Burra Foods
Manufacturing network and identity uplift
Burra Foods is an Australian food manufacturer operating live production facilities with continuous processing requirements. Operations depend on tightly controlled environments, safety-critical systems, and reliable connectivity across production, storage, and site services.
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Technology platforms directly support manufacturing operations, workforce safety, and integration with external systems, making availability and predictable behaviour essential.
Context
Burra Foods operates live food manufacturing facilities where network availability, access control, and physical safety are tightly coupled. Production environments include refrigerated panel construction, solid concrete walls, hot and cold pipework, dryers, silos, and storage tanks. Mobile coverage is not available on site. All operational and safety communications rely on Wi-Fi.
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The existing environment had evolved incrementally over time. Physical infrastructure, network design, access control, and cloud connectivity no longer aligned with how the facilities were operated or how risk needed to be managed.
Constraints
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Production could not stop at any point during delivery.
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Facilities contained safety-critical areas with restricted access and limited tolerance for error.
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No mobile coverage was available. Wi-Fi was the sole connectivity layer for users and systems.
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Manufacturing systems included legacy equipment and vendor-managed machinery with fixed requirements.
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Physical works had to be performed safely around live plant, pipework, and moving equipment.
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Connectivity to existing Azure and AWS environments had to remain available throughout.
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Changes needed to be staged, reversible, and safe under partial failure.
What changed
The environment was rebuilt from the physical layer upward, with safety and operability treated as primary design inputs.
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Racks, power distribution, cooling, and structured cabling were refreshed to establish a stable and serviceable physical foundation. Wireless coverage was redesigned following a full survey, mapping, and validation exercise across production, storage, and service areas to support a Wi-Fi-only operating model.
Switching infrastructure and network architecture were redesigned to reflect operational boundaries rather than historical layout. Segmentation was implemented using clearly defined VRFs to separate manufacturing systems, site services, corporate users, and external connectivity.
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Identity-driven access controls were introduced so access reflected role, responsibility, and system function rather than location alone. Firewall policy was rebuilt to enforce explicit trust boundaries and remove inherited or implicit access paths.
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Private connectivity to Azure and AWS was introduced using Megaport to provide predictable, controlled paths to cloud environments. SD-WAN was implemented to manage path selection and resilience under link degradation or failure.
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Brownfield systems were integrated deliberately, preserving existing machinery, vendor access requirements, and production dependencies. Quokka Advisory remained involved through design and delivery to ensure safety, operational intent, and failure behaviour were preserved as changes were introduced into live facilities.
Outcome
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No unplanned production outages during delivery.
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Verified wireless coverage across safety-critical and operational areas.
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Clear fault and trust boundaries across physical, network, identity, and connectivity layers.
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Predictable behaviour during failure, recovery, and access change scenarios.
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Reduced operational risk when onboarding users, integrating systems, or modifying production workflows.
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Internal teams gained confidence operating and maintaining an environment that reflects how the facilities actually function.
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The resulting platform supports continuous manufacturing operations with controlled change, clear accountability, and infrastructure that behaves safely under pressure.