Purpose

Our current Celestix contract for Celestix
‘agile’ remote-access VPN tunnels expires 21/05/2025
and our recent Microsoft365 license upgrade presented an
opportunity to improve our remote working provision and reduce our
annual charges. If we transfer to ‘Always on’ VPN
software (bundled free with Microsoft365), we no longer require
Celestix client licenses meaning the new upgrade will be
cost[1]neutral and can
be funded from existing budgets.
 
Celestix provided quotes through a reseller to
replace and support our existing system and they have agreed to
temporarily extend our current client licenses. This will allow us
to manage a gradual migration to the new product which would reduce
the risk of a council wide outage for remote workers.
 
We have considered alternative providers to
configure ‘Always on’ VPN, but Celestix have specific
knowledge of our current configuration and are familiar with the
migration between the two systems.
 
Our Head of Service has been consulted during
the decision-making process and approves the request.

Decision

To procure (via direct award on supplier
terms) consultancy/software services to migrate away from our
current VPN solution for a cost of £12,689 with a contract
duration of 12 months.
 
Reason:
We have a unique opportunity to improve our
remote working system by switching to a cost neutral product that
we are already licensed for.