UltraSource, founded in 1883, is a food packaging company located in Kansas City, Missouri. For over a century, UltraSource has served the processing and packaging equipment needs of thousands of businesses worldwide in the meat and poultry, seafood, produce, dairy, medical, and pharmaceutical industries. Whether further processing, vacuum or modified atmosphere packaging, or high-speed labeling, UltraSource offers comprehensive products and custom solutions that meet the production line objectives, labor goals, budget constraints, and brand image of their customers.
The Challenge:
When the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, the need for packaged food surged in the U.S. UltraSource had to find a way to continue to support the food industry under these increased demands while working remotely. The company was already partnering with IP Pathways on another project, so our technical experts pivoted to help create a custom solution. Unfortunately, the company’s network was not set up to easily allow employees to work from home. Most of their infrastructure was located on-prem, and their firewall wasn’t enterprise-grade which led to a lack of capabilities to support the shift to remote work.
Our Solution:
IP Pathways reconfigured UltraSource’s VMware View devices to help the company gain remote access to their data. Once the solution was in place, UltraSource employees were able to use their personal computers at home to access their desktops at work. UltraSource knew these changes to their network would increase bottlenecks in their firewall. They had been testing out a new Palo Alto Strata before the pandemic hit, but by the time they decided to purchase the device, most other companies were also making the transition to remote work.
This created a hardware shortage that lasted for months. UltraSource’s firewall was on backorder. Luckily, they had a Palo Alto demo unit at their disposal, so our technical experts teamed up with Palo Alto’s engineers and devised a short-term solution to use the demo device until the new firewall arrived. This kept UltraSource’s business running smoothly for the next couple of months. Then, once the new Palo Alto was on-site and ready to be installed, IP Pathways came back out and swapped the two units for them.
“I don’t know what we would have done without that temporary solution in place. It would’ve been a painful couple of months, that’s for sure. Our new long-term goal is to get away from being very on-prem. We’re looking to the cloud, and IP Pathways will certainly play a big role in that transition.” Phil Pauls, Information System Manager.