Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, or CMMC, is a major topic across companies that sell into the U.S. Department of Defense. Most of those suppliers are small businesses. Many do not have the internal bandwidth to take on the CMMC Level 2 certification process. It can require sustained effort across people, processes, and technology over many months.
For some firms facing mandatory CMMC compliance certification, the situation can force an existential decision. They have to either build the capability to meet CMMC expectations and stay eligible for DoD work, or step away from that revenue entirely.
Getting CMMC Compliance Services Right
For MSPs serving small and midsized customers, CMMC creates a clear line-of-service opportunity:
- New or expanded revenue and deeper customer engagement
- Recurring revenue for continuous compliance monitoring
- Application of intelligent automation for cost- and time-efficient service delivery
But the opportunity only works if you deliver it the right way. Before you sell it, get clear on what CMMC actually is, how an assessment works, and why orchestration is the difference between passing and scrambling.
Take Lawrence Cruciana, founder and president of Corporate Information Technologies. Cruciana highlighted the depth and width that CMMC drills into an organization during an audit. In a ChannelPro article, he cautioned other MSPs to enter the process with open eyes if they intend to seek certification themselves — or if they plan to help SMBs achieve CMMC certification as part of their offering.
Orchestration is the Key to Assessment Success
CMMC isn’t another IT or cybersecurity program. It’s an extensive, intrusive process. Its tentacles probe every corner of a business. This is not just to check boxes, but to ensure comprehension and active application of policies and procedures related to framework controls.
If there ever was a use case that screams for effective compliance orchestration, CMMC is it. Some certification frameworks can be managed using a combination of templates, spreadsheets, and project management tools. However, CMMC Level 2 certification must satisfy 110 controls and 320 objectives. It incorporates so many linkages, interrelationships, branches, and tributaries that it’s untenable to coordinate using legacy manual tools.
How to Employ a Unified Orchestration Approach
Cost-effective, on-time success requires a coordinated system. Such an approach facilitates foundational actions that will drive efficient and successful completion. These include:
- Define the scope early.
- Assign ownership for each requirement.
- Track what proof you will use.
- Keep proof updated. When something changes in the environment, you update the proof before the assessor finds the mismatch.
For example, CMMC requires proof that any employee granted access to systems containing controlled unclassified information (CUI) must be vetted. The verification process might require that background checks, verification of employment eligibility, and clearance validation be provided. Other detailed requirements include documentation of visitor access controls and copies of visitor logs, or proof that output devices, such as printers, copiers, and fax machines used with CUI are secured.
MSPs looking to provide CMMC compliance management services should employ a unified orchestration approach. This process should intelligently connect, identify, ingest, and assess the huge range of data, responses, evidence, and information — all maintained in disparate platforms and repositories throughout the client’s operating environment.
Confluence of Agentic AI and CMMC Activation
AI-driven software systems can provide a single point of control and orchestration for certification procedures. This creates a dynamic workflow that can eliminate redundancies, avoid rework, and accelerate the entire process.
Complex processes working with loosely organized information sources are an excellent application for agentic AI solutions designed to address stringent CMMC requirements.
Timing matters. CMMC requirements went into effect in November 2025. Concurrently, agentic AI became effective at the kind of work CMMC creates: small, connected tasks across many systems, owned by different people, and with constant change underneath.
Steven Hess
Used correctly, agentic AI acts like a controlled delivery assistant that does the legwork and provides the decision maker with actionable results. It scans what you have, identifies gaps, proposes a plan, and keeps the work moving.
Agentic AI Still Needs the Human Touch
Though it can do a lot, agentic AI does not replace judgment. It reduces coordination drag.
In a CMMC context, the safest approach is simple. Run agents inside a secure environment, restrict them to approved CMMC source material and client-provided information, and require human review before anything becomes a deliverable.
A unified orchestration approach, supported by agentic workflows, should help MSPs do six things well:
- Map scope and dependencies across systems, teams, and vendors.
- Turn requirements into a clear work plan that adapts as you learn more.
- Coordinate tasks, owners, and timelines without losing visibility.
- Request, collect, and organize proof so it is easy to find later.
- Flag gaps and drift when systems, access, or processes change.
- Support fast human decisions with options, recommendations, and audit trails.
This is the bridge to assessment readiness. Without orchestration, you end up with scattered documents, stale screenshots, and last-minute scrambling. With orchestration, you keep the story consistent and the proof current.
The MSP Opportunity
If you’re an MSP considering CMMC support services, do your homework. It is a service line that will touch the client’s business, not just their tools. Many small contractors do not have the internal bandwidth to run it well. They need partners who can.
However, far too few CMMC-specific resources exist to assist SMBs in the DoD supply chain.
Do not try to deliver CMMC with spreadsheet-heavy, expert-only methods and a pile of disconnected systems. That approach does not scale, margins suffer, and rework becomes the default. A better model is a standardized delivery motion backed by orchestration and controlled automation.
Agentic AI can help when it is used with guardrails. It can reduce manual coordination, keep work organized, and surface gaps earlier. It does not remove the need for humans, but helps humans make faster, better decisions with clear options and an audit trail.
CMMC creates durable demand and long-term customer stickiness. MSPs that package the service, run it with discipline, and keep proof current will build long relationships. The ones that treat it like paperwork will get trapped in churn and chaos.
Steven Hess is co-founder and CEO of Deep Fathom.
Featured image: AI generated by Copilot
