Accelerating Compliance and Growth: Superalloy’s Two-Week Transformation

Industry Manufacturing

Key
Technologies Kubernetes, Rancher

Services Custom Software Engineering

Superalloy Manufacturing Solutions achieved CMMC Level 2 compliance in just two weeks, meeting stringent regulatory standards, sustaining existing contracts, and unlocking new growth opportunities in the government sector.

The Challenge

Organizations in highly regulated industries, such as government contracting, face the dual challenge of maintaining compliance with stringent standards while positioning themselves for growth. For Superalloy Manufacturing Solutions, achieving CMMC Level 2 compliance was critical not only to sustain their existing contracts but also to unlock new opportunities in the government sector. However, meeting this goal required navigating complex technical requirements, including provisioning on-premises Kubernetes clusters using existing hardware to align with the NIST SP 800-171r3 specifications.

Our Approach

To tackle Superalloy Manufacturing’s challenge, the Callibrity team first defined a comprehensive solution to meet both immediate and long-term needs. With a tight two-week timeline, the focus was on delivering an operational, compliant, and secure management system for provisioning on-premises Kubernetes clusters.

Recognizing the importance of sustainable success, we established reusable patterns that ensure consistent and efficient provisioning of compliant clusters for lasting value.

Streamlined Kubernetes Cluster Management with Rancher

Our team implemented Rancher RKE2 as the backbone for Kubernetes cluster management. By integrating Rancher with VMware vSphere, we enabled the seamless provisioning of additional clusters, creating a highly available management cluster. With just a click of a button, Superalloy Manufacturing could now spin up test and production clusters. To enhance security and usability, we also integrated Rancher with Azure Active Directory for Single Sign-On (SSO).

Secure Communication with Istio Service Mesh

To meet strict security requirements, we installed and configured Istio Service Mesh within the clusters. This enabled mutual TLS (mTLS) for secure communication both inside the cluster and with external systems. By integrating Istio with an ingress controller, we ensured secure and efficient traffic flow into, out of, and within the Kubernetes environment.

Callibrity was fantastic to work with, taking ownership of the project from Kubernetes cluster design to implementation. Their efforts delivered a compliant, performant, and sustainable solution tailored to our unique needs. Despite a tight timeline, their expertise was key to meeting CMMC Level 2 requirements while enabling our software engineering team to adapt seamlessly to the new guidelines.

Jacob Haskamp (Superalloy Manufacturing - I.T. & Software Engineering Manager)

Results

Simplified Cluster Management: Rancher provides Superalloy Manufacturing with an intuitive, centralized solution for managing Kubernetes clusters, saving time and reducing complexity.

Ready-to-Use Test and Production Clusters: The test and production environments are now fully operational and scalable, accelerating their development and deployment processes.

Enhanced Security: The addition of a service mesh with mTLS strengthens security, a critical requirement for compliance.
Foundation for Compliance: The infrastructure we built serves as a solid foundation for achieving and maintaining CMMC Level 2 compliance.

In just two short weeks, Superalloy Manufacturing gained a tailored Kubernetes management solution that resolved their immediate compliance challenges, secured their existing government contracts, and provided a scalable foundation to pursue new opportunities in the competitive government contracting space.