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Solugen Advances Its CMMC Strategy with Virtru

Solugen

"We were using the Google stack and Virtru just fit for everything. It was a no-brainer to go with Virtru."

Adam Goss

IT Operations and Cybersecurity Manager

Solugen is a rapidly growing American chemical manufacturing company that has pioneered a carbon-negative process for converting corn syrup into a variety of chemical products. With a versatile technology platform that scales from shipping container-sized operations to massive production facilities, Solugen is reshaping sustainable manufacturing while serving both commercial and government customers. As the company expanded into Department of Defense contracts requiring CMMC compliance, they needed a data protection solution that could secure Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) without slowing down their 200+ person team or overwhelming their lean IT resources.

Watch the video to hear from Adam Goss, IT Operations and Cybersecurity Manager at Solugen. 

 


The Result

With Virtru, Solugen has made quick progress toward CMMC compliance:

  • Fast deployment with immediate time to value. Virtru was deployed across Solugen's entire organization in less than a week, enabling the company to quickly meet urgent government contract requirements for CUI.

  • Zero-friction user adoption across the organization. With minimal training required and intuitive controls, employees embraced the solution immediately. 

  • Comprehensive CMMC support with minimal IT overhead. The Virtru Private Keystore for Google Client-Side Encryption (CSE) spans both Gmail and Google Drive, requiring virtually no ongoing management. 

Finding the Right Key Management for Google CSE

Solugen's CMMC compliance journey began when they started pursuing Department of Defense contracts. The company needed to meet strict CMMC requirements for protecting CUI, but their initial approach proved impractical. "What we did, we kind of set up a little local computer and it was just segregated from everything and locked up," Goss explained. "It met the requirements, but people just weren't going to use that. So, that was the reality of it."

The company needed a cloud-based solution that would actually fit into how their teams worked. Goss's manager had looked into Virtru about a year earlier, but Solugen didn't have an immediate need at the time. When the urgent requirement arose for CUI protection, they reconnected with Virtru and found it was a natural fit with their Google Workspace environment. "We were using the Google stack and Virtru just fit for everything," said Goss. "So it was like a no-brainer to go with Virtru."

The decision was driven by practicality and speed. "It's cheap, it was quick, and it's easy to use. So it just checks all the boxes," Goss noted candidly. Virtru delivered exactly what Solugen needed without unnecessary complexity or cost.

Deploying CMMC Security Fast

Virtru's deployment process matched the urgency of Solugen's needs. Working with Nathan Williams, a Senior Deployment Engineer at Virtru, the team had Google Client-Side Encryption with Virtru Private Keystore up and running for both Gmail and Drive in under a week. "It was just super easy. You just click a button, and it was easy to install," Goss said. 

"The fact that it was so easy to set up and it's not something I have to actively manage all the time was a major bonus," he said. The Chrome plugin and email encryption features integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, with users simply clicking a button to encrypt sensitive communications. "I get all the complaints here at Solugen. So I haven't gotten very many complaints about the product. So that's how I know it's working." 

The company made the strategic decision to deploy Virtru across the entire organization rather than limiting it to just the government contracts team. "It just made sense because it's just a good technology to have: If you have something sensitive you need to share with someone outside, here's this tool," Goss explained. "The cost wasn't prohibitive, and it was just easier to give it to everyone than just a few people."

Solugen's organization-wide approach has paid dividends as teams beyond the core government group found use cases for secure collaboration. "I know our finance team uses it when they send certain sensitive documents as well. So it's being used outside of like our government stuff," Goss noted. The company maintains dedicated encrypted Google Drives for CUI, where "everything that's in that drive is just understood to be CUI Data.”

Virtru is just one piece of the puzzle for Solugen's CMMC compliance. In this video, Goss shares how the organization's CMMC journey has progressed so far. 

Responsive Support and Ease of Use

For a fast-growing startup, Virtru has proven to be exactly what Solugen needed. The solution supports their CMMC compliance journey while requiring minimal ongoing management. "This product has made it pretty easy to show that we are taking [security] seriously," Goss said.

The responsive support from Virtru's team has been equally valuable. "It's also nice to work with a company where you reach out, and you get help right away," Goss noted. "I've worked with a lot of different companies across the spectrum all over the IT world. And it's not always like that. So, we really appreciate that." When technical issues have arisen — typically on Google's end rather than Virtru's — the team has been quick to help diagnose and resolve them.

When asked what he would tell a colleague at another startup evaluating Virtru, Goss was direct: "It's simple. It's pretty easy to implement and it'll take you pretty far. You're not going to have to spend a whole bunch of time getting this thing set up and a lot of time and effort into it. It's easy to use, and that's the most important part."