Clariant, a Swiss-based manufacturer specializing in the chemical industry, operates across three primary markets: consumer products, biofuels, and absorbents and additives. The company employs approximately 11,000 staff members distributed over 40 countries. With a network of 130 sites, including 50 manufacturing facilities, Clariant’s organizational structure is highly decentralized. This decentralization was reflected in their outdated IT infrastructure, which posed significant challenges. “Our main issue was that our IT infrastructure was spread across various data centers and locations,” explains Oscar Martinez, Senior Network Architect at Clariant. “Additionally, the increasing frequency of cyberattacks targeting the industrial sector, particularly in chemicals, is a cause for concern.”
A Cloud Migration Requiring WAN Infrastructure Overhaul
In response to these issues, Clariant initiated a cloud migration strategy at the beginning of 2021 aimed at reducing the operational burden associated with maintaining and managing their disparate infrastructure. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, the company successfully carried out this migration to Amazon Web Services (AWS) between 2021 and 2022, thanks to dedicated efforts from IT teams and business leadership. While gradually migrating applications to the cloud, it became evident that the company’s existing Wide Area Network (WAN) could no longer meet the evolving needs of business users. Previously relying on a traditional MPLS network, the shift towards cloud computing necessitated a redesign of this infrastructure to allow application access via the internet. The return of employees to offices and the continuation of remote work in 2023 further amplified this requirement. The WAN had to be upgraded to a modern SD-WAN network to facilitate the migration of all SAP instances across the group. Ensuring the security of these access points became a critical concern during this transition.
Oscar Martinez turned to Tata Communications to undertake a comprehensive overhaul of their network infrastructure and to secure both their IT and industrial OT environments at production sites. Beyond deploying the global SD-WAN network, Tata Communications provided strategic consulting, which was pivotal in selecting the security solutions implemented within this project. Their evaluations led to choosing Fortinet’s Next-Gen Firewall (NGFW) solutions to enhance the security layer surrounding the SD-WAN network provided by Tata Communications. This decision was especially important for Clariant because their network integrated both IT infrastructure and operational technology (OT) resources on-site. Merging these traditionally separate domains represented a significant challenge, one that the teams led by Oscar Martinez and Tata Communications successfully addressed: “The advantage of integrating IT and OT is having an end-to-end view of our networks, which is crucial for security,” notes Martinez.
Toward a SASE Future!
The deployment of this secure SD-WAN was only the first step toward Clariant’s broader ambitions to adopt the SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) model. The company plans to augment their SD-WAN infrastructure with a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) and a Zero Trust security framework. The CASB will add a layer of control over cloud usage, while the Zero Trust approach will strengthen access security by linking user identities to contextual information about their activities. “We are progressing step by step, building maturity in each security layer before moving on to the next. SASE isn’t just a product; it’s a strategic approach to maintaining cutting-edge security standards,” explains Martinez.
The Network Fabric (IZO Network) and Cloud Fabric (IZO Multi-cloud) solutions from Tata Communications provide Clariant with greater flexibility in choosing their cloud environments. These solutions enable secure communication while guaranteeing robust service level agreements (SLAs) up to the network edge. This represents an additional component in the ongoing effort to unify performance, cybersecurity, and connectivity on a global scale.
For more insights into Clariant’s technical choices and their experience with this transformation, a webinar is available for further viewing.
