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30 Jan 2025

Backup and Recovery Best Practice in OT (Operational Technology)

With manufacturing environments facing ever-increasing pressure to minimise downtime and maximise efficiency, getting imaging and deployment right has never been more crucial. Last June, our webinar "Imaging and Deployment Best Practice in Manufacturing" brought together our Global VP of Sales, Ari Novikoff, and Reid Schneider, Hardware and Applications Delivery Manager at Husco, for a deep dive into real-world OT backup and recovery. The conversation was packed with such practical insights that we thought it deserved another moment in the spotlight.

 

Missed the original webinar? You can watch it on-demand here.

 

The Manufacturing Challenge

Manufacturing environments come with their own distinct set of IT challenges. Even with the strongest modernisation initiatives, legacy systems often need to remain in place for various critical reasons - whether it's specialised equipment that only works with older software versions, compliance requirements that mandate specific system configurations, or the prohibitive costs and risks of replacing systems that are deeply integrated into production processes. When you're dealing with these legacy constraints and production facilities that run around the clock, every decision carries significant weight. There are unique manufacturing considerations that set these environments apart - from the complex technical dependencies of legacy systems to production facilities where maintenance windows are as rare as a quiet factory floor. The stakes are incredibly high, Reid pointed out: "A couple thousand dollars per minute per line and or a couple hundred thousand dollars per hour depending on what line and severity you have running in the manufacturer realm."

 

Key Manufacturing IT Challenges:

  • Legacy systems requiring precise replication
  • 24/7 production facilities with minimal downtime windows
  • High costs associated with system interruptions
  • Complex global operations requiring standardised approaches

 

Mastering the Deployment Timeline

Time, as they say, is money - and in manufacturing, this couldn't be more true. Before implementing any new backup and recovery strategy, understanding your environment's unique needs and constraints is crucial. For Husco, this meant finding ways to dramatically reduce system restore times from 4-8 hours to under an hour, a transformation that significantly minimised production impact.

But perhaps their most notable achievement was establishing a regular maintenance window - no small feat in a 24/7 manufacturing environment. "We have an agreed upon maintenance window on Sundays with the business globally," Reid explained. This kind of stakeholder negotiation proved invaluable, allowing for regular updates, patches, testing, and deployments without disrupting critical operations.

 

To Sysprep or Not to Sysprep?

Creating the perfect system image in a manufacturing environment is rather like trying to clone a particularly temperamental machine - in theory, it should be straightforward, but reality often has other ideas. While the textbook approach might suggest sysprep as the gold standard - "In a perfect Microsoft world, I would love everything to be clean deployment," as Reid put it - manufacturing environments demand more pragmatic solutions.

For Husco's plant division, the decision came down to their unique software environment and the critical need for rapid deployment. They developed a hybrid approach that perfectly balanced efficiency with reliability. The office environment, with its standardised software and modern systems, follows conventional deployment methods using tools like Autopilot and Intune. But on the plant floor, where speed and reliability are paramount, Macrium's cloning capabilities proved to be exactly what they needed. "For our plant division, we are full Macrium backup clone, get it out there running as fast as we can," Reid shared, highlighting how the right tool in the right place can transform deployment efficiency.

 

Testing: A Thoughtful Approach

If there's one thing that separates a smooth recovery from a potential headache, it's thorough testing. And when it comes to manufacturing environments, that testing philosophy needs to be both rigorous and pragmatic.

"Fail first, attempted learning," as Reid put it - a principle that led Husco to develop a sophisticated validation approach that begins in the sandbox but doesn't necessarily end there.

Their hybrid testing strategy showcases the kind of flexibility needed in modern manufacturing. While thorough sandbox testing forms the foundation, Husco's approach evolves based on practical needs. Their smaller facilities, for instance, sometimes serve as perfect real-world testing grounds. "We're able to implement right into production, but that's with the business's acceptance with the outage window and testing prior."

 

Best Testing Practices:

  • Start with thorough sandbox testing
  • Use smaller facilities for initial production trials
  • Maintain flexibility based on business needs
  • Always secure stakeholder buy-in for testing approaches

 

The Importance of Documentation

In global manufacturing operations, documentation isn't just about writing down steps - it's about creating a universal language that works across cultural and geographical boundaries. "We need to have that documentation up to par, make sense, culturally understandable across the globe," Reid emphasised, "because if we don't have that, there's going to be breakdowns."

The principle of maintaining a "single source of truth" becomes especially crucial when managing IT across multiple countries. With operations spanning China, India, Germany, and the UK, Husco found that standardised documentation was essential for maintaining consistency. This became particularly important when dealing with international regulations and data management practices.

Their approach to documentation goes beyond simple how-to guides. By building comprehensive knowledge bases and work instructions, they ensure that every team member understands not just the what, but the why and how of their processes. "We really, truly need those first and foremost before moving forward with any backup. We need to know the process, how it's made, how it works, how it functions and how to troubleshoot."

 

The Road Ahead

The insights shared in this webinar highlight a crucial truth about operational technology in manufacturing: success lies not in following textbook solutions, but in finding the right balance between best practices and practical realities. Whether you're tackling deployment strategies, testing methodologies, or documentation standards, the key is to remain flexible while maintaining rigorous standards in these complex manufacturing environments.

 

Looking for more OT insights? Catch up on the full webinar here. To learn more about how Macrium can help streamline your manufacturing backup and recovery, speak to our team today.

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