Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the most targeted sector globally for ransomware — and production downtime costs thousands per minute. OAS delivers managed security, Citrix virtual workspaces, and resilient backup solutions that protect your production environment, your intellectual property, and your supply chain continuity.
The Most Targeted Sector on Earth
Manufacturing is consistently ranked as the number one target for ransomware attacks worldwide. Production downtime creates immediate financial pressure — a factory that stops producing loses revenue by the minute. Attackers know this, and they exploit it.
South African manufacturers face a compounding set of risks. Industry 4.0 adoption — IoT sensors, connected SCADA systems, cloud-based ERP platforms — delivers real operational gains. But every connected device expands your attack surface. The convergence of IT and operational technology (OT) means a compromised email account in accounts receivable can become a direct pathway to the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) running your production line.
Legacy OT systems make this worse. Industrial control systems were designed for reliability, not cybersecurity. Many run unsupported operating systems with no patching path. Intellectual property — product designs, formulations, process specifications — carries significant competitive value and makes your data worth stealing, not just encrypting.
How OAS Secures Manufacturing Operations
OAS provides enterprise-grade managed security built for manufacturing realities — where uptime is non-negotiable, environments span office and factory floor, and legacy systems must coexist with modern infrastructure.
Secure Remote Access for Manufacturing Applications
Citrix virtual desktops and applications deliver your ERP systems (SAP, SYSPRO, Sage), manufacturing execution systems (MES), supply chain platforms, and CAD/CAM engineering tools to authorised users at any location. Production data and intellectual property remain centralised in the data centre — never on endpoint devices.
As Southern Africa's longest-standing Citrix Platinum Partner, OAS brings over 40 years of virtualisation expertise to your manufacturing environment. HDX protocol optimisation maintains responsive performance for data-heavy ERP transactions and CAD rendering, even at bandwidth-constrained plant sites. GPU acceleration via HDX 3D Pro supports engineering applications like SolidWorks and AutoCAD as virtual desktops. Session reliability and auto-reconnect keep plant-floor operators connected through network interruptions. USB redirection supports barcode scanners, industrial printers, and measurement devices on the factory floor.
IT/OT Boundary Protection
The boundary between your corporate IT network and operational technology environment is the most critical line of defence in any manufacturing operation. A phishing email in the corporate office must never reach the PLCs and SCADA systems controlling your production lines.
Citrix NetScaler and Nutanix Flow microsegmentation enforce strict separation between IT and OT environments. Nutanix Flow operates at the hypervisor level — more granular than traditional VLAN-based segmentation. NetScaler Web Application Firewall protects internet-facing systems. Zero Trust network access ensures only authorised users, on authorised devices, can reach specific resources based on identity and policy.
Most IT service providers understand corporate networks. OAS understands the boundary between corporate IT and operational technology — and that is the difference that protects your production line.
Autonomous Endpoint Protection
SentinelOne AI-driven endpoint detection and response (EDR) runs on every device across your operation — corporate workstations, engineering stations, quality control terminals, and plant-floor computers. Behavioural AI detects ransomware, zero-day threats, and malware that signature-based tools miss entirely.
Offline protection is critical for manufacturing. SentinelOne operates without constant network connectivity, keeping production-site devices secured even when disconnected. If ransomware does reach a device, SentinelOne's rollback capability restores affected files in seconds — not days.
Centralised Multi-Site Monitoring
South African manufacturers typically operate across multiple plants, offices, warehouses, and distribution centres. N-able Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) provides 24/7 visibility across your entire IT estate from a single console. Automated alerting identifies issues before they affect production. Patch management addresses vulnerabilities across distributed Windows systems and third-party applications.
N-able's multi-tenant architecture gives OAS centralised management while maintaining strict separation between sites — critical for manufacturers with operations spanning Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and beyond.
Resilient Backup and Recovery
Cove Data Protection delivers encrypted, immutable cloud backups that ransomware cannot reach. ERP data, production records, quality documentation, design files, and Microsoft 365 environments are all protected against both ransomware and system failure. All backup data remains within South African borders, maintaining data sovereignty.
Configurable retention policies support POPIA requirements. Recovery testing ensures your recovery time objectives are achievable — not theoretical. When production data is at stake, you need proven recoverability.
Security Analytics and Compliance Reporting
Splunk centralised log aggregation correlates security events across your full IT estate. Compliance reporting supports King IV governance requirements, POPIA obligations, OEM audit standards, and ISO 27001 alignment. Incident investigation provides forensic evidence when a security event occurs — critical for understanding the scope and containing the impact of a breach.
Compliance and Supply Chain Assurance
Manufacturing supply chains increasingly demand documented cybersecurity controls as a condition of doing business. Global OEMs, automotive supply chain partners, and international buyers require audit-ready evidence from their suppliers.
OAS provides compliance documentation that addresses:
- POPIA — protection of employee, supplier, and customer personal information across manufacturing sites with large workforces - King IV — board-level IT governance and risk management reporting - ISO 27001 — security controls mapped to international information security standards - TISAX — Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange compliance for automotive component suppliers serving European OEMs - Customer audit requirements — documented evidence for supply chain cybersecurity due diligence
Our Three Pillar Managed Security methodology — Protect, Detect, Recover — addresses the full lifecycle of a security incident, giving your compliance team a clear, defensible security posture.
Why Manufacturers Choose OAS
- 40+ years of enterprise IT experience across Southern Africa
- IT/OT segmentation expertise — protecting the boundary between corporate and production networks
- Citrix Platinum Partner — reliable, optimised remote access for manufacturing applications across constrained connections
- Offline endpoint protection — SentinelOne secures devices at production sites without constant connectivity
- Multi-site management — centralised visibility across plants, offices, warehouses, and distribution centres
- Legacy system coexistence — application isolation via Citrix protects environments running unsupported operating systems without requiring immediate replacement
- 24/7 managed service — production runs around the clock, and so does OAS
- Supply chain assurance — compliance documentation for OEM audits, TISAX, and ISO 27001
- Data sovereignty — all backup and cloud services operate within South African borders
Production Downtime Is Not an Option
Every hour of production lost to a cyberattack costs your operation thousands. OAS's free security assessment evaluates your current defences — across corporate IT and the IT/OT boundary — and delivers a practical roadmap to resilient, enterprise-grade protection for your manufacturing operation.