BrainSys specializes in (securing) production environments, but what exactly does the company provide? “We offer solutions within a number of important themes. To start with, the modern workplace. Within this theme, we provide our customers with Microsoft 365 solutions with an additional security shell around it. When it comes to the theme of cloud connectivity, we help companies that want to switch from on-premise to the cloud, using Uniserver's IaaS solutions.

Previously, we did this with the standard blocks that Uniserver offers for this, but we are now building our own environment within the Uniserver environment. An interesting new development in our collaboration,” says Michael.

The third important theme within BrainSys' services is Hybrid IT and Operational Technology (OT) security. Michael: "That means that we secure offices and production environments from the outside, by installing firewalls, guaranteeing secure connections, etc. OT security in particular is an interesting business. In an OT environment, solutions often have a much longer depreciation period.

For example, where software in IT often has a depreciation period of five years, in production environments this can sometimes be twenty years. And that means that the infrastructure looks different, that at a certain point environments are no longer protected because patches are no longer released for vulnerabilities and that these environments are ultimately more vulnerable to hackers."

BrainSys also offers various security solutions for these types of environments, to increase business continuity. “We offer both standard solutions and custom solutions, for example when it comes to separating applications and setting up and configuring firewalls. We do all this based on zero trust, and the specific data, applications and protocols of the production environment in question,” says Michael.

It is clear to Michael that his team plays an important role in supporting production environments, as he explains: “Without my current team we would not have so many satisfied customers. My colleagues understand what happens in a factory, and that is crucial. Because continuity is so important, you make a commitment together to ensure that a production environment always continues to run.

That is why many OT environments choose to outsource these services. We see that the combination of flexibility, scalability and security is central for most IT managers in production environments. They expect good implementation and support of their security solutions from us, but ultimately want to be in control themselves. In other words, if there is a security issue in the middle of the night that brings production to a standstill, they want to be able to solve it themselves.”

The above requirements require a lot of creativity, commitment and dedication from BrainSys. Michael: “Of course we work according to the 'normal' rules and activities of IT automation, but in production environments a little more is expected of us. We think proactively about increasing and guaranteeing business continuity. We do this by devising, developing and explaining work arounds that our customers can apply themselves if they need to solve issues directly and on the spot.”

Dat zijn team een belangrijke rol speelt bij het ondersteunen van productieomgevingen, is voor Michael overduidelijk, zo geeft hij aan: “Zonder mijn huidige team zouden we niet zoveel tevreden klanten hebben. Mijn collega’s begrijpen wat er in een fabriek gebeurt, en dat is cruciaal. Omdat continuïteit zo belangrijk is, ga je met elkaar een commitment aan om te zorgen dat een productieomgeving altijd door blijft draaien.

Whether your work fits within the SLA, you only look at that later. Although we are always well certified and work according to the required protocols and manuals, sometimes we just have to be able to switch very quickly. And personally I think it is very important to give my team the freedom, resources and handles to be able to do that.” A different service level and way of working together than with 'normal' customers. Involvement and accessibility are more central than ever. “It is not without reason that we have had a good customer relationship with some customers for five or ten years.

If I lose a customer, I can really lose sleep over it, we always remain alert to this. Fortunately, we continue to grow steadily as a company. And that says something about the quality of our work”, concludes Michael. BrainSys is one of the partners of Uniserver. As a Dutch cloud distributor, Uniserver offers IT organizations the solutions, knowledge and experience they need to optimally serve customers and end users. Central to this are the highest quality software and hardware, the safest data centers on Dutch soil and relevant certifications.