The CMMC rule (48 CFR) is set to take effect with contract requirements beginning as early as October 2025. One of the most common concerns defense contractors have is the cost of achieving compliance. CMMC will step up enforcement of the 110 NIST SP 800-171 controls, making certification a prerequisite for continued work with the Department of Defense (DoD). To achieve certification, defense contractors will need to budget for the implementation of new technologies, training, protocols, and assessments. These costs can add up fast.
Fortunately, there is a way to significantly reduce the cost of achieving compliance: a CMMC enclave. Creating a CMMC enclave allows companies to deploy the tech and resources required to protect CUI for only the part of the organization that must handle sensitive data. This saves time and money, making it an ideal solution for budget-conscious small- to medium-sized contractors.
What is a CMMC Enclave?
The CyberAB’s CMMC Assessment Process (CAP) defines an enclave as “a set of system resources that operate within the same security domain and that share the protection of a single, common, and continuous security perimeter.” In effect, an enclave segments your network to ‘wall off’ CUI systems from all other networks.
Think of an enclave as a closed room within a house. The house represents your entire organization. The closed room is where you keep CUI. Only that room must meet the CMMC compliance requirements.
An enclave includes both technical assets and people. More people with access means more training requirements. Each additional person needs cybersecurity training, background checks, and strict data handling procedures.
Contractors decide which assets and employees go inside their CMMC enclave. If your entire organization can access CUI, your entire organization gets assessed. That’s expensive. Make your enclave as small as possible instead.
The financial impact is significant. A well-designed enclave might secure 20 workstations instead of 200. You train 15 people instead of your entire workforce. The assessment becomes focused and manageable. Ongoing maintenance costs drop dramatically.
Limit your CUI perimeter. Restrict access. CMMC costs scale with scope. Strategic enclave design is the most effective way to achieve certification while controlling expenses.
Benefits of a CMMC Enclave
- Fewer Costs: As mentioned above, creating a CMMC enclave can save you money. An enclave means a smaller compliance footprint, leaving you with fewer endpoints you’ll need to spend money on to protect and assess.
- Time Savings: Since there are fewer endpoints to secure, your team won’t need to spend as much time on implementation and ensuring compliance.
- Streamlined Access Management: Creating an enclave also means only those employees who need to handle CUI will have access to CUI. This means you’ll only need to train and manage those employees in the applicable protocols for compliance. This, too, will save you time and money.
By reducing the scope of assessment, enclaves make achieving compliance a faster, cheaper, easier process.
How to Create a CMMC Enclave
Creating a secure CMMC enclave doesn’t need to be complicated. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started.
1. Define your scope
The first step in creating a CMMC enclave is to find out where CUI currently lives in your system and who has access to it. If your answer is that it’s everywhere and everyone on your team can access it, you need to seriously consider who must handle CUI as an essential component of their job.
Everyone on your team should not need to touch CUI, with only very few exceptions of very small organizations. Similarly, CUI shouldn’t need to be stored everywhere in your system and accessible from all endpoints.
2. Create a compliance boundary
Your compliance boundary will clearly define the enclave where CUI lives in your system.
3. Implement technologies
Most CUI is shared through email and file sharing. If you’re currently using a commercial platform like Microsoft O365, your platform does not support CMMC compliance. You will need to implement technologies that can do so.
Ensure the technologies you choose, including email and file sharing platforms, meet DFARS 7012 c-g and FIPS 140-2 requirements. DFARS 7012 c-g instructs defense contractors how to report cybercrimes such as identity fraud, theft of corporate data or ransomware attacks. FIPS 140-2 sets a cryptographic-based security standard for systems protecting CUI.
4. Create policies and procedures
Achieving CMMC compliance will require a combination of policies, procedures, and technologies. Your policies and procedures should define who manages CUI, who handles, and how they can do so in a compliant way. The human part of the equation is just as important as implementing secure technologies.
5. Conduct a self-assessment against NIST 800-171
The CMMC controls will perfectly mirror the 110 controls of NIST 800-171. Conduct a self-assessment against NIST 800-171 to determine how close (or far) you are from meeting your compliance requirements today.
Your self-assessment will help you figure out how far you need to go to achieve CMMC compliance. From there, you can map out what you need to do to meet CMMC.
A Real-World CMMC Enclave Example
PreVeil recently enabled a small-to-medium defense contractor to achieve CMMC compliance with a perfect score of 110 on their assessment. The game-changer for this organization was the use of an enclave for CUI.
Originally, the organization used Microsoft O365 for its email and file-sharing needs but Microsoft O365 does not support CMMC compliance. Rather than overhauling their entire system, the organization created an enclave for the fewer than 50 employees that handle CUI. From there, they added PreVeil for email and file-sharing.
Creating a secure enclave allowed the company to reduce scope, avoid rip and replacement, and significantly reduce compliance costs.
To learn more about how this organization achieved CMMC compliance, read the full case study here.
FAQs about CMMC Enclaves
Build vs. Managed Secure Enclave
Building an in-house secure enclave gives organizations full control over architecture, configurations, and compliance workflows—but it also requires substantial investment in infrastructure, expertise, ongoing monitoring, and ensuring NIST 800-171 alignment. In contrast, a managed secure enclave offers a turnkey, vendor-operated solution that handles implementation, patching, monitoring, incident response, and documentation tailored for CMMC compliance. For small and mid-sized defense contractors looking to minimize overhead and accelerate compliance, a managed enclave often provides a faster, more cost-effective path. Larger enterprises with specific technical or regulatory demands may still elect to build their own enclave for greater control. Ultimately, the choice between building or outsourcing hinges on your organization’s resources, risk tolerance, and compliance strategy.
How Does a CUI Enclave Align with CMMC 2.0 Requirements
An enclave directly supports CMMC 2.0 requirements by creating an isolated, compliant environment for storing, sharing, and managing CUI. By limiting the scope of where CUI resides, an enclave reduces the compliance boundary, making it easier to implement and demonstrate the 110 security controls in NIST SP 800-171. Enclaves are also designed to enforce access controls, encryption, monitoring, and incident response—all core requirements under CMMC 2.0. This targeted approach helps organizations achieve compliance more efficiently while lowering cost and risk.
CMMC Enclave vs. Enterprise
A CMMC enclave confines CUI to a limited, secure environment, reducing the scope and cost of compliance. In contrast, an enterprise approach requires applying all CMMC 2.0 security controls across the entire organization, which is often more complex, costly, and resource-intensive. For small and mid-sized contractors, enclaves offer a faster, more practical path to compliance, while larger enterprises with advanced IT capabilities may choose organization-wide implementation.
What is an ITAR-compliant Enclave?
An ITAR-compliant enclave is a secure environment designed to protect data and communications subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Similar to a CUI enclave, it isolates sensitive information, but with stricter controls such as U.S.-only data storage, encryption, and user access limited to U.S. persons.
Learn about achieving CMMC compliance with PreVeil below:
Final Thoughts on CMMC Enclaves
Small- to medium-sized businesses are used to having to work smarter than the big guys. Enclaves are a key way of doing exactly that. The use of enclaves can help small-medium contractors mitigate compliance costs and secure a competitive advantage.
Learn more:
Video: How to Protect CUI with Compliant Enclaves
