Logistics & Distribution8 weeks

From Duct Tape IT to Fully Automated Infrastructure

Complete IT overhaul for a 50,000 sq ft distribution warehouse recovering from ransomware

A Georgia-based distribution company had been hit by ransomware, had no proper IT department, and relied on a revolving door of part-time contractors who left behind a patchwork of misconfigured systems. They never budgeted for a full IT department because the cost seemed out of reach — so they paid contractors whenever something broke, which ended up costing more in the long run. We designed and implemented a complete infrastructure overhaul — network, servers, security, telephony, monitoring, and endpoint management — using automation and license-free technologies. Through our per-seat managed services model, they now get a full IT department and more for a fraction of what hiring in-house or continuing with contractors would have cost.

Key Results

99.9%
Network Uptime
From daily outages to consistent reliability
80%
Cost Reduction
Eliminated all recurring licensing with open-source solutions
< 15 min
Recovery Time
Full VM restore from verified backups
100%
Documentation
Every system documented and version-controlled

Before & After

The client operated a 50,000 sq ft warehouse with 45 employees and roughly $2M in annual revenue. They had previously been a ransomware victim and had no proper IT department. They never budgeted for one because they assumed the cost of a dedicated IT team was beyond their resources. Instead, they brought in contractors from time to time — a different one every year or two — each layering on their own solutions without documentation. Every contractor visit was a billable event with no continuity, no accountability, and no long-term strategy. The result was a fragile, undocumented mess that no one fully understood, and the cumulative contractor bills over the years far exceeded what a proper IT setup would have cost.

💀

Before CyberKula

The nightmare we inherited

✗
Network Chaos: A flat network built on aging switches mixed with random consumer-grade hubs. No segmentation, no documentation, no management.
✗
No Real Firewall: A basic gateway appliance with static IPs assigned everywhere — no DHCP, no DNS, no filtering, no intrusion detection.
✗
Broken Active Directory: A half-configured AD environment with no internal DNS, no provisioning process, and no group policies.
✗
Zero Visibility or Monitoring: No way to know if the internet was up, if the phone system was down, if WiFi was working, or if malware was active on any machine. Complete blindness across the entire environment.
✗
No Ticketing or Asset Management: No system for tracking issues, no inventory of hardware or software, and no way to manage endpoints remotely.
✗
Warehouse PC Free-for-All: Warehouse computers used for personal browsing, streaming videos, and social media — no lockdown, no kiosk mode, no acceptable use enforcement.
✗
Terrible WiFi: Old wireless access points providing spotty, unreliable coverage across the warehouse floor.
✗
No Backup or Disaster Recovery: An old file server was the only storage — no offsite backup, no replication, no disaster recovery plan.
✗
No Remote Work Capability: Employees had zero ability to work remotely. No VPN, no cloud access, no remote desktop.
✗
Dying Servers: Physical servers on their last legs with no redundancy, no backups, and no failover capability.
✗
Ancient Phone System: A legacy on-premise PBX costing thousands per month with no modern features — no mobile app, no call routing, no voicemail-to-email.
✗
Expensive, Weak Internet: Dual ISP connections that were overpriced and underperforming, with no failover between them.
✗
The Contractor Cost Trap: Without an IT budget, every problem was a one-off contractor call — emergency rates, no context of the environment, no documentation left behind, and no preventative work ever done. Over the years, the accumulated cost of reactionary contractor visits far exceeded what a dedicated managed services plan would have cost, and the environment only got worse with each handoff.
🚀

After CyberKula

Engineered, automated, bulletproof

✓
License-Free Firewall Infrastructure: Deployed enterprise-grade, license-free firewalls in a high-availability failover configuration. Implemented full IDS/IPS, DNS filtering, network segmentation with proper VLANs, and comprehensive security policies. Replaced the static-IP-everywhere approach with proper DHCP, internal DNS, and centralized management. The dual-firewall setup ensures zero downtime if either unit fails.
✓
Modern VoIP Phone System: Replaced the ancient on-premise PBX with a modern VoIP solution featuring desk phones, a mobile app for remote workers, and a full call center module with queuing and routing. Employees can now take business calls from anywhere. Eliminated thousands in monthly legacy phone system costs.
✓
Hypervisor Cluster with Failover: Built a two-node hypervisor cluster spread across both building locations for hardware failover with zero licensing costs. All workloads are virtualized with automated snapshots, live migration, and verified backups. If an entire server room goes down, the other node keeps everything running. The entire cluster was provisioned with automation — fully reproducible from code.
✓
Active Directory & Automated Provisioning: Rebuilt Active Directory from scratch with proper internal DNS, automated user provisioning, and comprehensive group policies. Created distinct provisioning profiles for different roles: end users, marketing, call center, security, and maintenance staff. New employee onboarding now takes minutes instead of hours.
✓
Defense-in-Depth Security: Implemented a complete security stack: enterprise firewall with IDS/IPS, DNS-level content filtering, endpoint antivirus on every machine, hardened group policies, and full network segmentation. Every device sits on the appropriate VLAN with only the access it needs. The flat network that enabled the original ransomware attack is gone.
✓
Warehouse PC Kiosk Mode: Locked down all warehouse computers with automated kiosk mode profiles. Workers can only access the applications they need for their jobs — no personal browsing, no streaming, no social media. If a PC has issues, it can be wiped and reprovisioned to its locked-down state automatically within minutes.
✓
Complete Network Redesign: Ripped out all the old Cisco switches and random hubs. Deployed license-free managed switches throughout with new structured cabling and three enterprise wireless access points providing full coverage across the warehouse floor. Every port is mapped, every VLAN is documented, every connection is monitored.
✓
Local Camera & Surveillance System: Deployed a local camera system covering key warehouse areas, loading docks, and entry points. All footage stored on-premise with appropriate retention policies — no cloud subscription fees, full ownership of the hardware and data.
✓
NOC & Unified Monitoring Dashboard: Built a complete pane-of-glass monitoring solution with zero licensing costs. A single dashboard showing real-time status of every critical system — internet connectivity, phone system health, WiFi coverage, server performance, backup status, security alerts, and more. For the first time ever, operations staff could see at a glance whether everything was running or if something needed attention. No more guessing, no more finding out about outages from angry employees.
✓
Per-Seat Managed Services — A Full IT Department for Less: Instead of unpredictable contractor bills, the client moved to CyberKula's per-seat managed services model — a flat monthly rate per end user that covers everything: infrastructure management, security monitoring, helpdesk support, proactive maintenance, backups, and ongoing improvements. For less than they were spending on sporadic contractor visits, they now have an entire IT engineering team on retainer. The per-seat model gave them budget predictability for the first time, and the total cost is a fraction of what hiring even one full-time IT employee would run — let alone a proper department.

Our Approach

We conducted a thorough assessment of every device, cable, and configuration — documenting the entire environment from scratch. Then we designed and deployed a complete infrastructure replacement in phases, minimizing disruption to daily warehouse operations. Every component was selected to eliminate recurring licensing costs while delivering enterprise-grade reliability.

“We went from daily network issues and constant worry about another ransomware attack to rock-solid infrastructure. CyberKula did not just fix our problems — they rebuilt everything from the ground up. We used to call a different contractor every time something broke, and it always cost more than we expected with nothing to show for it long-term. Now we pay a flat per-person rate and get more IT support than we ever had — reliable phones, fast WiFi, locked-down warehouse PCs, real monitoring, and actual documentation for the first time ever. It is like having our own IT department without the overhead.”
Operations Director
Regional Distribution Company

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