Capital Advisory CMMC Cost Architecture
Year 1 Total $216,500
Strategic Investment Simulator Why one firm spends $40K and another exceeds $400K for the same certification. Adjust the operational, architectural, and organizational variables below. Every figure updates against current C3PAO market ranges.
Estimated Budgetary Requirement
$216,500 Year 1
Annual Sustainment
$89,000 $0 $600K+
Market Vertical Influence: High Defense Manufacturing
OT systems + supplier risk
Aerospace
Export controls + engineering data
Managed Service Provider
Shared responsibility scope
Software / SaaS
Cloud + DevSecOps exposure
Healthcare Tech
HIPAA overlap
Industrial / Energy
ICS / SCADA exposure
Logistics / Supply Chain
Third-party ecosystem
Certification Level Influence: High Level 1
FCI self-assessment.
Level 2
CUI, C3PAO certified.
Level 3
DIBCAC-led, advanced controls.
Operational Complexity Influence: Critical T1 Single site SMB
Single office, under 25 users, limited CUI.
T2 Distributed SMB
Multiple departments, remote workforce.
T3 Multi-site operations
Multi-site, suppliers, cloud integrations.
T4 Enterprise with OT
Large enterprise, OT/ICS, complex supply chain.
T5 Global defense ecosystem
Subcontractors and global exposure.
Architectural Decisions Influence: Critical CUI Data Enclave Isolate controlled data in a dedicated environment.
Isolated Enclave Enterprise-wide
Reduces audit surface ~85% vs enterprise.
Cloud Strategy Sovereignty drives licensing and migration spend.
Commercial M365
Lower cost, limited CUI coverage.
GCC
Mid-tier government cloud.
GCC High
Full ITAR / CUI sovereign cloud.
OT / ICS Systems Operational technology in compliance scope.
Not in scope In scope
Standard IT-only scope.
Starting Maturity Existing baseline of controls.
No formal program
Starting from scratch.
Basic IT hygiene
MFA, backups, some policies.
NIST / FedRAMP aligned
Existing controls baseline.
Delivery Model How sustainment is staffed.
Internal team
Higher headcount, owned.
Hybrid
Internal lead + partners.
Outsourced MSSP
Faster, recurring opex.
Investment Distribution Administrative Readiness $22,000
Technical Architecture $99,500
Identity, endpoints, logging, segmentation, secure cloud.
SIEM & Log Retention Recurring
$22,000 EDR / XDR Recurring
$14,000 Identity (MFA / PAM) Recurring
$9,900 Network Segmentation
$14,000 Secure Backups & Encryption
$7,000 Email Security & DLP Recurring
$5,000 Assessment & Audit $30,500
Ongoing Sustainment $50,000
Tooling & Platform Spend $14,500
Cost Drivers Why this number?
Top variables shaping your current estimate, ordered by impact.
Adjust variables above to surface drivers.
The Executive Trap Most small and mid-size contractors certify their entire network by default. Segmenting CUI into a hardened enclave typically reduces scope by ~80% , with proportional savings in tooling, audit duration, and documentation effort.
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