CMMC 2.0 compliance for
Knoxville defense contractors

Most Oak Ridge subs have a similar shape: a small engineering, manufacturing, or technical-services firm with 10–80 employees, working under one or more primes feeding ORNL, Y-12, or DoE programs, with Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) on a handful of engineering workstations and a shared file system. Your prime's contract flowdown almost certainly requires Level 2. The implementation is roughly 90–150 days from gap assessment to internal pre-assessment; the technical stack (EDR, SOC, MFA, logging, encryption, conditional access) is the same as for any Level 2 environment, but the CUI scoping is more nuanced because of the volume of technical data crossing into M365 and engineering tools daily.

No — and on purpose. C3PAOs are the assessors. We are the implementation partner: we deploy the controls, write the System Security Plan and POA&M, operate the environment, and run a mock assessment with an independent reviewer before you submit. The C3PAO conflict-of-interest rules make it impossible to be both implementer and assessor for the same client — the right setup is exactly what we do: implementation by Gravity, assessment by an independent C3PAO.

Yes. The constraint isn't usually CMMC compliance, it's segmentation. Specialty engineering tools (CAD, simulation software, controllers tied to legacy hardware) often can't move to a fully managed enclave. We segment those systems into a CUI enclave with strict access controls, logging, and the supplemental controls Level 2 requires — while keeping the engineering workflow intact. Your engineers don't have to learn new software.

Both, and the mix depends on the engagement. Our Knoxville office is at 8351 E. Walker Springs Lane in West Knoxville — about 25 minutes from Oak Ridge city center via Pellissippi Parkway, 15 minutes from Farragut, ~45 minutes from Maryville. On-site visits happen the same day when audit timelines or hands-on work demand. Day-to-day, most operations are remote — but the engineer answering your call already knows your environment.

Yes — the playbook can compress when primes accelerate the deadline. The shape: deploy the technical control stack first (these score the most points on the SPRS rubric and are fastest to deploy), write the SSP in parallel rather than sequentially, and document any genuinely-non-critical gaps in the POA&M with realistic target dates. Talk to us early — even a 30-day head start materially changes what's achievable inside the new window.

For most East Tennessee contractors crossing both worlds, the practical answer is no — the NIST SP 800-171 control set covers both DoD CUI and DoE-marked unclassified controlled information (UCI) requirements with very little daylight. We design the enclave to handle both. Where the work involves classified material, that's a separate enclave and a separate engagement entirely — typically out-of-scope for CMMC 2.0 Level 2.

It rolls into our flat-rate per-user monthly managed services pricing. The CMMC engagement is a project; the ongoing operation (running the SOC, maintaining the SSP, closing POA&M items, refreshing evidence for the next assessment cycle) is part of normal monthly service. No surprise re-implementation fees three years from now when the assessment renews.