CMMC

CybertronIT is an RPO, not a C3PAO. We're a Registered Practitioner Organization under the CyberAB. We get you ready for your assessment and partner with you through it. The assessment that grants your status is conducted by a separate, independent organization called a C3PAO. The two roles are kept apart on purpose, and whether a partner volunteers that distinction up front is an early sign of whether they actually know the framework.

If a prime just flowed CMMC down to you, start here: you probably don't need everything a compliance vendor will try to sell you. What you actually need turns on one question. Are you handling Federal Contract Information, Controlled Unclassified Information, or both. That answer sets your level, and your level drives the cost, the timeline, and whether a third-party assessor ever has to be involved at all.

Our CMMC work concentrates in Wichita's aerospace supply chain, the Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers feeding the region's primes. The framework is spreading past DoD into other federal agencies, so we work with civilian-side contractors across Southcentral Kansas too. The flowdown structure and the readiness work look much the same wherever the contract comes from.

Which level you actually need

CMMC Level 1 (Foundational) covers Federal Contract Information, the contract information that isn't meant for public release. It's a self-assessment built on the 15 basic safeguarding requirements in FAR 52.204-21, the ones you perform and attest to yourself.

CMMC Level 2 (Advanced) is where most Wichita suppliers land. It protects Controlled Unclassified Information, aligns with the 110 controls of NIST SP 800-171, and depending on the contract it's either an annual self-assessment or a triennial assessment by a C3PAO.

Level 3 sits above that for the most sensitive programs, layering NIST SP 800-172 controls on top of Level 2 with a government-led assessment. Few of the suppliers we see are headed there yet.

The expensive mistakes happen at the edges. Some contractors gold-plate to Level 2 when the contract only calls for Level 1. More often, and more dangerously, a supplier doesn't realize CUI has been sitting in their environment until a contracting officer asks for proof they've protected it. We sort out which category your data falls in before anything else, because guessing wrong sets the price for everything downstream. The week-to-week of how an engagement runs lives on our Government Contractors page.

The clock is already running

CMMC moved from proposed to real in the last two years. The program rule took effect December 16, 2024 (32 CFR part 170), and the contract mechanism that puts CMMC into solicitations took effect November 10, 2025 (the DFARS acquisition rule). DoD's phased rollout runs Level 1 and Level 2 self-assessment requirements first, with Level 2 C3PAO certification becoming a standard condition of award in the phase that begins November 10, 2026. The underlying control set is still NIST SP 800-171 Revision 2, with Revision 3 reserved for future rulemaking, so you build to Revision 2 today.

The practical read is that getting ready before you bid costs far less than scrambling to stand up controls after a contract is already in motion, where some contractors run out of runway before they finish. If a clause is already in a contract you've signed, your timeline started the day you signed it.

What getting ready actually involves

At the service level, readiness comes down to four pieces of work, and the full walk-through of how an engagement runs is on our Government Contractors page. It starts with a gap analysis that scores your environment against the 110 NIST 800-171 controls, or the 15 Level 1 requirements, so you can see what you meet, what you partially meet, and what you haven't touched. That score becomes the baseline and the input to a real cost estimate.

From there we build or fix your System Security Plan, the document an assessor reads to see how each control is actually implemented. A surprising number of the SSPs we review on assessments don't match the network they describe, and a wrong SSP fails an assessment even when the technical controls are sound.

Where a control isn't fully in place, a Plan of Action and Milestones records what's missing and when it closes. Some controls are allowed to sit on a POA&M and some aren't, and knowing the difference matters more than most contractors expect. Then, before any C3PAO arrives, we pretest, so the formal assessment isn't the first time anyone has checked the work.

Why CMMC readiness comes with Managed IT

We don't take CMMC readiness as a standalone project while another firm runs your network. The System Security Plan and the live systems have to be operated by the same team, or the documentation drifts from the reality of your network within weeks of being written, and the next assessment is where that gap shows up. So our CMMC Readiness Services are bundled with Managed IT Services on one engagement. If you already have an MSP, that's a real conversation about timing and whether the contract at stake justifies a switch, not a reason to split the compliance work away from the systems it describes.

Why contractors bring this to us

Here's the part that's hard to fake. We don't only advise on compliance. We live it. CybertronIT is a Registered Practitioner Organization, and Cybertron International carries its own federal and commercial compliance obligations every year, so when we tell you what an assessment actually asks for, we're describing something we sit through ourselves, not a checklist we downloaded. We're in the Wichita supply chain too, not a national firm flying in for the contract, so we know how a flowdown actually lands on a Tier 2 supplier here.

That combination is rare in our market. Plenty of firms know IT. Fewer know the framework, and very few are operators who run a real business under compliance, sit in the local defense supply chain, and build and secure the kinds of systems your controlled data lives on. That's the seat we work from, and it's why our advice tends to land on what you actually need rather than the longest engagement we could sell.

What the first conversation looks like

The first conversation is short and costs you nothing but the time. We look at your contract clauses, what data you actually handle and where it lives, who can get to it, and how your current setup measures against the standard. You leave knowing your likely level, the real gaps, and a straight estimate of the work. No scare tactics, and no twelve-month retainer pitch before we've seen your environment.

If a clause just landed in your inbox, or you're bidding on work that names CMMC or NIST 800-171, book a CMMC readiness check. We'll tell you what level you're actually looking at and what it takes to get there.

Frequently asked questions

1. Are you a C3PAO? Can you certify us?

No. We're a Registered Practitioner Organization under the CyberAB, which is the role defined to help you prepare for assessment. The certifying assessment is conducted by a C3PAO, a separate and independent organization. The same firm can't both prepare you and certify you, and that separation is what keeps the certification meaningful.

2. Do subcontractors really need CMMC, or just the prime?

If a prime flows the requirement down to you, you carry it. Flowdown happens through contract clauses in the DFARS 252.204-7012 family, and a subcontractor that touches Federal Contract Information or Controlled Unclassified Information inherits the obligation. Your level depends on which kind of information you handle, not on where you sit in the supply chain.

3. What's the difference between Level 1 and Level 2?

Level 1 protects Federal Contract Information, runs on the 15 basic safeguarding requirements in FAR 52.204-21, and is a self-assessment. Level 2 protects Controlled Unclassified Information, aligns with the 110 controls of NIST SP 800-171, and is either an annual self-assessment or a triennial C3PAO assessment depending on the contract.

4. How long does it take, and what does it cost?

Both depend on your level, the data you handle, and how close your current environment already is to the standard, which is why the honest answer comes after we've looked rather than off a price sheet. As a rule it's measured in months, not weeks, and starting before you bid is far cheaper than starting after award. Book the readiness check and we'll give you a real estimate against your actual environment.

5. Can you do our CMMC work if we keep our current IT provider?

We bundle CMMC Readiness Services with Managed IT Services rather than running the compliance work alongside another firm's IT, because the documentation and the live systems have to be on the same team or they drift apart fast. If you already have an MSP, the starting point is a conversation about timing and whether the contract at stake justifies a switch.