Transforming product lifecycle management with enhanced security and scalability on AWS for a leading food manufacturer
The challenge
The client, one of the world’s leading food manufacturers headquartered in Sweden, used Optiva Infor PLM to manage its food products lifecycle. The solution was deployed on-prem and presented multiple limitations:
- Difficulty restricting and managing access to resources and user identities across global teams
- Fragmented security controls, increasing risks of unauthorized access and compliance gaps
- Limited scalability, complex upgrades and high maintenance costs
- Lack of centralized collaboration across geographically distributed teams
The objective
The client aimed to modernize its PLM system by migrating to AWS while addressing critical security and identity management challenges. The key objectives were:
- Establish centralized and secure identity and access management across global teams
- Improve scalability, upgrade cycles and infrastructure maintenance
- Leverage AWS-native security services to strengthen compliance and resilience
- Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for consistent, automated deployments
The solution
HCLTech executed a comprehensive migration and security transformation of the client’s PLM system to AWS. The approach included:
- Identity and access management: Centralized authentication and authorization using AWS IAM with granular policies and role-based access, ensuring only authorized users can access PLM and related systems
- Network security: Designed an Amazon VPC with private subnets, security groups and NACLs to isolate workloads and enforce least privilege access
- Data protection: Implemented AWS KMS for encryption of data at rest and in transit, ensuring sensitive product information remained secure
- Monitoring and compliance: Used Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring and AWS CloudTrail for logging all API activity, providing complete visibility and auditability
- Resilience and disaster recovery: Implemented backup and restore strategies using AWS Backup, enabling compliance with RPO requirements
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Automated infrastructure provisioning with AWS CloudFormation, reducing human error and ensuring consistent security configurations across environments
The impact
- Strengthened security and compliance: Centralized IAM policies, encrypted data and monitored environments significantly reduced risks of unauthorized access
- Accelerated infrastructure provisioning: Provisioning reduced from months to hours using IaC
- Increased availability and resilience: A geographically resilient architecture ensured business continuity during disruptions
- On-demand scalability: Resources scaled in minutes to meet global demand, with simplified upgrades
- Cost optimization: Pay-as-you-go model improved cost efficiency while maintaining robust security
AWS services used:
- Amazon EC2
- Amazon S3
- Amazon EBS
- Amazon CloudWatch
- Amazon VPC
- AWS Backup
- AWS IAM
- AWS CloudFormation
- AWS KMS
