Industry
Manufacturing, distribution
Employees
600
Region
USA, Ireland, Mexico
Partner
GuidePoint Security
THE CHALLENGE
Securing manufacturing operations as systems and connectivity expand
In global manufacturing, downtime rarely stays contained. Even brief disruptions can cascade through production systems, ripple across supply chains, and delay customer deliveries.
For MGP Ingredients, that risk is part of everyday operations. As a leading global producer of premium distilled spirits and food ingredient solutions, they operate across multiple global locations. Their IT and security team is responsible for the entire enterprise. “The challenge is maintaining visibility and control without adding complexity or headcount,” says Craig Bowles, Vice President of IT and Security at MGP Ingredients.
Before MGP Ingredients centralized their security visibility through TrendAI Vision One™, signals across the envrionment were abundant but not useful. “It felt like we had more dashboards than we did IT people,” says Bowles, describing an environment flooded with alerts that made it difficult to separate meaningful risk from background noise.
Committed to running a sharp, efficient organization, MGP Ingredients made the strategic decision to consolidate its security visibility into TrendAI Vision One™. The impact has been measurable, with detected vulnerabilities dropping 57% year over year. The team’s efficiency and confidence has also improved. “Uptime means everything, and now we can sleep warm and comfortably without increasing headcount,” says Bowles.
“Uptime means everything here. Downtime can have direct financial, safety, and reputational impact.”
Craig Bowles
Vice President of IT and Security, MGP Ingredients
THE SOLUTION
Trading disconnected tools for a single, trusted view
To gain a unified view across their security investments and cut through alert noise, MGP Ingredients centralized their visibility with the TrendAI Vision One™ platform. They correlate signals across IT, OT, cloud, identity, email, and vulnerabilities for a unified view of their environment, all through one industry-leading AI security platform.
MGP Ingredients’ approach has always prioritized signal quality over alert volume. “We were reviewing a high volume of issues that led nowhere. When we cut down the noise, it became much easier to see what was present and worth acting on,” says Bowles. “With AI-driven correlation reducing noise, the team can focus on genuine exposure without disrupting production systems.”
Prioritizing business risk with AI-driven insight
As connectivity between corporate IT and plant environments expanded, so did risk. MGP Ingredients used AI-driven analytics through TrendAI Vision One™ Cyber Risk Exposure Management (CREM) to gain a more accurate, company-wide view of exposure. “We can’t afford uncertainty or blind spots. We need to understand the potential impact of the vulnerabilities in our environment. That’s what we get with TrendAI Vision One™,” says Bowles.
That added context allows the team to translate cyber risk into terms that resonate with leadership, enabling faster prioritization and clearer decision-making across security and business stakeholders.
We can’t afford uncertainty or blind spots. We need to understand the potential impact of the vulnerabilities in our environment. That’s what we get with TrendAI Vision One™.”
Vice President of IT and Security, MGP Ingredients
Craig Bowles
RESULTS
Fewer distractions, more confidence, and measurable risk reduction
By centralizing security visibility through TrendAI Vision One™, MGP Ingredients gained a unified view across their security investments, correlating signals that had previously lived in disconnected tools. As Bowles recognized, there were “more dashboards than IT people,” spending too much effort piecing together fragmented views of risk.
Once telemetry across the environment came together in one platform, the picture became clearer. Between 2025 and 2026, MGP Ingredients saw a 57% year over year reduction in detected vulnerabilities. The change came from a more accurate understanding of what existed in the environment, allowing the team to shed duplicate, stale, and irrelevant findings. “We weren’t constantly reacting anymore. Once the environment made more sense, the noise dropped and we could focus on improving things,” says Bowles.
That clarity, including through TrendAI Vision One™ Services – Managed Detection and Response (MDR), had a positive human impact as well, aligning with Bowles’ internal rule he calls an “eight hour sleep SLA.”
“If my team isn’t sleeping through the night, something in the system is broken. With MDR providing 24/7 monitoring and response, I can say the team can now sleep comfortably knowing someone is watching the environment,” says Bowles. “This reduces burnout and frees time to focus on future state planning instead of nonstop firefighting.”
CUSTOMER SERVICE AS A DIFFERENTIATOR
A hands-on partnership that supports lean teams and complex environments
For Bowles, the value of the TrendAI™ relationship was clear in the execution. With a small IT and security team, Bowles was explicit about what he needed from vendors: consistent engagement, direct access to expertise, and an understanding of how manufacturing environments operate. “We didn’t want vendors who just dropped a tool and disappeared. We needed people who understood our business and stayed involved,” says Bowles.
In addition to TrendAI™, Bowles credits the relationship with GuidePoint Security to help him with their strategy and maturity. “GuidePoint is my wartime consigliere, and we meet on a monthly basis to continue to look at what is happening with our long-term plan.”
That expectation shaped MGP Ingredients’ approach to working with TrendAI™. Regular working sessions, clear escalation paths, and hands on support help the team adopt new capabilities without slowing down. As the company continues to modernize and prepare for greater automation and AI adoption, Bowles views that level of engagement as essential.
ABOUT TRENDAI™
TrendAI™, the global AI security leader and enterprise business unit of Trend Micro, empowers organizations with full AI visibility and consolidated security that inspires confidence, drives innovation, and eliminates risk. Trusted by the largest enterprises and governments across 185 countries, TrendAI™ secures the entire organization, from identities to infrastructure to data.
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