UniFi Enterprise Delivers Secure IT Infrastructure for Biopharma Research

About the Organization.

BM is a fast-growing preclinical drug research and development service provider, founded by senior CRO veterans with decades of management and leadership experience. Serving global pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients, BM is headquartered in the heart of Zhangjiang Pharma Valley, Shanghai, with more than 6,000 sq ft of state-of-the-art R&D space. Facilities include AAALAC-compliant SPF animal facilities and biosafety level-2 laboratories.

BM’s one-stop platform offers comprehensive preclinical solutions, spanning target validation, protein and antibody production, in vitro assays, cell analytics, in vivo pharmacology/PK/PD, and exploratory toxicology. Their 100+ scientist team leverages proprietary platforms such as the MetaCHO antibody expression system and a tumor cell bank with nearly 1,000 unique cell lines, enabling leading-edge research services.

Integration Partner.

For this critical IT infrastructure modernization, BM partnered with Joint-Harvest, an experienced systems integrator specializing in building enterprise-grade UniFi solutions for demanding environments such as biomedical labs, universities, and multi-site enterprises.

Business Requirements

With rapid scientific expansion and increasing international collaborations, BM required a next-generation network that could:

• Ensure high availability and redundancy across a five-story campus, supporting hundreds of users and devices with IPS intrusion prevention enabled.
• Eliminate single points of failure in routing, switching, uplinks, and power to safeguard against downtime that could disrupt sensitive experiments.
• Scale for the future as workloads, connected lab devices, and global collaboration needs increase.

Why UniFi?

BM and Joint-Harvest selected UniFi Enterprise because of its:

• Full-stack integration (Network, Protect, Access, NVR) under a single license-free platform.
• Carrier-grade high availability with Shadow Mode gateways, MC-LAG aggregation, dual uplinks, and dual PSUs across the architecture.
• Future-ready scalability with Wi-Fi 7 APs, 25G/100G switching, and enterprise-class NVRs.
• Ease of centralized management, allowing BM’s IT team to oversee the entire campus from a single intuitive console.

Deployment Highlights

Core & Gateway Layer

• Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG) deployed in Shadow Mode VRRP, providing dual-gateway redundancy.
• Dual 25G uplinks to the core ensure seamless failover and IPS performance at scale.

Aggregation & Switching

• Enterprise Campus Aggregation switches with MC-LAG cross-chassis aggregation for equipment redundancy and link load balancing.
• Enterprise PoE Switches (24/48) with stacking up to 960 Gbps, supplying robust PoE+++ to critical lab and office devices.

Wireless Coverage

• Enterprise 7 APs (Wi-Fi 7) deployed throughout offices, labs, and collaboration spaces.
• Tri-band coverage (2.4/5/6 GHz) with 10G uplinks supports high concurrency, while dual uplink redundancy prevents downtime.

Video Security & Access Control

• Enterprise NVR supports up to 210 cameras, ensuring 24/7 video coverage across sensitive zones including labs, animal facilities, and restricted offices.
• UniFi Access readers and intercoms manage staff and visitor access, integrated with lab security protocols.

Power Resilience

• UniFi Power Backup units deployed for critical hardware to protect against PSU failure or power disruption.

Results & Benefits

• Five-Nines Reliability: MC-LAG and VRRP eliminated single points of failure, achieving 99.999% uptime (less than 5 minutes annual downtime).
• Stronger Security: IPS-enabled networks plus UniFi Protect surveillance safeguard sensitive research and high-value lab assets.
• Operational Efficiency: Single-pane-of-glass management reduces IT overhead, enabling Joint-Harvest to train BM’s small IT team to self-manage.
• Future Expansion: With scalable switching and Wi-Fi 7 APs, BM is prepared to expand research facilities and global collaboration without redesigning its IT backbone.