IT & Cybersecurity For Pacific Northwest Manufacturers —
Production Uptime, OT Security, And Compliance

Shop floor equipment — CNC machines, PLCs, robots, inspection systems — often runs old or unpatched software. When connected to your general business network, a ransomware attack on an employee's email can spread to the shop floor and halt production. OT/IT segmentation places production equipment on its own isolated network with controlled access. This protects production from IT-side attacks, reduces attack surface, and meets segmentation requirements under CMMC, NIST 800-171, and ISO 27001.

Yes. Many shop floor machines run outdated operating systems that can't be replaced or patched without buying new equipment. We implement compensating controls — micro-segmentation isolating each machine on its own network segment, network-level monitoring for suspicious traffic, strict access control lists, and sometimes network-based intrusion detection. This doesn't patch the old OS, but it prevents attackers from reaching the machines in the first place.

Yes. Our team has experience supporting the infrastructure layer for major manufacturing ERPs — NetSuite, SAP Business One, Epicor, Global Shop, ProShop, JobBOSS, E2 Shop System, and others. We don't replace your ERP administrator, but we handle the underlying servers, databases, backups, user access, and network performance that keep these systems running. For cloud ERPs we manage the integration and security; for on-premise ERPs we manage the full stack.

A typical 100-person Pacific Northwest manufacturer invests $12,500–$22,500 per month ($125–$225 per user per month) for fully-managed IT services including 24/7 monitoring, unlimited helpdesk, ERP support, OT/IT segmentation, endpoint security, and strategic planning. Manufacturers with CMMC requirements fall at the higher end. Co-managed IT for manufacturers with internal IT staff runs $7,500–$15,000 per month.

Manufacturing downtime costs vary widely but industry averages run $5,000–$20,000 per hour for small-to-mid manufacturers and can exceed $100,000 per hour for high-volume operations. A single ransomware incident can stop production for days or weeks. Our managed IT services are designed around manufacturing uptime — 24/7 monitoring catches issues before they cause downtime, redundant internet keeps data flowing, and tested disaster recovery ensures you can recover quickly when incidents occur.

Pure commercial manufacturers don't need CMMC. However, many manufacturers do both commercial and defense work and don't realize their DoD-related contracts flow down CMMC requirements. If any of your customers are DoD contractors or if you handle any Federal Contract Information (FCI) or Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), you likely need CMMC. A free consultation with our team can quickly determine whether CMMC applies to you — and what level.