Federal Government Microsoft Consulting — FedRAMP, CMMC 2.0, GCC + GCC High (2026)

Microsoft 365 Government Community Cloud (GCC) is a dedicated multi-tenant M365 environment for U.S. federal, state, local, and tribal government customers and their contractors. GCC inherits FedRAMP Moderate authorization and DoD SRG IL2, and the underlying Azure datacenters are physically located in the continental United States with screened U.S.-persons operations personnel.

Microsoft 365 GCC High is the M365 environment built to U.S. federal government standards for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) — including ITAR, export-controlled data, and the data types in scope for CMMC 2.0 Level 2. The environment is FedRAMP High authorized, DoD SRG IL4 / IL5 aligned, and operated exclusively by screened U.S. citizens.

The dedicated Department of Defense plane of Microsoft 365 — physically and logically isolated from commercial, GCC, and GCC High. DoD IL5 is authorized for Controlled Unclassified Information that requires higher confidentiality or mission-criticality than Moderate. IL6 is authorized for classified information up to the SECRET level on the SIPRNet boundary.

Azure Government is a physically separate Azure cloud built for U.S. government customers and contractors. Operated by screened U.S. citizens in U.S.-only datacenters, it carries FedRAMP High, DoD SRG IL2 / IL4 / IL5 (with select services at IL6), CJIS, IRS 1075, ITAR, and EAR authorizations. Azure Government is the platform layer beneath M365 GCC High and DoD M365.

The U.S. federal government program that standardizes security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. FedRAMP Moderate is the baseline for most federal civilian workloads. FedRAMP High is required for sensitive but unclassified information including PII, financial, and law-enforcement data. FedRAMP Tailored (LI-SaaS) is a streamlined path for low-impact SaaS.

The Department of Defense's certification framework for the Defense Industrial Base, mandated for any contractor or subcontractor handling DoD information. Level 1 covers Federal Contract Information (FCI) with 17 basic safeguarding practices. Level 2 covers Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and maps to the 110 NIST SP 800-171 controls — most DoD contracts. Level 3 covers the highest-priority CUI with NIST SP 800-172 enhanced controls.

Federal regulations governing the export of defense articles, defense services, and dual-use commercial technology. ITAR (administered by DDTC, State Department) covers munitions list items. EAR (administered by BIS, Commerce Department) covers dual-use technology. Both require U.S.-persons-only access to controlled data and prohibit storage in non-U.S. datacenters.

FISMA establishes the statutory baseline for federal information security. NIST SP 800-53 is the catalog of security and privacy controls referenced by FISMA, FedRAMP, and most federal compliance regimes — over 1,000 controls organized into 20 families (Access Control, Audit, Awareness, Incident Response, System and Communications Protection, and others). Most federal civilian agency systems operate against a 800-53 Moderate or High baseline.

StateRAMP is the state and local government parallel to FedRAMP — a standardized assessment, authorization, and continuous-monitoring program for cloud services consumed by U.S. state, local, and education (SLED) governments. Many states (including California, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts, and others) now require StateRAMP authorization for cloud procurements.

HIPAA establishes the federal baseline for protected health information (PHI). For federal healthcare workloads — Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Service, Military Health System, and federally funded research — the HHS Office for Civil Rights and the VA Handbook 6500 layer additional guidance on top of HIPAA, often combined with a FedRAMP High overlay for cloud hosting.

Use case 1. Federal contractor inheriting three M365 tenants after acquisition

Use case 2. DoD contractor migrating to GCC High for ITAR workloads

Use case 3. Federal civilian agency Power BI modernization in Azure Government

Use case 4. State agency StateRAMP rollout

Use case 5. Federal healthcare organization — HIPAA + FedRAMP High overlay

Who are FedRAMP-authorized Microsoft consultants?

FedRAMP authorization is granted to cloud service offerings (CSOs) — not to consulting firms. Microsoft 365 GCC, Microsoft 365 GCC High, and Azure Government are FedRAMP-authorized cloud services. Consulting firms can be FedRAMP-aligned — meaning they deliver Microsoft cloud implementations mapped to the FedRAMP control catalog and produce the documentation an agency or prime needs for its Authority to Operate (ATO). EPC Group delivers FedRAMP-aligned M365 GCC / GCC High and Azure Government deployments for federal civilian agencies and federal contractors. Past clients include NASA, the FBI, the Federal Reserve, and the Pentagon. Other firms in this category include Accenture Federal Services, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics IT (GDIT), and Avanade Federal Services. When evaluating consultants, look for a documented FedRAMP-aligned delivery methodology, a documented Authorization Boundary Diagram template, a Control Implementation Summary (CIS) workbook the firm reuses, and named federal past performance.

What is the difference between GCC and GCC High?

Microsoft 365 GCC (Government Community Cloud) is a multi-tenant M365 environment for U.S. government customers and their contractors. GCC inherits FedRAMP Moderate authorization and DoD SRG IL2, and runs in U.S.-only datacenters with screened U.S.-persons operations personnel. GCC fits most federal civilian, state and local government, and non-CUI federal-contractor workloads. Microsoft 365 GCC High is a separate environment built to handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) — including ITAR data — and is FedRAMP High authorized, DoD SRG IL4 / IL5 aligned. GCC High is required for any contractor obligated to demonstrate CMMC 2.0 Level 2 conformance on M365 workloads. The two are separate tenant universes — content cannot be moved between GCC and GCC High except by tenant-to-tenant migration. License costs and operational overhead are higher in GCC High; only move workloads there that genuinely require the higher boundary.

Is EPC Group a FedRAMP-authorized partner?

FedRAMP authorization is granted to cloud service offerings — not to consulting firms — so no consulting firm is literally "FedRAMP-authorized." EPC Group delivers FedRAMP-aligned deployments on top of Microsoft's FedRAMP-authorized clouds (M365 GCC, M365 GCC High, Azure Government). EPC's founder Errin O'Connor was an early contributor to FedRAMP guidance through the Microsoft community, and the firm has delivered federal Microsoft engagements for NASA, the FBI, the Federal Reserve, and the Pentagon. EPC produces the Authorization Boundary Diagram, Control Implementation Summary (CIS) workbook, Continuous Monitoring (ConMon) plan, and shared-responsibility matrix that an agency Information System Security Officer (ISSO) submits to the Authorizing Official for an Authority to Operate (ATO).

Can EPC help with CMMC 2.0 readiness?

Yes. EPC delivers CMMC 2.0 readiness programs for Levels 1, 2, and 3. The Level 2 readiness program is the most common — it covers gap assessment against the 110 NIST SP 800-171 controls, System Security Plan (SSP) authoring, Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M), shared-responsibility matrix, Microsoft 365 GCC High tenant build, Microsoft Entra ID Government Conditional Access, Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels for CUI, Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel SIEM, Microsoft Intune for U.S. Government, the policy and procedure pack, evidence-collection automation, and a pre-assessment dry-run before the C3PAO assessment. CMMC 2.0 Level 2 typically requires 6-12 months of readiness work plus the C3PAO assessment itself. EPC also retains an option to support remediation of any C3PAO findings and to operate Sentinel-based continuous monitoring after the assessment.

How much does federal Microsoft migration cost?

Federal Microsoft migration cost ranges from $150,000 for a small commercial-to-GCC tenant migration up to $2,000,000+ for a complete federal contractor CMMC 2.0 readiness program with multi-tenant consolidation. A 200-500 seat commercial-to-GCC High migration with FedRAMP-aligned Conditional Access, Purview labels, Defender XDR, and Sentinel typically lands in the $250K-$600K range. A 1,000-5,000 seat M&A federal contractor tenant consolidation into a single GCC High tenant with full CMMC 2.0 Level 2 readiness typically lands in the $750K-$1.5M range over 6-9 months. EPC delivers federal engagements on a fixed-fee basis with a costed Statement of Work after the 3-week Federal Microsoft Readiness Assessment — no time-and-materials surprises. Microsoft licensing (GCC High seats, Azure Government consumption, Defender / Sentinel) is separate and scopes per Microsoft's federal price list.

Does EPC have past performance with federal agencies?

Yes. EPC Group has delivered Microsoft engagements for NASA, the FBI, the Federal Reserve, and the Pentagon, plus a broader portfolio of federal contractor and state agency clients. The federal contractor M&A practice — 216+ M&A M365 tenant migrations and 1.83 million users migrated — includes multiple defense-industrial-base primes and subs. Specific named references and case study packages are released under NDA after a fit-call. The CEO and founder, Errin O'Connor, has 29 years of Microsoft delivery experience, is a 4-time Microsoft Press bestselling author, and was an original beta-team member of Microsoft's Project Tahoe (SharePoint) and Project Crescent (Power BI).

What is DoD IL5 / IL6?

DoD Impact Levels (IL) describe the sensitivity of information that a Defense Department system is authorized to handle. IL2 covers public or non-critical mission information and is the baseline for most M365 GCC and Azure Government commercial workloads. IL4 covers Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) with moderate confidentiality requirements. IL5 covers CUI requiring higher confidentiality or mission-criticality — the most common DoD operational impact level. IL6 covers classified information up to the SECRET level on the SIPRNet boundary. Microsoft 365 GCC High is aligned to IL4 / IL5, and the dedicated Microsoft 365 DoD environment runs at IL5 / IL6. Azure Government has select services authorized at IL6. IL5 and IL6 are DoD-only — they require DoD sponsorship and a contract vehicle naming the DoD M365 environment. Most defense industrial base contractors do not need an IL5 / IL6 environment for their commercial operations; GCC High at IL4 / IL5 is the typical contractor target.

Can EPC support StateRAMP rollouts?

Yes. EPC delivers StateRAMP rollouts for U.S. state, local, and education (SLED) clients. StateRAMP is the SLED parallel to FedRAMP — many states (California, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts, and others) now require StateRAMP authorization for cloud procurements. Microsoft 365 GCC and Azure Government both carry StateRAMP authorizations that state agencies inherit. EPC builds the M365 GCC tenant, Azure Government landing zone, and Power BI Government reporting layer for state agencies, then documents the inherited and agency-implemented controls in a control-responsibility matrix the state CISO uses for continuous monitoring. EPC also delivers managed-services tiers covering the agency-implemented controls so the state office of technology can focus on mission delivery rather than control operations.