KLM ENGINEERING

Prior to bringing Swiftcomm onboard, our outsourced support had left KLM Engineering in a vulnerable state. So much so, whilst discussions were ongoing for Swiftcomm to take over the contract, we suffered (what has become all too common) a cyber-attack on all KLM’s systems. Fortunately, Swiftcomm were able to secure the file server, but the remaining were beyond saving. Through complete dedication and a full understanding of the situation, Swiftcomm supported KLM throughout. Rebuilding, reassuring and working closely with KLM, confidence has been firmly established with the resilience of our network infrastructure. Ongoing monitoring of all our network has proven to ensure performance and security are maintained.

Simon Kidd - Operations Director

KLM Engineering was founded in 1977 and provides a complete, flexible and highly competitive outsourced Engineering and Fabrication capability. Key business areas include;

• Balustrade
• Composite doors
• Point Of Sale Display
• Sheet Metal and Fabrication 

The Challenge

KLM Engineering approached Swiftcomm when they were looking to upgrade their IT infrastructure. They had two servers coming to the end of their lifecycles and were looking to improve their resiliency by implementing a business continuity disaster recovery solution (BCDR). 

Further to these near-term requirements, there was a second phase to improve the core network infrastructure and increase cyber security within the business. 

The Solution

Phase one - Server Infrastructure

The first phase was identifying the existing infrastructure and understanding the requirements that KLM Engineering had from their server infrastructure in the next lifecycle. It was highlighted that business continuity was a huge factor as this server environment was relied upon for production in the factory. 

After consultation, we implemented the following for KLM Engineering;

• Installed two new Hyper-V host servers from Terra Computers and migrated the existing virtual machines, ensuring we had load balance and failovers set between the servers.  
• Upgraded the required virtual machines to the latest version of Windows server 2019. 
• Replaced the file-based backup with Datto Sirus BCDR. This provided further resilience with bare metal backups and the ability to spin up instantly both locally and in the cloud.
• Implemented two enterprise-grade UPS backup solutions to ensure power outages would not stop production.  

Phase two - Networking and Cyber Security

Following the successful completion of phase one, we began the undertaking of the second phase, which included upgrading the network infrastructure and cyber security. These works included the following; 

• Replaced the ageing network switches with cloud-managed networking equipment. The new switches provided multiple 10Gbps connections for the core of the network and to all the infrastructure provided in phase one. 
• Replaced the ageing access points with improved cloud-managed wireless access points. This allowed better Wi-Fi coverage across the whole site and factory. 
• Built separate networks (VLANs) to isolate and secure different network traffic, including server, corporate, guest and phone traffic. 
• Implemented strengthened VPN connections and added 2FA to all RDS connections. 
• Certified the business for Cyber Essentials to ensure they were endearing to a strengthened baseline standard of IT security governance.

The Results

Working with KLM Engineering, we were able to assist them in modernising their IT infrastructure, improving business continuity and strengthening their cyber security, all while providing minimal disruption to end users or factory production. 

As a result of these actions, KLM Engineering has experienced the following;

• Improved performance across all their servers/networks enabling end-users to complete their daily tasks faster. 
• Reliable wireless network. Even for more demanding tasks such as 3D CAD modelling on the server. 
• A robust IT infrastructure with multiple layers of disaster recovery to ensure production never gets affected. 
• Confidence that their IT infrastructure is both secure, reliable and ongoingly maintained.