Contract Award Notice - CCIH17A44 - RCA 118667

MoD's IAS has an internet-facing interface that for development, test and connectivity to the Azure cloud infrastructure. To protect the internal network from external threats and to mitigate the effect from internal threats, it is essential to have a robust and capable firewall that offers both resilience and availability. The current ASA firewalls were deployed in 2010 and have now reached end of life with withdrawal of manufacturer support. The current firewalls do not have the full capabilities to respond to the internal and external threats faced by IAS today. It is essential for the integrity of the IAS environment to deploy new, highly capable devices to mitigate the evolving threats. This is part of a forecast and budgeted expenditure, based on expected life of the current product set.

In addition, the new ASA firewall will also be licensed to provide Remote Access to the AHEv2 via a Cisco AnyConnect VPN client. This is deployed onto the AHE Thin Client Remote Access solution that is planned for rollout Q1 2017. The remote access will offer improved ways of working and allow more effective use of the existing labour pool.

The attached Bill of Materials (BOM) details the components that are required to deliver this replacement capability. The new infrastructure will integrate with other existing and upgrading systems as part of a secure solution: bidders are not to offer quotations for alternatives.

Standard support for 5 years sufficient to cover the MOD's requirements is included within the BOM as a line item. Additional support or maintenance is not required.

The high level list of equipment required is as follows: