Cloud & infrastructure for manufacturing
The foundation everything else - ERP, data, AI - has to stand on
For a manufacturer, cloud and infrastructure isn't a project - it's the floor. ERP, data, reporting and AI all depend on it being right. A good infrastructure partner makes that floor predictable, secure and quietly cheaper to run over time.
Looking at the bigger picture across IT support, cyber, AI and digital transformation? See the full manufacturing technology overview.
Why it matters
Cloud & infrastructure in manufacturing earns its keep when it joins the business together
Most UK manufacturers run a hybrid estate: some Azure, some on-prem, ERP somewhere in the middle, OT separate. Cost, performance and security all live across that mix, and small decisions about hosting and connectivity have outsized effects on the line.
Done well, infrastructure becomes invisible. Done badly, it shows up as overnight job failures, slow Power BI, surprise Azure bills and a tenuous DR story. A capable partner ploughs the unglamorous work so the rest of the stack runs.
What the work covers
What cloud and infrastructure work looks like in a manufacturing business
Azure landing zone and hosting done properly
Subscriptions, identity, networking and policy set up to a known reference - not invented per project.
Site connectivity that respects production
Connectivity, SD-WAN and failover designed around shift patterns, ERP traffic and OT sensitivity.
FinOps so Azure spend is defensible
Tagging, budgets, reserved instances and a monthly conversation that finance can actually challenge.
DR and resilience that has been tested
Backup, replication and a documented recovery time for ERP, file shares and Microsoft 365 - tested, not assumed.
What needs to be in place
The foundations a manufacturing cloud partner expects to see
OT and IT separated at the network
Segmentation between the office stack and the line, with controlled paths for what genuinely needs to cross.
Identity that everything plugs into
Entra ID as the spine, with conditional access and privileged access management taken seriously.
Monitoring and alerting that someone watches
Coverage of the things that actually stop production, with response defined rather than discovered.
Policy and patch hygiene
Patching cadence, baseline policies and change control - the boring work that keeps incidents rare.
What good looks like
A partner who has done this in manufacturing before saves you the first year of learning
A manufacturing-aware infrastructure partner has lived through an ERP migration on Azure, knows what a sensible DR position looks like, and has an honest opinion on hybrid versus cloud-only. They'll make Azure spend predictable, connectivity boring and DR something you can demonstrate.
From there, the rest of the stack - ERP, data, AI, reporting - has somewhere stable to live, and the next project doesn't start by rebuilding the floor.
Outcomes you should expect
- Azure landing zone and hosting on a known reference
- Site connectivity sized around shift patterns and ERP
- Azure spend understood, tagged and defensible
- DR position documented, tested and trusted
Tell us about your sites, your hosting position and your ERP. We'll match you with a UK partner that already runs infrastructure for manufacturers.
Get matchedLooking for a cloud & infrastructure partner for your manufacturing business?
We'll match you with a UK partner that already does this for manufacturing firms - no cold calls, no fee to you.