Case Study: Pacific National halves annual networking costs and boosts security and resilience with Fortinet Secure SD-Branch

Australian National Rail Operator Conquering the Tyranny of Distance While Halving Annual Networking Costs

Pacific National, Australia’s largest private rail freight operator with 3,400 employees and 86 sites, relied on a bespoke transport management system and an expensive, low-bandwidth hub-and-spoke MPLS network that lacked redundancy and agility. The company needed a secure, resilient network to support mission‑critical applications, faster disaster recovery (four‑hour RTO), and better connectivity for remote sites and staff.

Working with Ip.Glass, Pacific National deployed Fortinet Secure SD‑Branch and SD‑WAN (FortiGate, FortiSwitch, FortiAP, FortiExtender) plus diverse links including Starlink, enabling local internet breakout, strict IT/OT separation, and 24x7 managed security. The upgrade halved annual networking costs with a two‑year ROI, reduced outages, improved bandwidth and redundancy, sped new site provisioning from months to days, and significantly boosted security and employee experience at remote locations.

Pacific National

Paul Williams

Chief Information Officer