Why You Should Start Your CMMC Compliance Journey with a Greenfield Environment
By Meena Venkat, Product Manager, Security & Compliance Services
In today’s rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, organizations handling Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) face a complex landscape of risks and regulatory hurdles.
Disconnected tools and inconsistent configurations across multiple environments make it difficult to enforce unified security policies. Manual processes for compliance tracking and reporting are not only error-prone but also resource-intensive. To meet and maintain compliance, organizations must produce extensive documentation with regards to their current security posture.
In order to address these challenges, many organizations are now turning to Greenfield environments.
A Greenfield environment is a secure, isolated IT environment purpose-built to meet compliance and security requirements from the ground up, enabling easier alignment with modern compliance frameworks and a proactive security posture.
A Shifting Landscape: Rising Compliance and Security Demands
According to the official website of the United States Government, under the Department of Defense’s CMMC 2.0 framework, contractors must not only demonstrate initial compliance but also sustained cybersecurity maturity throughout the contract lifecycle.
This includes producing and maintaining extensive documentation such as System Security Plans (SSPs), Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms), and evidence of control implementation across 110 security controls and 320 objectives. To add, these artifacts must align with NIST SP 800-171 standards and must be validated through either self-assessments or third-party audits, depending on the contract’s required maturity level.
Contractors must also post their assessment scores to the Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS) and ensure that their CMMC certificate remains current and valid for the duration of the contract, as outlined by the DoD’s official CMMC Program Overview and CMMC 2.0 Proposed Rule.
Understanding Greenfield
In this context, a “Greenfield” is a logically and/or physically separated hardened environment used to isolate sensitive workloads.
A Greenfield environment, also known as a GCCH CUI Enclave, refers to a secure, isolated IT environment within Microsoft’s cloud platform, built to properly process, store, and transmit CUI. For example, the net new Microsoft 365 Government Community Cloud High environment is considered a Greenfield or GCCH CUI Enclave.
Greenfield environments are not just a technical solution. They represent a strategic shift toward proactive security architecture.
Greenfield environments are able to:
- Rapidly onboard new users, clients or projects with sensitive data requirements
- Demonstrate compliance maturity during audits
- Reduce long-term operational risk and technical debt
Industry Adoption
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has adopted a Greenfield strategy to modernize federal IT systems and proactively reduce cyber risks. This approach allows agencies to:
- Eliminate legacy vulnerabilities
- Implement Zero Trust frameworks
- Reduce attack surfaces
- Improve agility and security posture
How Greenfield Environments Address Current Challenges
Security by Design
Greenfield environments are built from the ground up with hardened configurations. Over 1,700 hardening configurations are applied to Microsoft 365 GCC High tenants to ensure a secure baseline. This isolation of sensitive workloads reduces lateral movement and attack surface.
Automated Compliance
A Greenfield environment integrates tools like Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager, Sentinel, and Defender for Endpoint to automate monitoring, alerting, and remediation. Mapped controls and documentation templates help streamline CMMC Level 2 compliance.
Zero Trust Enablement
Greenfield environments support Zero Trust principles by enforcing the least privilege access, micro-segmentation, and continuous verification, aligning with modern Zero Trust framework. This process effectively eliminates legacy vulnerabilities by starting fresh, therefore reducing the attack surface.
Operational Efficiency
Greenfield environments offer a more economical and scalable alternative to retrofitting legacy systems, reducing manual work through automated gap assessments and built-in remediation guidelines. Organizations can scale securely without inheriting legacy vulnerabilities or technical debt.
Get Started with Securitybricks Today
Most defense contractors require CMMC Level 2 certification, which necessitates using Microsoft GCC High to meet compliance standards. Protecting CUI and Federal Contract Information (FCI) is critical.
Securitybricks can help you build, implement, and maintain a Greenfield environment to navigate CMMC compliance requirements efficiently and cost-effectively.
Greenfield – CUI Enclave Implementation
To enhance your cybersecurity posture, a new Greenfield or GCCH CUI Enclave is provisioned and configured. Our full range of services can help your organization build and implement a secure tenant configuration within M365 so that CUI is protected and proper controls are implemented to ensure CMMC Level 2 compliance.
Greenfield – CMMC Level 2 Artifact Development
Comprehensive documentation of the supporting policies and procedures required to achieve CMMC Level 2 compliance can be used to guide the operation of your new environment. This documentation includes your SSP, POA&M, risk assessments, and other essential policies and procedures.
Greenfield – License Procurement
As a trusted Microsoft Government security partner, the Securitybricks team has extensive experience navigating compliance and licensing for private and public sector organizations. We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with you to seamlessly provide the necessary Government Community Cloud (GCC High) licenses, ensuring your organization has secure, compliant access within the Microsoft ecosystem.
Ready to take the complexity out of CMMC compliance? Contact us to schedule a personalized demo or consultation.