For small to mid-sized federal contractors, the path to CMMC compliance often feels like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side, you have the Department of War (DoW) requiring stringent security controls to secure future contracts. On the other, you have the eye-watering costs of the technology required to meet those controls — specifically, Microsoft GCC High G5 licenses.
For a long time, the G5 license was the gold standard, but its price tag was prohibitive for smaller organizations. Enter Microsoft 365 Business Premium for GCC High.
Designed specifically for smaller organizations in the DIB, this SKU promises a secure, compliant environment at a lower price point than Microsoft GCC High. But before you rush to migrate, there is a reality check you need to hear. While the license itself is cheaper, the total cost of ownership is a different story.
Here is what federal contractors need to know about what to expect from MS Business Premium for GCC High.
Let’s start with the positives. Microsoft listened to the market and recognized that small businesses (SMBs) play a vital role in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB). They introduced the Business Premium SKU for GCC High to help these smaller players compete.
On paper, this looks like the perfect solution for a contractor trying to protect their margins while protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).
This is where many contractors get caught off guard. Purchasing the license provides you with a compliant environment (one that meets data sovereignty requirements for DFARS 252.204-7012). It does not make you CMMC Level 2 compliant out of the box.
Think of it like buying a high-tech security system for your office building. Microsoft sells you the cameras, the sensors, and the control panel. However, when you first turn it on, the cameras aren't recording, the sensors aren't calibrated, and the alarms aren't set.
Nothing comes "set up."
When you purchase M365 Business Premium for GCC High, you are buying access to a system, not a configured solution. You are left with the heavy lifting of configuring complex tools like Microsoft Intune endpoint management, Entra ID identity management (formerly Azure AD), and Purview. And there’s a lot of DIY setup that could potentially go awry, especially when it comes to handling the DoW’s highly sensitive data. The stakes are high.
If you have an IT director who is a wizard with Microsoft Commercial Cloud, you might be tempted to think, “We can handle this in-house.”
Proceed with caution.
GCC High is a completely different animal than the Commercial Cloud. The interface, the logic, and the feature parity are different. Feedback from customers and consultants in the field suggests that unless you are a verified expert in both MS GCC High and CMMC controls, you will likely misconfigure the environment.
Based on our conversations with customers and Microsoft resellers in the DIB, there are no "step-by-step" guides from Microsoft on how to configure this specific SKU for CMMC. There are only high-level guides on what features exist. You are left to figure out how to map those features to the 110 practices of CMMC Level 2.
Because the environment is so complex, the standard recommendation is to hire a third-party consultant (MSP or MSSP) to handle the deployment.
Furthermore, configuration is only half the battle. CMMC requires rigorous documentation. You must document exactly how you configured the system in your System Security Plan (SSP), policies, and procedures. If you configure it yourself, you must write the technical documentation yourself.
A cheaper version of GCC High for CMMC sounds fantastic in a headline. But once you dig into the technical requirements to actually make it work for an enterprise, you realize it is significantly harder, requires complex key management, and costs much more in labor than anticipated.
The license cost is just the tip of the iceberg.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium for GCC High is a welcome addition to the market and a viable path for small contractors. However, it is not a "plug-and-play" compliance sticker.
Our advice?
Virtru provides data-centric security that allows you to encrypt and share CUI easily with external partners and customers, without requiring users or recipients to become encryption experts. In fact, many of our customers who use Microsoft GCC High still choose Virtru for easy, secure file sharing outside of their organizations.
Virtru customers like Maya HTT show that you can pass CMMC Level 2 assessments with Microsoft Commercial Cloud by managing CUI outside of the Microsoft environment, leveraging Virtru's FedRAMP authorized platform for external sharing.
By layering Virtru on top of your Microsoft collaboration suite, you create a path for CUI files to be shared while remaining protected, regardless of how complex your network configuration becomes. Virtru brings security and collaboration together so that you don’t have to sacrifice one at the cost of the other — you can have both.
Preparing for CMMC? Contact Virtru today to see how we can help secure your CUI and simplify your path to CMMC Level 2 compliance.