When Public Safety Can't Wait for Recovery
Your community depends on continuous operations. Traditional disaster recovery for critical infrastructure plans assume you have weeks to rebuild. Ironclad® Pulse ensures that when systems fail—ransomware, hardware failure, natural disaster—you failover to a clean, validated environment in hours, not weeks.
The False Security Trap
Why Traditional Disaster Recovery for Critical Infrastructure Fails
Your SCADA systems, treatment processes, and control networks weren’t designed for rapid recovery. When disaster strikes, traditional approaches leave your community without essential services.
The Traditional Backup Problem:
- Backups can be infected with the same malware that hit your primary systems
- Restoration takes weeks of system rebuilding and validation
- No way to test integrity without risking production
- Recovery means shutdown and your community loses service
- Regulatory compliance requires demonstrated continuity capability
The Disaster Recovery for Critical Infrastructure Reality:
- Water treatment can't stop for 3 weeks while you restore from backup
- Power generation can't be offline while you rebuild control systems
- Manufacturing production loses $100K-$500K per hour of downtime
- Public safety depends on continuous emergency services
- Regulatory mandates (AWIA, EPA, NERC) require proven resilience
The True Cost of Downtime
Why Traditional Disaster Recovery for Critical Infrastructure Fails
For Municipal Water Authority
Day 1-3: Boil water advisories, public health risk
Week 1-2: Emergency water distribution, media scrutiny
Week 3+: EPA violations, potential contamination, community trust destroyed
Total impact: $2M-$10M+ in emergency response, fines, and lawsuits
For Manufacturing
Hour 1: Production line stopped, workers idle
Day 1: Supply chain penalties, customer notifications
Week 1: Lost contracts, competitor gains, layoffs begin
Total impact: $2.4M-$12M per week of downtime
For Power & Energy
Hour 1: Grid instability, emergency protocols activated
Day 1: Community outages, NERC notifications
Week 1: NERC CIP violations, federal investigation
Total impact: Millions in fines plus incalculable reputation damage
The Ironclad Pulse Solution
Active-Active Resilience Built for Operations That Can't Stop
Ironclad Pulse isn’t a backup—it’s a parallel operational environment that’s continuously validated and ready to take over.
How It Works:
Your Primary Systems Continue Operating Normally
- SCADA systems, PLCs, HMIs run production
- Treatment processes continue
- Control networks operate as designed
- No changes to daily operations
While Ironclad Pulse Maintains a Clean Mirror
- Real-time replication of critical data and configurations
- Air-gapped from your production network
- Geographically separated infrastructure
- Continuous threat hunting on mirrored data
- Every byte validated before entering the vault
When Disaster Strikes: <60 Second Failover
- Switch operations to your validated clean environment
- Continue serving your community
- Maintain regulatory compliance
- No ransom payment required
- Production never stops
How Ironclad Pulse Works
Layer 1
The Vault
Your critical systems live in a dedicated, Tier-4 secure facility with military-grade protection:
- Air-Gapped 5-Server Cluster: Physical and logical isolation from production network
- Geographic Separation: Located away from your primary site to survive regional disasters
- Tier-4 Physical Security: 24/7 environmental monitoring, biometric access, hardened perimeter
- SOC 2 Type II Certified: Independently validated security controls
- Private US Infrastructure: Your data stays in our Latham facility—never on public cloud
What this means for you: When ransomware or disaster hits your primary site, the Vault is untouched, operational, and ready to take over.
Layer 2
The Hunt
Continuous threat hunting ensures your failover environment stays clean:
- DoD-Level AI (CrunchAtlas): Defense-grade behavioral analysis detects dormant threats
- Military-Grade Analysts: Former DHS/CISA experts review suspicious patterns
- Real-Time Monitoring: Every packet entering the vault is analyzed
- Automated Threat Neutralization: Malware is eliminated before it can replicate
- Quarterly Intelligence Briefings: Know what threats we’re seeing in your sector
What this means for you: You’re not just recovering data—you’re failing over to a validated, threat-free environment.
Add-On Layer
Layer 3
Asset Discovery & Mapping
Complete visibility into your operational technology:
- Physical Device Inventory: Every PLC, sensor, controller, HMI mapped
- Network Topology: Communication flows and dependencies documented
- Shadow Device Detection: Equipment IT doesn’t know about identified
- Protocol Analysis: Modbus, DNP3, PROFINET, BACnet traffic understood
- Configuration Baseline: Known-good settings for rapid restoration
What this means for you: When ransomware or disaster hits your primary site, the Vault is untouched, operational, and ready to take over.
What's Included
Complete Operational Continuity
Secure Infrastructure
- Dedicated 5-server air-gapped cluster in Tier-4 facility
- Geographic separation from your primary site
- 24/7 environmental and security monitoring
- Private US-based infrastructure
- One-way data flows (air-gapped resilience)
Continuous Protection
- Real-time replication of critical systems
- DoD-level AI threat detection (CrunchAtlas)
- Military-grade analyst review
- Automated threat sanitization
- Quarterly threat intelligence briefings
Failover Capability
- Documented failover procedures
- Technical support during activation
- 4-12 hour switchover timeline
- Post-incident forensics support
- Validated clean environment guarantee
Compliance Support
- AWIA compliance documentation (water/wastewater)
- NERC CIP audit support (energy/power)
- EPA cybersecurity requirement alignment
- Quarterly testing and validation reports
- Executive and board-level briefings
Ironclad Pulse vs. Traditional Disaster Recovery for Critical Infrastructure
| Traditional Backup | Cloud Disaster Recovery | Ironclad Pulse | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protection Model | Periodic snapshots | Cloud-connected replica | Air-gapped active twin |
| Backup Integrity | Unknown until restore | Vulnerable to attack | Continuously validated |
| Threat Detection | None | Cloud provider only | DoD-level AI + hunters |
| Failover Time | 7-21+ days | 24-72 hours | <60 seconds |
| During Disaster | Business halted | Limited operations | Full operations continue |
| Rasomware Resillience | Backups often encrypted | Cloud access compromised | Vault isolated and clean |
| Regulatory Proof | Difficult to demonstrate | Cloud audit reports | Quarterly validation docus |
| Cost of Downtime | Weeks of lost revenue | Days of reduced capacity | Hours of brief transition |
| Public Impact | Service interruption | Degraded service | No service disruption |
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Ironclad Pulse disrupt our operations during deployment?
No. Deployment uses passive data collection that never touches production equipment. We schedule around your maintenance windows and operational constraints.
How do you ensure the vault stays clean?
Triple-layer defense: (1) Air-gap isolation prevents direct attack, (2) Automated Trend Micro scanning detects known threats, (3) CrunchAtlas AI + human hunters find sophisticated/dormant malware.
What if we need to fail over–how fast can it happen?
Typical failover: less than 60 seconds, depending on the system complexity. We document and test procedures quarterly so your team knows exactly what to do.
Do we need to rebuild our primary systems before switching back?
Yes. The vault is your operational environment while you investigate, clean, and harden your primary systems. This happens at your pace without ransom deadline pressure.
What about our regulatory compliance obligations?
Ironclad Pulse provides quarterly validation reports, failover test documentation, and compliance mapping for AWIA, NERC CIP, EPA, and other frameworks.
Can this work with our existing backup strategy?
Yes. Ironclad Pulse complements traditional backups by providing an active operational environment. You keep your backups for historical recovery; Ironclad Pulse is for business continuity.
What happens if the vault facility has a problem?
The vault facility has redundant power, cooling, and network connectivity. It’s designed for 99.99% uptime. Geographic separation means regional disasters affecting your site don’t affect the fault.
How often should we test failover?
We recommend quarterly testing (included in the service). Some high-criticality environments test monthly. Annual is the regulatory minimum for most frameworks.
Your Community Can't Wait 3 Weeks for Recovery
Traditional disaster recovery for critical infrastructure means hoping your backups are clean and waiting weeks to find out. IronClad Pulse means knowing your failover environment is validated and switching over in hours.
When essential services must continue, Ironclad Pulse ensures they do.