Appears on
Articles14
FedRAMP Equivalency: What DoW Cloud Contractors Prove
FedRAMP equivalency is the mechanism that lets a Department of War (DoW) contractor use a cloud service that does not hold its own FedRAMP authorization, provided the contractor can prove that cloud meets the FedRAMP security baseline required for defense data. The idea sounds like a shortcut, and that is exactly where contractors get into trouble, because e
CMMC Level 2 in 2026: What the Phase 2 Suspension Actually Means for Your Contracts
On July 10, 2026, the Department of War suspended the Phase 2 requirements of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, and with them the CMMC Level 2 third-party assessment that was scheduled to take effect on November 10, 2026. If you have been racing toward a C3PAO assessment, that deadline is gone for now. What did not go away is your legal obligat
FedRAMP Certification Timeline: How Long Each Phase Really Takes
The honest answer to the FedRAMP certification timeline question has two halves that most guides blur together: the program milestones, which are fixed dates FedRAMP publishes, and the phase durations, which are estimates that depend entirely on your service. Under the Consolidated Rules for 2026 (CR26), the fixed dates changed and the duration math changed
FedRAMP Marketplace Listing: New Rules and How CSPs Get Visible
The FedRAMP Marketplace is the federal government’s authoritative catalog of cloud service offerings, independent assessors, and advisors, and as of July 6, 2026 it does something it never did before: it lists cloud service providers that are still early in implementation, before they hold any certification. For a cloud service provider (CSP), that changes t
Controlled Unclassified Information: A 2026 Guide to CUI
Controlled Unclassified Information, or CUI, is unclassified federal information that a law, regulation, or Government-wide policy requires an agency to protect with safeguarding or dissemination controls. Before the program existed, more than 100 different markings for sensitive information were scattered across the executive branch, which created confusion
System Security Plan (SSP): The Foundation of CMMC Compliance
A System Security Plan, or SSP, is the formal document that describes the security requirements of an information system and the controls in place or planned to meet them, and for defense contractors it is the single document that can stop an assessment before it begins. Federal assessment guidance is blunt on this point: the absence of a system security pla
GCC High for CMMC: Do You Really Need It?
GCC High is the answer most defense contractors reach for the moment CMMC enters the conversation, yet for a large share of them it is the wrong answer, or at least a more expensive one than the contract requires. The premium runs 40 to 70 percent above commercial licensing, which can mean tens of thousands of dollars a year for a mid-sized organization. The
Adequate and Sufficient Evidence for CMMC
Adequate and sufficient evidence is the standard that separates a CMMC practice scored MET from one scored NOT MET, and most assessments are lost not because a control is missing but because the evidence presented is the wrong kind, or there is not enough of it. The two words describe two entirely different tests. Adequate asks whether the evidence is the ri
External Service Providers and CSPs in CMMC
External service providers and the cloud platforms that run alongside them are the single biggest source of confusion in a CMMC assessment, and for good reason. The rules changed. Under the earlier proposed rule, a managed service provider that touched a defense contractor’s environment generally had to hold its own CMMC certification. Under the final rule,
Build vs Managed Secure Enclave for CMMC: The Level 2 Decision
The choice between a build vs managed secure enclave for CMMC decides more than where your controlled unclassified information lives; it sets the scope, the cost, and the timeline of your entire Level 2 assessment. Most defense contractors treat the enclave as an IT project and discover too late that it is a compliance operating model they now have to run ev
FedRAMP Consultant: What CR26 Changes About the Advisor Role for CSPs
Hiring a FedRAMP consultant in 2026 is a different decision than it was a year ago, because the Consolidated Rules for 2026 (CR26) rewrote the vocabulary, the deliverables, and the vetting criteria that separate a current advisor from a dangerous one. FedRAMP itself no longer uses the language most consultants were trained on, and it now tells cloud service
FedRAMP Sponsor Requirements in 2026: The Paths to Certify Without an Agency Partner
For most of the program’s history, finding a FedRAMP sponsor was the single hardest part of reaching the federal market, and the large majority of authorizations ran through an agency willing to shepherd a provider through the process. That dependency stopped a lot of capable cloud service providers before they started, because a strong product does not help
FedRAMP Compliance Checklist: Every Step From Scoping to Certification
A FedRAMP compliance checklist is only useful if it describes the program that exists today, and most of the checklists you will find online do not. The Consolidated Rules for 2026 (CR26) launched officially on June 24, 2026 and become mandatory on January 1, 2027, retiring the JAB, the Provisional ATO, and the FedRAMP Ready designation that older checklists
FedRAMP Certification Requirements: What the CR26 Rulebook Demands
The FedRAMP certification requirements a cloud service provider had to meet a year ago are not the ones the program enforces today. The Consolidated Rules for 2026 (CR26) launched officially on June 24, 2026 and become mandatory on January 1, 2027, and they replaced the old control-count model with a rulebook, a set of Key Security Indicators, and two very d