IT Services for DoD Contractors and the Defense Industrial Base
Support defense contract work with clear security responsibilities and IT you can evaluate before committing.
Could Your IT Provider Put Your Next Defense Contract At Risk?
An IT provider may need administrative access to the systems supporting your defense work. That access creates questions about its people, tools, and information handling. Before adding another provider, your business needs answers it can examine against its own commitments.
Layer3 brings managed IT, cybersecurity, and compliance support to that evaluation. We help contractors address NIST SP 800-171 alignment, CMMC readiness, and documented responsibilities within an agreed scope, without suggesting that purchasing technology or hiring an MSP establishes contract eligibility. Our role is to help you build a stronger IT foundation while keeping security, accountability, and compliance responsibilities clearly understood across your organization.
What Our Defense Contractor IT Services Do For You
Evaluate proposed provider access before introducing it to contract work.
Connect NIST SP 800-171 requirements with technical and procedural tasks.
Prepare for relevant CMMC requirements without assuming certification.
Document the responsibilities shared by your company and IT providers.
Identify which records support the safeguards your business describes.
How We Make Defense IT Responsibilities Clear For You
The starting point is the work your contract requires and the information it involves. We connect that scope with system access, documented safeguards, and assigned duties before treating an IT service as appropriate for the environment.
Establish Data Boundaries
We discuss the information and systems included in the engagement before recommending changes. That boundary helps distinguish the contractor's protected work from other activities without assuming every environment is equivalent.
Examine Provider Access
Administrative tools and outside participants need scrutiny alongside client systems. We make their proposed involvement part of the service discussion, so access decisions are considered before implementation rather than afterward.
Tie Controls To Records
A safeguard described in a plan needs corresponding practice and support. We distinguish the technical work, employee procedures, and available records so readiness discussions do not rest on documentation alone.
Define Retained Duties
The contractor retains business decisions and obligations that an IT agreement cannot simply transfer. We identify those duties alongside Layer3's accepted tasks, giving both parties a reference for the engagement.
NIST SP 800-171 Alignment Support
Relate Security Requirements To The Work They Demand
A framework reference in a contract does not explain which changes your current environment needs. Layer3 helps assess relevant gaps and connect NIST SP 800-171 alignment work with technical safeguards, procedures, and documentation. We examine the requirements agreed for the engagement and the evidence available. The resulting discussion separates work that needs implementation from work that needs explanation, rather than treating a policy document as the entire security effort.
Confirm the applicable requirements and version with the people responsible for your contract before planning changes. A general framework comparison may not answer a specific contractual question. We help connect the defined requirements with the systems and practices under review, while keeping management approvals and specialist interpretation separate from the technical work we undertake.
Compare agreed requirements with the safeguards and supporting records in the contractor environment.
Identify technical corrections separately from policy changes and documentation that remain unfinished.
Keep the contract's defined scope visible instead of assuming a framework review covers every obligation.
CMMC Readiness Support
Prepare Defensible Answers About Your Security Practices
CMMC preparation requires clarity about the requirements relevant to your work and what your organization can actually demonstrate. Layer3 supports readiness through gap analysis, documentation, and agreed security improvements. We help you examine the difference between intended practices and implemented safeguards. This is preparation support, not the granting of certification, and it does not replace your review of current solicitation requirements or the assessment process applicable to you.
Readiness decisions should follow the current contract and information scope, not an assumed deadline that applies to every contractor. Identify what must be demonstrated, which records exist, and what remains unresolved. We help organize the work within our engagement, allowing your business to distinguish implementation progress from the separate decisions and evidence needed for an assessment or affirmation.
Review the safeguards and records relevant to the CMMC readiness work your business has agreed to pursue.
Separate completed improvements from intentions before relying on them in a security representation.
Plan remaining work without treating a consulting engagement as certification or guaranteed eligibility.
Managed IT For Defense Contractors
Support Employees Without Ignoring Contract Data Boundaries
Employees need help with business technology even when its use is subject to security restrictions. Layer3 provides managed IT and cybersecurity support within a defined engagement for contractor environments. We consider the information involved, the proposed support access, and the responsibilities of other parties. Ordinary troubleshooting should not introduce unexamined administrative tools or assume that an approach suitable for general office work is appropriate for protected contract information.
Before service begins, establish which systems are included and how support can reach them. Monitoring, live employee assistance, and incident response need their own scope and availability definitions. We make those distinctions part of the service conversation so your company can evaluate the proposed arrangement against actual operating needs and the restrictions attached to the environment.
Define the systems and permitted support access before adding administrative tools to contract work.
Monitoring coverage and live assistance are considered separately when evaluating service availability.
Keep other providers' duties visible where protected environments depend on more than one organization.
Security Documentation And Responsibility Mapping
Show Which Organization Performs Each Agreed Security Task
A contractor cannot explain its safeguards clearly when several providers each assume another party handles the same task. Layer3 develops a Customer Responsibility Matrix during onboarding to document the division of work. We connect that assignment with the agreed security and compliance support, identifying what your business retains. The matrix provides a reference for discussions about implementation and evidence; it does not make an unperformed activity complete simply by assigning it.
Examine each shared task from the contractor's perspective. Who performs it, who approves it, and which records show what happened? A software vendor, IT provider, and internal manager may contribute different parts. Documenting those contributions helps your company identify unresolved work and request the appropriate evidence rather than assume one provider's description answers for every participant.
Record the security work accepted by Layer3 and the responsibilities retained by your organization.
Connect assigned tasks with the approvals and evidence needed to explain how the arrangement operates.
Identify contributions from other providers without assuming their work is included in Layer3's scope.
Why Defense Contractors Consider Layer3 For IT And Readiness Work
Defense contractors need to examine the provider as carefully as the proposed service. Layer3 offers regulated industry experience, documented responsibility mapping, and published due-diligence material as starting points for that evaluation.
Framework Fluency
Our work with federally regulated organizations involves NIST and defense security requirements. We use that context to discuss the connection between requirements, supporting practices, and IT decisions, rather than present a software purchase as the answer.
Open Provider Review
Layer3 publishes an MSP questionnaire and its service agreement for buyers to examine. Those materials create a basis for questions about the relationship, including points that must be clarified or confirmed before your organization authorizes access.
A Defined Engagement
Your need may be a gap review or an implementation task. Layer3 offers project and assessment starting points, allowing the contractor to establish the intended work before deciding whether managed services belong in the same relationship.
Practical Remediation
A finding may require a setting, a procedure, or both working together. Our connected IT and GRC capabilities help you discuss the correction without assuming the most expensive product is the right response to the issue.
What Makes Us Different?
We believe in honesty and transparency. The National Defense Information Sharing Analysis Center offers a series of questions for Defense Industrial Base (DIB) contractors to ask potential MSPs to get an idea of their maturity and how they'll handle your data. We're putting our answers to these questions out here publicly, not just for those in the Defense Industrial Base, but for everyone to see.
Are you familiar with NIST 800-171, DFARS 7012, and CMMC?
We have been working with federally regulated verticals since our inception in 2015 - we're quite familiar with NIST 800-171, NIST 800-53, DFARS 7012, and CMMC. We're looking to get CMMC certified ourselves, and are willing to accept a DFARS 7012 flowdown from your contracts into our own.
To which security framework do you align?
We align our systems to NIST 800-171, and our clients to NIST CSF, unless there are additional compliance requirements.
Do you have a Customer Responsibility Matrix (CRM)?
We do! We build out a customized responsibility matrix for each client we onboard, as there are different requirements for different industries!
Are all people working for your company U.S. Persons?
Yes! Due to our work in the compliance verticals, we only employ US Persons, and utilize third-party contractors who do the same.
If any of my data is stored on your information systems, where are those systems geolocated?
While all of our information systems are located within the Continental United States, we do not store any of our client's data in our systems.
Where does my data exist in your environment?
Your data does not exist in our environment. All of your data is owned by you!
What is your data retention policy?
We retain data for our clients who do not need to meet compliance standards for 5 years. For those that have federally regulated compliance requirements, we store data for 10 years.
Is MFA enforced for administrator access? For Remote Access? For applications?
Multi-Factor Authentication through FIPS-compliant FIDO-2 Hardware Tokens is utilized on all available systems, including when accessing our desktops and laptops. There are no exceptions to this.
How does your team access my environment?
For our customers who are not federally regulated, we utilize Datto RMM. For clients in GCC environments, we require Intune Remote Access licensing, and for GCC High environments, we only provide remote access through secured bastion terminals into the client's secure enclave.
Do you outsource anything to subcontractors?
Sometimes we do outsource project work to subcontractors, and when we do, they're vetted and background checked. Additionally we ensure that third-party companies (for cabling, etc.) only hire US persons, and utilize equipment (security cameras, door lock systems, etc.) that are not on the NDAA Prohibited vendors list for our compliance customers.
Do you have a Security Operations Center (SOC) or Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system?
Yes, if necessary, we implement Azure Sentinel within a customer environment, and we currently utilize a security operations center for all of our commercial clients.
What internal governing policies does the MSP have in place?
We follow the NIST 800 series for guidance on internal policies and adhere to the CMMC Code of Conduct.
What risk assessment are you performing on tools that you add to your environment that support my organization?
Again, the customer owns the tools and resultant risk assessments. Most of them are cloud tools where the risks are mitigated by the SaaS providers. We use Greenbone Security Manager as a vulnerability scanner for environments if necessary. We also utilize Vonahi vPenTest to periodically test our environments for exploitable issues.
How do you manage our passwords?
We utilize password management systems (like Keeper, or KeePass) and will not store your passwords anywhere else. While we do utilize documentation systems like Hudu, Passportal or ITGlue, we do not store any client passwords in that system.
Do you perform Incident Response support for our systems?
Yes, that is included with even our most basic Managed IT and Security Services plan.
What is your company’s (the MSP’s) Incident Response Plan?
We follow internally and practice for our customers the NIST 800-61 Incident Handling guide.
Can you expand on your hiring and termination practices?
We only hire US citizens who successfully pass a background check.
Can you tell me about your ideal client?
We're currently looking for clients who are 15 to 100 employees in size, in one of the following verticals: Automotive Dealers, Manufacturing (including Defense Industrial Base Manufacturers), Financial Services, and Healthcare.
Will you share your SSP with me?
Yes, once we sign a mutual non-disclosure agreement, we will share our SSP with you.
Are you a reseller of services, or provide direct?
We are a software reseller and provide direct services to our customers for the products we resell.
Do you carry cyber insurance?
Of course!
[If supplying hardware/network infrastructure] Is the product FIPS-Validated?
We offer FIPS Validated hardware, however the final decision is ultimately that of our clients.
Is the company familiar (and compliant) with FAR Rule Section 889, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (NDAA 2020), and the prohibited vendor list?
Yes, we are familiar. We also do not utilize, nor do our contractors utilize any vendors from the prohibited vendor list.
Has your company undergone any audits or assessments, and what was the result?
We have not, but we are currently working to achieve CMMC Maturity Level 2.
How long have you been in business?
We first opened in July of 2015!
Can you share references?
Absolutely!
Is MSP DUNS number (or UEI) on DnB or SAM.gov?
Yes, it is! You can find us on both Dun & Bradstreet as well as sam.gov! We will provide our D-U-N-S number as well as our SAM.gov UEID upon request. We are currently in the process of receiving our CAGE code.
Have you changed ownership or management in the last 12 months?
No, we have been under the same ownership/management since our start in July of 2015!
Headquarters
116 Rounseville Rd,
Hampton, NJ 08827
