Highly Available OT Infrastructure for Roche pRED
Roche’s pRED Innovation Center in Basel brings together state-of-the-art research, laboratory, and work environments across four buildings. CTE was commissioned to build a centralized, high-availability infrastructure for the technical systems. The goal was to create a unified, scalable, and secure system landscape that could be operated centrally and expanded over the long term.
Mandate
The goal for the pRED Innovation Center was to create a centralized, highly available, and scalable OT infrastructure that securely connects the technical systems of the four buildings and integrates them into the Roche architecture.
Networking of building automation systems via a central infrastructure
Provision of a highly available and scalable computing platform
Implementation of a unified network architecture, including security and segmentation
Role-Based System Access and Centralized Administration
Integration of the various systems into the existing Roche system landscape
Procedure
CTE developed a centralized OT architecture featuring highly available systems and networks, as well as a high-performance backbone. A virtualized computing infrastructure provides the platform for the technical systems and applications.
To ensure reliable and secure operation, the networks were segmented, access was controlled, and central services for administration, backup, and monitoring were integrated. A central control room also provides a comprehensive overview of the connected systems.
A key component was consistent standardization. The “CTE ICS Concept” used is based on ITIL and BSI standards and creates a uniform foundation for architecture, security, operations, and documentation.
Achievements
The result is a centralized and scalable OT infrastructure that allows the buildings' technical systems to be securely interconnected and centrally managed.
The scale of the project is also evident in the breakdown of quantities:
Over 800 UKV connections
Over 400 firewall rules
over 200 switches
more than 80 virtual machines
over 60 VLANs
The standardized architecture reduces system diversity, supports centralized administration, and lays the foundation for long-term maintainability and scalability.
