant can look compliant and still fail once CUI handling, identity segregation, and logging retention are examined. That’s why we map NIST 800-171 inside GCC High from the start and structure your SSP and POA&Ms for assessor review, not internal comfort. The organizations that pass started building that evidence trail before they thought they needed to.
Of course, you may find yourself wondering if you really need an MSP for CMMC compliance, or if your internal IT team can handle this process. While it may seem tempting to keep things in-house to save money, the reality is that this can end up costing more money in the long run. This is because achieving CMMC compliance in-house would require you to expand your internal staff and invest in additional IT infrastructure. Alternatively, outsourcing your compliance needs allows you to leverage an MSP’s vast resources at a fraction of the cost, while allowing your internal team to focus on your core business. Additionally, with their extensive resources and compliance knowledge, an MSP is better equipped to help you maintain continuous compliance maturity. The fact is that you can’t out-document a gap in coverage, and the last thing you want is your internal team’s lack of resources to cause you to be found out-of-compliance, as this could result in fines, penalties, and loss of contracts.
Verify Certifications: The first thing you should look for when choosing an MSP is the proper certifications. In particular, make sure that the MSP you choose is also a Cyber AB-accredited Registered Provider Organization (RPO). RPOs are specifically authorized to help organizations within the DIB prepare for CMMC certification.
Review Their Compliance: To ensure your data security, the MSP you partner with should also be CMMC compliant themselves.
Check Experience: Talk to any MSP you’re considering partnering with about their compliance experience. Find out what kind of organizations they have worked with, what federal cybersecurity regulations they have experience with, and ask for references from clients who they’ve helped achieve CMMC certification.
Choose a Separate C3PAO: While some MSPs offer C3PAO assessments, your MSP shouldn’t also be your C3PAO, as this presents a very real conflict of interest. Your MSP and C3PAO need to be separate companies.
Looking to Hire an MSP for CMMC? Contact Agile IT Today!
Contact Agile IT Today!
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If you’re in need of a compliance partner you can trust to help guide you through the complexities of CMMC certification, consider reaching out to Agile IT. Our team of compliance and cybersecurity experts can help ensure that your contractual compliance obligations are met, allowing you to focus on your core business. Contact us today to learn more about our compliance service and how our team can help ensure that you’re ready when CMMC audit deadlines arrive.
No. CMMC Level 2 certification is granted by an independent, Cyber AB-authorized C3PAO — never by your MSP. A qualified MSP prepares your Microsoft environment and evidence so your positions hold under assessment, but no provider can promise a passing result. Any MSP that guarantees certification is a red flag.
No. A C3PAO cannot impartially assess an organization whose security posture it helped build. If a provider prepared you for CMMC, that provider generally cannot participate in your Level 2 assessment for three years. Your prep partner (RPO/MSP) and your assessing C3PAO must be separate companies.
An RPO (Registered Provider Organization) is authorized by the Cyber AB to advise and prepare you for CMMC. A C3PAO is authorized to conduct the official Level 2 certification assessment. Preparation and assessment are deliberately kept separate to protect assessment integrity.
If your organization handles CUI under DoD contracts, you’ll generally need Level 2, built on the 110 controls in NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2. Under Phase 2 of the rollout (beginning November 10, 2026), C3PAO certification becomes mandatory for most Level 2 contracts. Your specific contract’s DFARS language determines the requirement.
Three years — provided you submit an annual affirmation of continued compliance. Between assessments you’re expected to keep your SSP current, close POA&Ms, and maintain evidence that controls remain in place. It is not a one-and-done exercise.
Not necessarily. Commercial Microsoft 365 tenants often aren’t authorized to handle CUI. Organizations processing CUI for DoD typically require Microsoft 365 GCC High and Azure Government to meet DFARS and NIST 800-171 requirements. Scope, not preference, determines necessity.
Cyber AB-authorized CMMC RPO and Microsoft GCC High Gold Partner — building and validating compliant environments for the Defense Industrial Base.
Most CUI scope decisions get made in one meeting, by whoever is in the room, and documented afterward to match. That boundary holds until a C3PAO asks who justified it. The designating agency decides what qualifies. Data flow decides what’s in scope. The Microsoft environment follows both, not the reverse.
Assessment failures rarely start with missing controls. They start with decisions no one wrote down. CMMC Level 2 assessments that stall inside a Microsoft environment
Phase II certification is paused. DFARS 252.204-7012, 7019, and 7020 are not. Self-assessments, SPRS scores, and 72-hour incident reporting remain contractually binding, and with no assessor in the room, the accuracy of your score matters more, not less.
CMMC Level 1 and Level 2 don’t follow the same logic, and treating them as steps on the same ladder is where scoping goes wrong. This guide breaks down what triggers each level, how the assessments differ, and the decisions defense contractors need to make before either one gets scheduled.
Learn how defense contractors can perform secure tenant-to-tenant migrations while protecting CUI and meeting DFARS and CMMC requirements.
Strong documentation is critical to CMMC success. Learn the key evidence assessors expect and how to avoid common documentation failures.
