RFPs awarded for core routing environment and firewall upgrades
As part of the ongoing Network Upgrade Project, the Network Team recently awarded two Requests for Proposals (RFPs); one for the core routing environment and one for firewall upgrades. The core routing RFP was awarded to Presidio who has proposed an Arista solution. The firewall RFP was awarded to Logicalis who has proposed a Cisco solution.
The core routing upgrade will include:
- Spine/leaf core in Alden and the data center
- Wireless aggregation routers
- Border routers-Ridges router
- Arista management solution
- Testing lab/spare equipment
- Training
- Professional services and technical assistance
The core upgrade will move the environment from a large chassis solution to a modular design made up of many smaller devices. This new design will ensure there will be no single point of failure in the core environment. Other enhancements include a cloud-based management platform that easily creates, tracks, applies, and stores device configurations in a single pane of glass. This platform also provides monitoring capabilities and a more robust set of tools for troubleshooting. We also expect faster response from the manufacturer for technical assistance. During this upgrade we expect to take advantage of more advanced features to facilitate cloud services.
The firewall upgrade will include:
- Border firewall
- Data center firewall
- Point to point VPNs
- Customer-specific firewalls
- Training
- Professional services and technical assistance
The upgraded border firewalls will provide three times the current throughput capacity, as well as the ability to prioritize or ‘shape’ traffic for congestion control. This enhancement will provide a way to help mitigate adverse effects caused by gaming updates and other high-bandwidth-consuming applications. In addition, this solution provides central firewall management with a single pane of glass view. During this upgrade we expect to take advantage of more advanced features to facilitate intrusion detection and prevention.
Both projects are in the early stages of planning, training, and product acquisition.