Case Studies

Selected projects from Christopher Fraser's career, each shown with the business situation, his role, and what was delivered.

About these examples: These projects come from Christopher's 25+ year career, including prior employment and consulting roles. Client names and sensitive details are withheld.

SD-WAN Network Assessment Vendor Selection
Municipal Government

City Network Modernization: SD-WAN Assessment and Vendor Evaluation

Business Situation

A city government was running aging WAN infrastructure that could no longer support growing bandwidth demands, remote work, or modern security controls. Leadership needed an objective view of SD-WAN options and a path to modernization, but lacked the internal expertise to evaluate vendors or build a business case.

Christopher's Role

Led the enterprise network evaluation and the vendor selection process supporting a $250,000 SD-WAN initiative.

Work Delivered

  • Delivered an enterprise network evaluation plan for the initiative
  • Documented solution requirements covering security, performance, scalability, and budget constraints
  • Ran a structured evaluation across multiple SD-WAN providers
  • Checked recommendations against the city's security policies, compliance requirements, and growth plans

Result

  • Leadership received a clear, actionable roadmap and the confidence to move forward
  • Vendors were evaluated against documented requirements
  • The project was scoped and planned on time and on budget with stakeholders aligned
$250K SD-WAN initiative supported
Multiple Vendors evaluated against documented requirements
Roadmap Delivered for leadership decision
Fortinet SD-WAN Data Center Multi-Site
Building Materials & Distribution

One Security Framework Across 23 Locations

Business Situation

A regional building materials distributor operating 23 locations had no consistent security architecture. Each branch ran independently with mismatched equipment, no centralized visibility, and no formal network security strategy. The business needed a security overhaul and a modern WAN to connect its distributed operations reliably.

Christopher's Role

Designed and led the deployment of the security stack, SD-WAN, and core data center migration, and authored the company's first formal network refresh program and security strategy.

Work Delivered

  • Designed and deployed a Fortinet security stack (FortiGate, FortiManager, FortiAuthenticator, FortiAnalyzer, FortiClient EMS) across the enterprise
  • Deployed SD-WAN with traffic steering, failover, and centralized management
  • Optimized firewall rules and rolled out SSL pre-logon for secure remote access
  • Deployed Cisco Nexus 9K core switching and led the data center migration
  • Implemented SolarWinds monitoring across all 23 remote locations
  • Created the first formal enterprise network refresh program and network security strategy

Result

  • Data center migration delivered on time and within budget
  • All 23 locations brought under a single, centrally managed security framework
  • The organization moved from no formal security strategy to a documented, repeatable one
  • Centralized monitoring gave visibility across all 23 locations
23 Locations on one framework
On Time Data center migration delivered
Central Management and monitoring
Fortinet SD-WAN Azure WAN Redesign
Waste Management & Environmental Services

SD-WAN and Azure Infrastructure Buildout for a National Operator

Business Situation

A national waste management company was seeing performance and reliability problems across its LAN, WAN, and remote access infrastructure. Leadership needed a redesign that improved reliability, strengthened security, and supported a move to a hybrid cloud environment.

Christopher's Role

Led the LAN, WAN, and remote access redesign, the Fortinet SD-WAN deployment, and the Azure buildout, backed by enterprise network assessments.

Work Delivered

  • Led a full LAN, WAN, and remote access redesign to address performance bottlenecks and reliability gaps
  • Deployed Fortinet SD-WAN and built Azure cloud infrastructure to support hybrid operations
  • Conducted enterprise-wide network assessments to find gaps and set a baseline for continuous improvement

Result

  • Assessments produced a continuous improvement roadmap adopted by leadership
  • The organization moved to a hybrid cloud model with improved performance and resilience
  • A documented baseline now exists for measuring future improvements
Hybrid SD-WAN and Azure infrastructure built
Full Enterprise network assessment completed
Roadmap Adopted by leadership
Palo Alto Networks VMware NSX Micro-segmentation Terraform
Enterprise Technology Consulting

Firewall Migration and Micro-segmentation: Palo Alto to VMware NSX

Business Situation

A large enterprise needed to move from a perimeter firewall model built on Palo Alto Networks to a VMware NSX distributed firewall architecture. The project was complex and high-risk, with critical operations that could not be disrupted. The goal was security controls at the workload level rather than only at the network edge.

Christopher's Role

Led the micro-segmentation initiative, architected the NSX-T distributed firewall design and policy framework, and managed delivery in an Agile model.

Work Delivered

  • Led the micro-segmentation work, using Terraform to automate the migration to the NSX Distributed Firewall
  • Architected and oversaw the NSX-T distributed firewall design and security policy framework
  • Managed the project with an Agile delivery model for continuous stakeholder visibility
  • Validated security controls at each migration phase before moving on

Result

  • Successful migration from a perimeter-based model to workload-level micro-segmentation
  • Controls were validated at each phase of the transition
  • Terraform automation made future deployments repeatable and auditable
NSX-T Distributed firewall deployed
Phased Validation at each migration step
IaC Terraform automation implemented
Multi-Site Network Upgrade Project Leadership
Independent Consulting

40-Location Network Upgrade: Multi-Site Coordination and Delivery

Business Situation

An organization with 40 locations across the country needed a complete network upgrade across all sites. The work required careful coordination of engineering teams, vendors, and site stakeholders while keeping disruption to daily operations low.

Christopher's Role

Led the team of engineers and owned project execution, including technical design, scheduling, resource allocation, and stakeholder communication.

Work Delivered

  • Led engineers responsible for designing and executing upgrades across all 40 locations
  • Managed technical design, scheduling, resource allocation, and stakeholder communication
  • Coordinated directly with site stakeholders at each location to limit business disruption
  • Kept standards and documentation consistent at every site

Result

  • All 40 locations upgraded on schedule
  • Consistent network standards across every site
  • Minimal operational disruption reported across locations
40 Locations upgraded
On Schedule Full project delivery
Minimal Reported business disruption

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