IT and Cybersecurity Built for the Plant
Managed IT for manufacturers who have to answer customer security audits, satisfy the insurance carrier and keep production running through all of it.
Who this page is for
Plant operators, IT leaders and CFOs at mid-market manufacturers and Tier 2 suppliers. If one of these sounds familiar, keep reading.
A customer questionnaire just landed
90 to 200 questions, a hard deadline and a buyer who decides whether you stay on the approved-vendor list based on the answers.
The insurance renewal got tougher
The carrier now wants MFA everywhere, EDR coverage, immutable backups and a tested incident response plan before it will quote.
A federal prime flowed down NIST 800-171
Controlled Unclassified Information is in your engineering files and the prime wants a System Security Plan and an SPRS score on its timeline.
Production cannot go down
Your ERP, engineering systems and plant network run the business. A ransomware event on the office side cannot be allowed to reach the floor.
What we handle
The same controls satisfy the customer, the carrier and the prime. We build them once and document them for each audience.
Customer security questionnaire response
We map every question to a control that already exists, close the gaps that would disqualify you and build the evidence library so the second questionnaire takes hours instead of weeks. The answers are true because the controls are real.
Cyber insurance renewal readiness
Carriers underwrite on a short list of controls. We put those controls in place, document them the way the underwriter expects and support the application so renewal is a formality, not a negotiation.
NIST 800-171 readiness
Scope the CUI boundary, close the control gaps, write the System Security Plan and the Plan of Action and Milestones, then submit an honest SPRS score on the prime's deadline. We support 800-171 readiness; we are not a CMMC C3PAO.
The IT-OT boundary and plant-floor systems
We design and operate the boundary between corporate IT and production, deploy passive OT monitoring at the right scale and govern OEM remote access. We run the cybersecurity program. The integrator runs the controls engineering.
Ransomware survivability for production
Phishing-resistant MFA, full EDR coverage, immutable backups with tested restores and segmentation that keeps a corporate-side event off the floor. Recovery measured in hours, with a tabletop that includes someone from production.
Multi-site infrastructure and day-to-day IT
Consistent identity, monitoring and support across every facility, whether that is 2 plants or 12. Help desk, patching, vendor management and a quarterly review that reports in the language your customers and carrier use.
How an engagement runs
30-day assessment
We inventory endpoints, identities, the plant network and the OT boundary, test a restore, review your last questionnaire and insurance application and hand you a prioritized roadmap with cost and timeline.
Roadmap execution
Controls go in on a schedule that respects production. Segmentation and OT monitoring are staged around shifts and maintenance windows, not dropped in on a Tuesday morning.
Ongoing partnership
Monthly evidence collection, tested backups, questionnaire and renewal support as they arrive and a quarterly business review. The evidence library compounds with every customer and every renewal.
Read more
Pillar guide
Manufacturing Cybersecurity Guide
24 buyer questions on customer audits, NIST 800-171 pressure, OT cybersecurity and ransomware survivability.
Pillar guide
NIST 800-171 Readiness Guide
Scope, the 110 controls, SSP and POA&M documentation and the 90 to 120 day arc.
Pillar guide
Cyber Insurance Renewal Guide
What underwriters expect, the gaps that drive premiums and a 90-day preparation sequence.
Reading for manufacturers
All manufacturing posts →October 7, 2026
Who owns the plant network? The question nobody at the plant can answer
IT says the shop floor belongs to maintenance. Maintenance says the network belongs to IT. The switches in between belong to nobody, and that gap is where incidents live.
September 28, 2026
Plant-floor data without opening the plant to the internet
Machine monitoring, OEE dashboards and cloud analytics all want plant data. You can feed them without giving the internet a path back to the machines.
September 24, 2026
Your machine vendor has a door into your plant. Who else has the key?
OEM remote access keeps presses running and warranties valid. It is also the least-watched connection in most plants. Here is how to keep the support without the exposure.
Common questions
Do you work with manufacturers our size?
Our manufacturing clients are mostly 25 to 250 employee operations: plastics, metals, precision components, specialty industrial equipment and food processing. If you have a plant floor, an ERP and a customer or carrier asking hard questions, you are the profile we built the practice for.
We have never answered a customer security questionnaire. How long does it take?
A firm starting from scratch typically needs 3 to 6 weeks, most of it closing the gaps that would make honest answers disqualifying. Once the evidence library exists, later questionnaires take 1 to 3 business days because 80 to 90 percent of the questions overlap.
Do we need NIST 800-171 if we only supply commercial customers?
No. NIST 800-171 applies when Controlled Unclassified Information from a federal contract reaches your environment, usually through a DoD prime's flow-down. Commercial-only manufacturers align to NIST CSF 2.0 and their customers' questionnaires instead, which is lighter and covers the same fundamentals.
Can you get us CMMC certified?
We support 800-171 readiness; we are not a CMMC C3PAO. We build and operate the program, write the SSP and POA&M and get the SPRS score honest. A separate certified assessor performs the CMMC Level 2 assessment when you need it, and we prepare you for that visit.
Will you touch our PLCs and production equipment?
We design and operate the IT-OT boundary, monitor OT traffic passively and govern remote access into the plant network. Deep PLC-level engineering stays with your OT integrator or the OEM. We run the cybersecurity program. The integrator runs the controls engineering.
What happens if ransomware hits us during the engagement?
You call one number. We contain, coordinate with your cyber insurance carrier and the third-party forensics team the policy requires, restore from immutable backups we have already tested and sequence production back online. We do not perform forensics ourselves. We run the response and the recovery.
How do you handle multiple plants?
Centralized identity and monitoring, a per-site network design that survives a local ISP outage and one support team for every location. Remote resolution handles most tickets. On-site work is scheduled by region for hardware, cabling and critical incidents.
What does it cost?
Engagements are scoped after the 30-day assessment and quoted per organization. We do not publish per-user list pricing because a 2-plant shop with OT exposure and a single-site fabricator need different programs. The assessment tells both of us what the right scope is.
Audit, flow-down or renewal on the calendar?
Grab 15 minutes with us. Tell us what landed in your inbox and we'll tell you honestly where you stand and what a credible plan looks like.
- No obligation
- No sales pitch
- Straight answers