Enhancing Secure Connectivity and Centralised Management for a Leading City Gas Distribution Company

Introduction:

A leading city gas distribution company in India, recognized for its vast network of branch offices, control centers, and substations spread across the country, partnered with Indus Systems and Services to enhance its cybersecurity framework and modernize its IT infrastructure. 

Operating in a safety-critical industry and managing geographically dispersed operations, the organization required a secure, scalable, and centrally managed network to ensure uninterrupted services, safeguard sensitive operational data, and meet stringent regulatory standards. With its rapid growth and evolving digital requirements, the company aimed to build a resilient foundation that would support future expansions, enable centralized monitoring, and maintain high levels of operational efficiency and compliance.

Challenges: 

As the organization scaled, its legacy network struggled to meet evolving demands, especially around security and manageability. Key challenges included:

• Inconsistent Security Enforcement: 

  • Security policies were not uniformly applied across branch offices and substations, increasing the risk of compliance issues.

• Limited Remote Troubleshooting: 

  • IT teams faced delays diagnosing and resolving issues at distant sites, affecting operations.

• Low Wireless Network Visibility: 

  • Minimal control over wireless access points hindered network visibility and user management.

• Rising Uptime and Compliance Pressure: 

  • Maintaining availability and data security under strict regulatory norms became increasingly difficult.

• Unreliable WAN Connectivity:

  • Existing WAN links couldn’t consistently support performance and reliability needs across locations.

These issues necessitated a comprehensive solution that would address current limitations while future-proofing the IT environment.

Our Solution: 

Indus Systems and Services collaborated closely with the organization’s IT leadership to architect and implement an integrated network security solution centered around Fortinet’s Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) platform with Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) capabilities. Our solution was designed to provide a unified security fabric across their national footprint, while streamlining management and reducing response times.

Key Solution Components:

• Fortinet NGFWs with SD-WAN:

  • Deployed across all critical locations to ensure secure, high-performance connectivity, enabling intelligent traffic routing and enhanced threat protection.

• Centralised Fortinet Wireless Controller: 

  • Allowed seamless configuration, monitoring, and management of all wireless networks from a single pane of glass.

• Enterprise-Grade Access Points:

  • Provided robust, secure wireless connectivity across offices and substations, aligned with enterprise-grade encryption and compliance.

  
  

• Centralized Management Console (FortiManager & FortiAnalyzer): 

  • Enabled policy consistency, rapid deployments, and real-time analytics across the infrastructure.

• High Availability (HA) Configuration:

  • Ensured minimal downtime and uninterrupted business operations in mission-critical environments.

Implementation Highlights: 

To address the growing network and cybersecurity challenges, Indus Systems and Services executed a structured and carefully phased deployment across the organization’s wide-reaching infrastructure. Despite the complexity of operating in remote locations, the solution was implemented with minimal disruption to business continuity. Every element—from planning and configuration to training and post-implementation support—was designed to strengthen the organization’s IT backbone and prepare it for long-term operational excellence.

• Smooth Rollout Across Distributed Sites:

  • Indus successfully implemented the network infrastructure across remote offices and substations, maintaining business continuity throughout the process with minimal operational impact.

• Accelerated Configuration with Policy Templates:

  • Pre-defined policy templates were used to streamline setup across different site types, ensuring fast deployment and consistent security configurations across locations.

• Integrated Diagnostics and Support Reduction:

  • Built-in remote diagnostics tools allowed for faster issue resolution and reduced the need for on-site support, cutting down overall maintenance efforts.

• Empowering Internal IT Teams Through Enablement:

  • Customized training and user-friendly documentation empowered the customer’s IT team to handle daily management and future scaling independently.

• Proactive Support for Ongoing Reliability:

  • Indus provided proactive post-deployment support with health monitoring and periodic audits, ensuring continued performance and reliability.

Business Impact: 

The successful implementation of the modernized IT infrastructure brought measurable benefits to the organization. By addressing critical challenges related to security, scalability, and management, the solution not only strengthened the company’s cybersecurity posture but also enhanced day-to-day operational efficiency across its distributed network.

• Enhanced Network Security:

  • Achieved consistent threat protection across all branch offices and substations through centralized policies, real-time threat detection, and automated response mechanisms.

• Improved Operational Efficiency:

  • Centralized management tools minimized manual configuration efforts, reduced errors, and enforced uniform network policies across the organization.

• Accelerated Troubleshooting & Reduced Downtime:

  • Integrated analytics and diagnostics tools enabled faster root-cause analysis and resolution, enhancing overall IT responsiveness and minimizing service interruptions.

• Scalable, Future-Ready Infrastructure:

  • The modular solution architecture supports seamless expansion—whether in user base, locations, or applications—without compromising on performance or security.

• Stronger Compliance & Governance:

  • Comprehensive logging, auditing, and reporting features ensured alignment with industry regulations and internal compliance requirements.

Conclusion: 

By leveraging Fortinet’s powerful security and networking solutions, expertly implemented by Indus Systems and Services, the organization now enjoys a secure, resilient, and centrally managed network environment. This strategic deployment has empowered their IT team to respond faster to incidents, enforce consistent policies, and confidently scale operations across India—all while ensuring data integrity and operational continuity.

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