Decision

Procurement of professional services for firewall specialist(s) to advise and support the migration of the Council's main firewall services from end-of-support hardware to new firewalls.

Reasons for the decision

The Council's current main firewalls reach the end of the vendor's support period in July 2026. The purchase of new firewalls was separated decided to continue to protect the Council's network.
Whilst the Council has an internal ICT team, firewall implementations are not routine and are best implemented with the support of firewall specialists.

Alternative options considered

Three quotes were sought from organisations known to provide firewall implementation support.
One supplier did not respond to the quotation request. The lowest priced option from the remaining resellers was therefore chosen to avoid delaying the migration from the soon to be end-of-support firewalls.