The Customer
Company Name: Pacific Tool
Headquarters: Redmond, WA
Industry: Manufacturing
Description:Pacific Tool manufactures more than 25,000 specialized aerospace tools, including all Boeing standard tools.
Summary
Faced with growing cybersecurity concerns, the CEO of Pacific Tool turned to ISOutsource for expert managed service provider (MSP) assistance. Our team conducted a thorough assessment of Pacific Tool’s IT environment, identifying security gaps and outdated equipment. We developed a comprehensive plan to enhance security, refresh aging systems, and ensure high availability with proactive safeguards. ISOutsource also took over daily helpdesk support, allowing Pacific Tool’s IT resource to focus on strategic initiatives and future growth without interruptions.
Background
Pacific Tool, an aerospace manufacturer with a 60–year history, is a cornerstone in its industry. In 2012, CEO Bobby Holt acquired the privately owned company and has been modernizing and expanding its operations ever since. Under Bobby’s leadership, Pacific Tool has seen significant growth. Despite its success, the company faced increasing cybersecurity challenges, prompting Bobby to seek the expertise of ISOutsource.
Challenges
Since 2020, Pacific Tool had been growing quickly, which made Bobby increasingly concerned about maintaining robust IT security measures.
Pacific Tool relies on one IT professional to support its IT environment, 35 employees, and development tasks.
The company’s on-premises IT infrastructure has been assembled piece by piece over many years. While network infrastructure knowledge had advanced, the company’s jack-of-all-trades IT professional’s time and attention were stretched thin. His primary focus in late 2024 was modernizing Pacific Tool’s ERP system, but constant interruptions from helpdesk tickets hampered his progress.
Recognizing the need for additional support, Pacific Tool identified several pressing IT improvements like:
- Strengthening cybersecurity. With small and medium manufacturing firms accounting for more than 25% of all cyberattacks in 2023, CEO Bobby Holt knew immediate action was necessary to protect the company.
- Improving network reliability to protect the company’s data as it grows, safeguarding sensitive customer information and technical intellectual property—the heart of the business.
- Transitioning to a hybrid cloud environment. To do this, the company needed to determine which systems to migrate to the cloud, to ensure a seamless and secure transition.
“We’re a growing company that needed to develop a more secure, reliable environment, which was beyond the capacity and skills of our existing IT resource. ISOutsource immediately addressed our concerns. They are great to work with, and there are many companies out there like us who also need their services.”
Solution
Pacific Tool was aware of ISOutsource’s work with other manufacturing companies and engaged our MSP services.
ISOutsource started with a thorough technology assessment to understand Pacific Tool’s IT environment. This assessment identified servers and network appliances that could benefit from reconfiguration. It revealed areas where security could be improved and informed a strategic plan to replace aging network equipment. Additionally, we determined which systems could be most cost-effectively migrated to the cloud.
Following the assessment, ISOutsource conducted an initial security audit to pinpoint vulnerabilities in the firewall, servers, and network. To further support Pacific Tool, we took over structured maintenance of their network and infrastructure and daily helpdesk operations, ensuring their IT professional could focus on strategic initiatives without constant interruptions.
Outcomes
Based on the technology assessment, the ISOutsource team created a comprehensive project plan for deploying and enhancing a high-availability infrastructure system with redundancy. This makes it far less likely that natural disaster, hardware failure, or cyberattack will result in downtime or data loss.
As one of the ISOutsource team members notes, “Pacific Tool had all the hardware they needed; we just reconfigured it for high availability. Their IT resource was busy with other concerns and didn’t have the most current networking knowledge. But we have 50 experts in our managed IT services team who can advise on projects.”
An ISOutsource solutions architect created a roadmap of configurations and software to strengthen security. “We have a more secure, reliable IT environment now. We don’t worry about downtime,” says Bobby. “ISOutsource brought in a team of experts to give us a holistic view into the most strategic way forward. We should have worked with them a long time ago.”
With ISOutsource handling helpdesk support, Pacific Tool’s IT professional has become a strategic partner, focusing on guiding the company’s IT future around applications, hardware, DevOps, data management, and security. He can also concentrate on managing the company’s updated ERP system.
Future
ISOutsource is analyzing Pacific Tool’s compliance questionnaires to ensure the company meets current standards and to anticipate future requirements.
We will conduct additional security assessments to help plan further improvements for users and determine what additional software to deploy. From there, ISOutsource will create 1-, 3-, and 5-year plans around security to keep Pacific Tool ahead of the curve.
Holt sums up, saying, “ISOutsource is easy to work with and appreciated our limitations. We developed trust while working together and consider them part of our team. They put our security posture into perspective—I know what my environment needs and what order we should address everything in. We had 90 percent covered before, but they provided that last 10 percent to give us peace of mind.”
About ISOutsource
For more than 30 years, we’ve been helping small and midsize companies get the service they need when they need it. Our team of 100+ professionals provides flexible and customized IT solutions across Managed IT, Cybersecurity, and Strategy Advisory, to help you meet your IT and business goals. Contact us today with your IT questions.