Compliance and technology are inseparable: CUI scoping, enclave architecture, identity and access design, logging, monitoring, and the platform decisions underneath all of it. Our engineers do this work inside your environment. When a project needs a managed service we do not run, such as a hosted enclave or 24x7 monitoring, we bring in a vetted partner and stay accountable for the result.
Most compliance firms split into two camps. Policy consultants, who write documentation and stay out of the technical environment. And technical implementers, MSPs and integrators, who deploy infrastructure but don't own the compliance program.
Buyers reasonably assume those are the only two options. So when they ask Stehrling, "Do you do the technical work or just the policies?", they're applying a category that doesn't fit. The honest answer is: we do both, because the work cannot actually be separated.
You cannot scope a CUI boundary without designing the technical environment that contains it. You cannot write a System Security Plan for an enclave you haven't architected. You cannot validate access controls without understanding the identity model. The compliance program and the technical environment are the same problem viewed from two angles.
NIST SP 800-171 has 110 controls. Managed services, cloud platforms, and enclaves address roughly half of them. The rest is how your organization operates, and assessors evaluate both halves with the same rigor. An enclave can isolate your CUI. It cannot change how your people handle it.
What your IT provider, MSP, or enclave delivers
What only your organization can do, and what we build with you
Our engineers design, build, configure, and validate the technical controls 800-171 requires, inside your environment and alongside your IT team or MSP.
Stehrling is not an MSP or MSSP. We do not operate your systems day to day or run a security operations center. We design, build, configure, and oversee. For ongoing operations and 24x7 monitoring, we coordinate partners who specialize in that work.
Defining the assessment boundary is the single most consequential decision in CMMC. Get it wrong and you've expanded scope by an order of magnitude.
Whether you're building an enclave from scratch, evaluating a managed enclave provider, or restructuring an existing environment, we own the architectural decisions.
Identity is the most commonly misconfigured CMMC domain and the one assessors scrutinize most closely. Architecture decisions made here determine half your compliance posture.
The audit and accountability domain requires architectural decisions that affect cost, visibility, and assessment posture. We design what to log, where it lives, and how it's retained.
The compliance technology market is crowded and confusing. We bring vendor-neutral judgment grounded in what actually works in DIB environments, not what the sales decks claim.
What an assessor accepts as evidence is different from what looks reasonable on paper. We design technical controls and the evidence that proves them, in parallel.
Some work is better run by a specialist: hosted enclaves, platform administration, round-the-clock monitoring. For those, we bring in partners we have vetted and worked with, and we stay accountable for the result.
Pre-configured CUI environments for organizations that need certified infrastructure without building it themselves. Especially valuable for smaller DIB firms.
Implementation and tuning of governance, risk, and compliance platforms. Configuration, integration, and ongoing platform management beyond initial selection.
Day-to-day operations, monitoring, patching, and infrastructure management. We work with your existing MSP or recommend partners who understand CMMC requirements.
Specialized GCC High, Azure Government, and AWS GovCloud engineering for complex tenant migrations, hybrid architectures, and platform-specific implementations.
Security operations center capabilities, incident response retainers, and continuous monitoring services for organizations whose CMMC posture requires sustained vigilance.
Specialized offensive security testing, vulnerability assessments, and red team operations. Not part of CMMC requirements directly, but valuable for security posture.
We don't publish partner names here. We discuss specific partners during scoping, when they are relevant to your environment.
Technical implementation isn't bought separately. Here's how it appears in each of the engagements we deliver.
CUI scoping, enclave architecture, identity design, technical control implementation, SIEM and logging design, vendor selection. Every Readiness engagement is half technical work, executed in parallel with policy and procedure development. The technical architect is on every weekly call.
800-171 ReadinessTechnical control validation, configuration baseline review, evidence inspection, and identification of architectural gaps that policy review alone won't catch. Our CCAs assess the technical environment with the same rigor an assessor will apply.
Mock AssessmentQuarterly architecture reviews as environments evolve. New service introductions assessed against the CUI boundary. Vendor changes evaluated for compliance impact. Configuration drift identified before it becomes an audit finding.
Continuous ComplianceTechnology investment roadmap, vendor stack rationalization, M&A diligence on target environments, and executive-level decisions about architectural direction. Strategic Advisory engagements rely on technical judgment as much as compliance expertise.
Strategic AdvisoryThree questions come up almost every time. We answer them directly, because the honest answer is the strongest one.
Both. Our team does the architecture, configuration, identity design, control implementation, and validation. For specialized execution like GCC High tenant migrations or hosted enclaves, we bring in a vetted partner and manage the work. We are not an MSP or MSSP; we do not operate your systems day to day.
No. When a partner is needed, we bring them in and coordinate the work, so you deal with one firm instead of managing several.
We work with a small network of specialists we've vetted directly: managed enclave providers, GRC platforms, MSPs, cloud engineering specialists. We've used them on prior engagements and we maintain the relationships actively. If a partner doesn't deliver, that's our problem to solve, not yours.
The DIB compliance market is full of firms that can write a System Security Plan but cannot architect the environment that plan describes. They subcontract the technical work to MSPs, hand off integration to system integrators, and disclaim responsibility for the technical outcome. The client ends up managing the seams between three or four vendors, none of whom own the result.
That model produces predictable failures. The SSP describes controls that aren't actually configured the way the document claims. The enclave architecture has gaps that policy language can't close. The vendor stack works in theory but breaks under assessor scrutiny.
Stehrling exists in the seam where compliance and technology meet, with credentialed practitioners on both sides of that seam. Every member of our delivery team holds CCA or CCP credentials and has direct technical experience in DIB environments. The person writing your SSP can defend the architecture it describes. The person designing your enclave can map every control to its evidence. The person preparing you for assessment has done the technical work on which assessment depends.
That integration is the entire point. It's why technical implementation is embedded throughout our work rather than isolated into a single engagement, and it's why the program we build holds up when an assessor inspects both the controls and the architecture behind them.
Ask us anything. CUI scoping, enclave architecture, identity design, GCC High decisions, SIEM strategy. Talk to a practitioner who has done the work and will give you a direct answer. Expect a reply within one business day.
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An independent firm focused exclusively on NIST 800-171 compliance for defense contractors and the DIB.