As CMMC enforcement moves from policy to practice, the defense industrial base is facing a fundamentally different compliance reality. For organizations required to undergo third-party or government assessments, cybersecurity requirements must now be validated by independent assessors who examine your actual practices — not just whether you have the right tools and policies, but how you scope systems, implement controls, maintain documentation, and produce evidence.

For most organizations in the defense industrial base, the cost and complexity of this shift has been difficult to navigate. Industry data from Redspin shows that organizations typically spend over a year preparing for their initial assessment, with costs exceeding $100k for smaller contractors and $250k or more for larger companies. Yet despite this investment, many still face unexpected rework and delays when assessors identify gaps in scope, documentation, or evidence. Existing approaches like enclaves, consultants, or traditional compliance platforms solve for only part of the CMMC compliance journey, leaving critical gaps that only become visible during assessment. 

Today, we’re introducing Secureframe Defense for CMMC, a complete, end-to-end solution designed to guide defense contractors through the entire CMMC compliance process in one AI-powered platform.

Secureframe Defense for CMMC brings together secure infrastructure, guided control implementation, automated documentation, continuous evidence collection, and assessment preparation. Built on real assessment experience and delivered through AI-powered workflows, it streamlines the entire compliance lifecycle and provides a clearer, faster, and more predictable path to CMMC certification.

“We kept hearing the same thing from defense contractors: CMMC felt confusing, fragmented, and far more expensive than it needed to be,” says Shrav Mehta, Founder and CEO of Secureframe. “Secureframe Defense was built to give teams confidence as they go through this process for the first time, with a single, structured solution that supports them from initial scoping all the way through C3PAO assessment.”

Where existing CMMC approaches fall short 

CMMC compliance is not a single task or milestone. It’s an ongoing program that requires tight alignment across scope, technical controls, operational processes, documentation, and evidence, all evaluated together during periodic C3PAO assessments.

Today, most contractors are forced to choose one of three incomplete approaches, each requiring multiple vendors, tools, and teams just to get partway there.

Enclave-only solutions focus on creating a secure environment, but contractors typically need to purchase cloud infrastructure (like Azure Government), study dense technical documentation, hire consultants to build or configure the enclave, and then retain IT expertise to maintain it. Even then, teams are still left to decide what’s in scope, how to implement non-technical controls, how to document their environment, and how to assemble evidence that an assessor can actually validate.

Consultant-led projects often require coordination across multiple specialists including infrastructure experts, compliance advisors, and documentation teams, introducing high costs, long timelines, and heavy dependency on external interpretation. Even successful engagements leave organizations with the challenge of maintaining compliance year-round and repeating the process for recertification without starting over.

Traditional compliance platforms can help organize controls and documents, but they only automate a fraction of CMMC preparation work and aren’t built around C3PAO assessment workflows. Organizations often need to layer on additional tools for SSP management, evidence collection, and technical control monitoring, only to discover that none of these systems integrate cleanly with each other. Teams often discover gaps too late, facing costly rework when issues are discovered late and documentation doesn’t match assessor expectations.

Secureframe Defense was designed to replace this patchwork with a single, guided platform that keeps scoping, implementation, documentation, and evidence aligned from the start. By embedding expert guidance directly into the process and supporting it with automation, teams can move through CMMC with fewer handoffs, less rework, and minimal late-stage surprises.

How Secureframe Defense simplifies CMMC at every stage

Secureframe Defense guides contractors through each phase of CMMC compliance with expert-defined workflows and integrated AI, bringing structure, clarity, and efficiency to an often fragmented process.

Scope with confidence using Defense Navigator

Scoping is one of the most common sources of confusion, cost overruns, and delays in CMMC readiness. For many contractors, this is their first time defining assessment boundaries under CMMC, which can make it difficult to determine which systems, users, and data flows should be included.

Secureframe Defense addresses this with Navigator, an AI-powered, expert-designed compliance workflow that asks targeted questions about your environment and how you handle government data. Based on your responses, Navigator applies expert-defined logic to define a right-sized scope, clearly identifying what must be included, what can be excluded, and what should be isolated.

By establishing scope early and correctly, contractors can limit assessment exposure, reduce unnecessary implementation effort, and move through the rest of the compliance process with far greater clarity.

Deploy secure CUI environments in minutes, not months

For many organizations, infrastructure is the most intimidating part of CMMC. Traditional enclave solutions often take 8-10 weeks to design and deploy, delaying readiness and driving up costs.

Secureframe Defense removes that barrier through Automated Provisioning of CMMC-compliant environments. Navigator walks teams through every phase of enclave setup and configuration so teams don’t have to design, secure, and validate environments manually. Organizations can configure Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 GCC High directly through Secureframe, an authorized GCC High reseller, with required CMMC controls already in place.

For CUI access, teams can deploy secure Virtual Desktops in minutes, providing a controlled environment without managing physical hardware. Organizations that prefer to use existing endpoints can enforce CMMC baselines using a FedRAMP Moderate authorized MDM solution that applies consistent controls across laptops and workstations.

This approach delivers both speed and consistency. Environments deployed the same way every time are easier to document, easier to assess, and easier to maintain.

Implement controls with guided, expert-backed workflows

Once infrastructure is in place, the challenge shifts to implementing the full set of CMMC requirements across technical and operational controls. Many teams lose time here trying to interpret requirements while simultaneously building their program.

Secureframe Defense embeds practical, expert-defined guidance directly into control implementation workflows, with AI assisting teams in applying that guidance consistently across systems, users, and processes. Using Navigator, teams are guided step by step through each requirement, with clear direction on what needs to be implemented, how to assign ownership, and how progress will be evaluated.

This reduces reliance on external consultants by making expert guidance available directly within the platform, instead of locked inside one-off engagements.

Automate documentation using live system data

Documentation is often where contractors experience the most rework. System Security Plans can stretch hundreds of pages, policies multiply, and teams spend weeks assembling documentation that either fails to reflect their actual environment or quickly falls out of date.

Secureframe Defense leverages AI to automate documentation using data from your live environment, control implementation status, and test results. The platform can automatically generate the majority of your System Security Plan, maintain an up-to-date POA&M, and keep documentation aligned as issues are remediated, dramatically reducing the manual effort typically required to produce and maintain CMMC artifacts.

Because documentation stays in sync with real-time configurations and evidence, contractors avoid late-stage rewrites and walk into assessments with materials that reflect how their program actually works, not how a boilerplate template assumes it should.

Maintain readiness with automated evidence and live SPRS scoring

Manual evidence collection is one of the most time-consuming and error-prone aspects of CMMC compliance. When evidence is gathered manually, teams are often pulling screenshots, exports, and reports from dozens of systems at different points in time, with no easy way to ensure consistency or completeness.

Waiting until assessment time only compounds the problem. Evidence becomes a scramble, artifacts are outdated by the time they’re reviewed, and teams spend valuable weeks retracing steps to recreate proof of controls that may have already drifted. That last-minute rush not only slows assessments, it increases the risk of gaps being discovered when there’s little time left to remediate them.

Secureframe Defense continuously collects and organizes evidence through hundreds of deep integrations, giving teams a real-time view of readiness throughout the year. As controls are implemented and issues are resolved, organizations can see their live SPRS score update in real time, making it clear how each control implementation impacts overall compliance.

This visibility helps teams prioritize the controls that will have the greatest effect on their SPRS score, track progress toward assessment readiness, and understand exactly where they stand at any point in time. Instead of guessing or working from static snapshots, contractors get a complete, 360-degree view of their CMMC posture in one place.

Go into your C3PAO assessment with confidence

Even well-prepared organizations can face delays if assessment workflows are inefficient. Much of that friction comes from last-minute evidence requests, inconsistent documentation formats, and back-and-forth with assessors to clarify what’s been provided.

Secureframe Defense streamlines CMMC certifications with an Assessment-Ready Package that automatically organizes evidence, documentation, and required exports in a format aligned with C3PAO review workflows. Instead of scrambling to assemble materials or repackage evidence during the assessment, teams walk in with everything prepared, structured, and ready for review. The result is a smoother assessment experience, less disruption to internal teams, and fewer delays caused by missing or misaligned artifacts.

Secureframe Defense also connects customers with a network of authorized C3PAO partners who are experienced with CMMC assessments and familiar with the Secureframe platform. This helps reduce friction during assessment by eliminating much of the back-and-forth that typically slows reviews. Assessors can securely log into the Audit Module, review documentation and evidence that’s already organized, current, and assessment-ready, and move through validation with greater efficiency and confidence.

Throughout the process, customers are supported by Secureframe’s customer success managers and compliance experts, who can help answer scoping and implementation questions, validate readiness checks, and support a smooth handoff to assessors. When deeper expertise is needed, teams also have access to CMMC Registered Practitioners with Level 2 assessment experience, ensuring guidance is available at the moments that matter most.

“Completing our CMMC Level 2 assessment validated how assessors evaluate scope, documentation, and evidence in practice,” said Marc Rubbinaccio, VP of Cybersecurity and Compliance at Secureframe. “We used that experience to build Secureframe Defense for CMMC so customers can prepare in a way that aligns cleanly with assessment expectations from the start.”

Faster readiness, lower cost, and stronger assessment outcomes

By bringing infrastructure, guidance, documentation, evidence, and assessment preparation into one platform, Secureframe Defense for CMMC reduces the time, cost, and uncertainty associated with CMMC compliance.

For many organizations, this means achieving assessment readiness significantly faster while reducing late-stage surprises that drive up consulting spend and delay certifications. This predictability is especially critical for organizations pursuing certification for the first time.

Because Secureframe Defense supports continuous compliance, work doesn’t reset after certification. Controls, documentation, and evidence remain aligned as environments evolve, making periodic recertification assessments far more predictable and efficient.

A complete solution built for the Defense Industrial Base

We built Secureframe Defense as a long-term commitment to helping the Defense Industrial Base meet CMMC requirements in a way that’s realistic for small and mid-sized contractors. It’s designed to guide organizations through a complex compliance process with clarity, structure, and confidence, using AI and automation to scale expert guidance across every stage of CMMC readiness.

If you’re new to CMMC and looking for a clear path from scoping through certification, learn more about Secureframe Defense for CMMC and how it simplifies CMMC compliance from start to finish. Or request a demo to walk through the platform and understand how our solution can support your CMMC journey.