Manufacturing
Keep the plant running when IT has a bad day
Manufacturing IT resilience means keeping ERP, MES and plant-floor systems running, protected and recoverable so production doesn’t stop when hardware fails or ransomware hits. Storcom designs, deploys and manages infrastructure, backup, disaster recovery and security for manufacturers, from aging on-prem servers across several plants to network segmentation between plant operations and business IT.
Last updated
What we hear from manufacturing IT teams
Downtime measured in lost production
When ERP or MES goes down, orders stop shipping and lines stop scheduling. Every hour of recovery shows up in output and missed delivery dates.
Ransomware that crosses into the plant
Attackers who get into business IT look for a path to plant systems. A flat network between the office and the floor turns an IT incident into a production shutdown.
Aging infrastructure across multiple sites
Each plant often has its own server closet, its own backup routine and hardware past end of support. Nobody has a single view of what happens if one site goes dark.
Applications that resist the cloud
ERP, CAD and shop-floor applications often can’t move to public cloud as-is, and devices like handheld scanners depend on fast, reliable access to them.
CMMC for defense suppliers
Contractors that handle controlled unclassified information are expected to meet NIST SP 800-171, and CMMC now ties those controls to contract eligibility.
What we deliver for manufacturers
Managed security
Managed EDR, managed firewall and continuous risk scanning with 24×7×365 support, for teams without a full-time security staff.
Plant and data center infrastructure
Servers, storage and networking sized to your ERP, MES and file workloads, refreshed site by site on a schedule your budget can carry.
Backup and disaster recovery
Immutable off-site backup and replication of critical systems, with a documented runbook and failover tests so recovery time is known, not guessed.
IT and OT segmentation
Network design and managed firewalls that separate plant-floor systems from business IT and limit how far an incident in one can reach the other.
Cloud roadmaps
A multi-year plan for which applications move to cloud, which stay on-prem and how plant devices keep working through the change.
Where should each manufacturing workload run?
Every plant is different, but most environments sort into a few patterns.
| Workload | Typical home | Why |
|---|---|---|
| MES and plant-floor systems | On site, segmented from business IT | Needs low latency to equipment and has to keep running if the WAN drops |
| ERP | On-prem or hosted private cloud, with DR | Often a traditional application that cannot be rewritten quickly; scanners and floor devices depend on it |
| CAD and engineering files | On-prem primary storage with off-site backup | Large files that designers need to open fast |
| Email and collaboration | Microsoft 365, backed up separately | Already SaaS; backup covers deletion, retention and ransomware |
| Backups and archives | Off-site and immutable, with object storage for older data | Keeps a clean copy out of reach of an attack on any one site |
Design work maps your actual applications and dependencies before anything moves.
Where CMMC and NIST SP 800-171 fit
If you make parts or products for the Department of Defense and handle controlled unclassified information, NIST SP 800-171 defines the security controls you’re expected to meet, and CMMC determines how they are verified. Depending on your level, that means a self-assessment, a third-party assessment or a government-led one.
We design backup, recovery, access and network controls that support those requirements and document how they are configured, which feeds your system security plan. Certification decisions belong to your assessor. Our job is making the controls real, tested and documented.
How a multi-site engagement runs
Talk through every site
A discovery call about each plant: what runs there, what is out of support and what an outage costs.
Design to production
Recovery objectives set by production impact, an architecture for the IT and OT boundary and a roadmap that fits your capital budget.
Implement around shifts
Procurement, migration and cutovers scheduled around production windows and planned shutdowns, with no re-platforming of existing applications.
Manage
Monitoring, restore and failover testing, and 24×7×365 support against an agreed service level.
Case studies
- Three-year cloud roadmap for a Chicago manufacturerA large Chicagoland manufacturer of custom commercial LED lighting faced overdue infrastructure upgrades, hyper-growth and a long list of legacy applications. Storcom built a three-year public cloud migration strategy with its Cloud Enablement Roadmap, mapping how ERP, CAD and plant-floor devices interact. The company now has a clear plan, network upgrades underway and apps being rebuilt cloud-native.
- Data security and compliance for a tools manufacturerA large American designer, manufacturer and marketer of high-end tools was required to improve visibility into customer personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers. Storcom assessed its requirements, built an IT data security roadmap, and implemented encryption and compliance tooling from Thales and SafeNet, plus strategies for retention, key management and DR.
- Managed IT services for a large Chicago manufacturerA large Chicago-based manufacturer of custom commercial LED lighting suffered repeated outages, downtime and data loss that its in-house team could not stop. Storcom took over managed services for the on-premises and DR site infrastructure with a specialized team. Over the next three years, the repeated outages and data loss stopped.
- Tiered storage and DR for an American tools manufacturerA large American designer, manufacturer and marketer of high-end tools needed more capacity on a regular basis, plus archive and DR plans. Storcom built a multi-tiered storage design with automated data movement, data protection and on-premises and off-site DR. Over several phases, critical jobs run faster and the company runs regular DR tests.
Frequently asked questions
How do you protect plant systems from ransomware that starts in business IT?
We segment the network so plant-floor systems sit behind their own firewall rules, with only the connections production actually needs. Managed EDR watches the endpoints that can run it, and immutable backups give you a clean copy to restore from if something gets through.
Can our ERP move to the cloud?
Sometimes, but rarely as-is. Many manufacturing ERP systems are traditional applications, and shop-floor devices like handheld scanners may depend on fast access to them. We test those dependencies first and often recommend hosted private cloud or a lift-and-shift before any cloud-native rewrite.
Does Storcom help with CMMC?
We help defense suppliers build and document the backup, recovery, access and network controls that NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC assessments review. Certification itself comes from a self-assessment, an authorized third-party assessor or a government assessment, depending on your required level. We focus on making the controls work and keeping the documentation current.
We have several plants with their own servers. Where do we start?
Start with a discovery call. From there we size each site and identify where hardware is out of support or backups have no off-site copy. You then get a roadmap that refreshes or consolidates sites in the order that removes the most risk.
Do you work with manufacturers in the Chicago area?
Yes. Storcom is based in Geneva, Illinois. Our manufacturing work includes managed services and a multi-year cloud roadmap for a commercial lighting manufacturer, plus storage, data protection and security strategy for a U.S. tools manufacturer running more than one data center.
Services that fit
- ServersDell PowerEdge, HPE ProLiant and Lenovo ThinkSystem servers sized to your workloads, then procured, deployed…
- StorageData storage from Dell, HPE, Everpure (formerly Pure Storage) and IBM: block, file, object and backup arrays,…
- NetworkingData center networking from Storcom: switching, routing and wireless on Cisco and Dell, designed, deployed and…
- Managed FirewallManaged firewall services from Storcom: policy management, firmware updates, monitoring and change control for…
- DRaaS OverviewDisaster recovery as a service from Storcom: Veeam or Zerto replication, a stated RTO and RPO per application,…
- Managed EDRManaged EDR from Storcom: 24×7 endpoint detection and response on CrowdStrike Falcon or Arctic Wolf, with…
Start with a discovery call.
Tell us what you run today, what is changing and what worries you. We listen, ask questions and tell you plainly whether and how we can help. No cost, no commitment.