Replace aging platforms, segment critical systems and resolve difficult network problems. Secure Data Solutions designs the change, implements it and tests the result.
Selected project experience behind our team’s approach to firewall policy, segmentation and compliance-driven engineering.
Utility / NERC CIP compliance environment
Rebuilding plant networks for NERC CIP compliance
Challenge
Harden existing power-plant networks around observed traffic and NERC CIP requirements.
Engineering
Rebuilt Check Point firewall rule bases from the ground up, hardened existing configurations and introduced new segmentation with Cisco switches. Covered Layer 2, Layer 3 and application-layer security, with staged configurations and tested cutovers during planned plant outages.
Result
The work supported a successful NERC CIP compliance outcome, with network designs, validated configurations and technical operating procedures.
Payment infrastructure / PCI
Building defense in depth for payment systems
Challenge
Rebuild security across two payment-infrastructure data centers to meet PCI requirements.
Engineering
Rebuilt Check Point firewall rule bases, hardened existing configurations and created new segments using Cisco switches. Layer 2, Layer 3 and application-layer security formed a defense-in-depth design, backed by detailed build documentation.
Result
The work supported the environment’s PCI compliance validation, with the redesigned firewall policy, segmentation and implementation documentation in place.
Firewall migrations
Carry forward the access your business needs, not every legacy rule. Plan coexistence, cutover and rollback before the maintenance window.
Secure Data Solutions planned a phased Fortinet-to-Meraki migration with interim coexistence across VTI VPNs, BGP and OSPF. The plan included VLAN and gateway redesign and replacement of a Layer 3 core with Cisco switching.
Engineering approach
Separating sensitive systems from shared networks
Analyze traffic and application dependencies.
Configure VLANs on the firewall and switches, with the associated access rules.
Plan DNS and IP changes, validation and rollback.
Move systems to the new VLAN behind the firewall interface and verify required traffic.
The work connects traffic analysis, switching, firewall policy and migration planning, beyond VLAN creation.
Engineering scope
Firewall rulebase review & cleanup
Review existing rules against business traffic and access requirements before changing policy.
Identify obsolete, duplicate and overly broad rules for review with your team.
Implement agreed cleanup, test required application access and document the resulting policy.
Internet-facing security
Understand what is exposed and what needs to remain reachable.
Inventory public services, NAT, remote access and management interfaces.
Review firewall and VPN configuration; prioritize hardening and validation.
External perimeter firewall deployments
Build the boundary between internet connectivity and business services.
Design policy, routing, NAT, VPNs and logging.
Stage configurations, plan cutover and test connectivity and agreed high availability.
Internal firewall deployments & segmentation
Separate users, servers and sensitive applications while preserving required traffic.
Map traffic flows and trust boundaries.
Implement firewall rules, VLANs and Layer 2/Layer 3 controls.
Deliver an access matrix and application-path tests.
Difficult network troubleshooting
Trace failures across routing, switching, firewalls and the applications that depend on them.
Diagnose site-to-site VPN connectivity, firewall policy, routing and traffic-path dependencies.
Test the suspected cause, document the correction and verify affected services.
Network & Security Architecture
Connect switching, routing, wireless, identity and infrastructure into an operable design.
Current-state diagrams, dependency mapping and target architecture.
Capacity, failure domains, recovery procedures and implementation sequencing.
Security assessment remediation
Turn assessment findings into agreed segmentation, firewall-policy and hardening changes.
Prioritize findings, map dependencies and plan implementation with your team.
Implement approved fixes, retest the affected paths and record remaining issues.
Controlled changes, documented results
Before implementation
Agree responsibilities, approvals, change windows, acceptance tests and recovery steps.
At handoff
Give operators the diagrams, configurations, validation evidence and runbooks needed to support the result.
