Industry

IT support for dairies

In a dairy the product is perishable, and cold stores and lines run non-stop. System downtime means batches at risk and broken deliveries. We set up IT so production keeps going and an outage does not stop the whole plant.

A dairy is continuous production: cold stores, lines and packaging run 24 hours a day, and raw material will not wait for a server repair. On top of that come ERP and production systems, a network of controllers, and NIS2 requirements for the food sector. We run dairy IT for one overriding thing: availability, because here every hour of downtime is a real product loss.

Challenges in this sector

  • Continuous 24/7 production

    Cold stores and lines have no service window. IT must work the same at night and at the weekend, and every interruption translates directly into batches at risk.

  • Perishable product

    Milk and products have a short shelf life. Downtime of shipping, warehouse or cold store systems is not just a delay but a risk of losing finished goods.

  • OT network together with the office one

    When line and cold store controllers are on the same network as office computers, one infected PC can reach production. We separate these worlds and control the traffic between them.

  • ERP and production systems

    ERP, production systems and batch data must be available without interruption. Their failure halts raw material intake, production and shipping at once.

  • NIS2 for the food sector

    Dairy production falls under NIS2 as an important entity. That means specific obligations: risk analysis, safeguards, incident reporting and board accountability.

  • No fallback scenario

    Without tested backup and a recovery plan, a server outage or attack can halt the whole plant. We prepare a scenario for such a day, with a short time to return.

AI in a dairy, deployed safely

AI helps where a lot of data flows from continuous production: predicting failures of cold stores and machines, optimising the production plan and routes, and analysing quality and raw material use. In a 24/7 plant, detecting a problem earlier is an avoided batch loss.

The condition is security. Production data and recipes must not end up in public AI tools or link the OT world with uncontrolled network access. We deploy AI on controlled plant data, with a clear policy and preserved segmentation, so the model uses the data while the lines stay isolated.

Dairies choose us because we understand the cost of downtime with a perishable product: we design IT for line availability, not office convenience.

  • 24/7infrastructure monitoring
  • OT/ITseparated networks
  • NIS2compliance we guide you to
  • ISO 27001standard we work to

Frequently asked questions

How do you maintain IT in a plant running 24/7?

We design the infrastructure for availability: redundancy of key components, virtualisation, 24/7 monitoring and an agreed SLA. We plan service work so it does not stop production.

Why should we separate the production network from the office one?

Because on a flat network one infected office computer can reach cold store and line controllers. OT and IT segmentation limits an attack to one area and protects production.

Is a dairy subject to NIS2?

Dairy production usually falls under NIS2 as an important entity. We check this during an audit, then guide you through the obligations: risk analysis, safeguards and incident reporting.

How fast will you restore work after a server outage or attack?

We design backup and a disaster recovery plan for specific time targets. We test restoration so that after an ERP or production system outage you return to work in the agreed time, not in several days.

Why virtualisation in a dairy?

Virtualisation (for example Proxmox) lets you run many systems on fewer servers, restore them faster after an outage and update them more safely. That directly raises production availability.

We are starting from the basics. Where do we begin?

With an audit: we check the state of the network, OT and IT separation, backup, virtualisation and NIS2 readiness. On that basis we set the order of work starting from the most urgent risks.

Let us sort out IT in your sector

Tell us about your setup. We will come back with a plan tailored to your industry and an estimate within 24 business hours.

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