Issue - meetings

To consider confidential recommendations.

Purpose of the report

The Purpose of the report was to request £293K capital funding to provide, install, implement and support a more modern, secure wireless infrastructure across the Oldham locale. This cost is for a five-year contract, with expected annual costs of circa £12k thereafter.

Reasons for the Recommendations

Currently, the Council operated three different wireless infrastructures:

1.    Legacy on-premises Cisco, utilising the 5508 wireless LAN controllers (“WLC”)

2.    Current Cloud-managed Meraki solution

3.    New FortiGate-managed access points in Spindles, utilising the FortiGate wireless LAN controllers (“WLC”)

The intention was to replace #1 & #2 with #3 across the board after the successful implementation at the Spindles site.

To facilitate this, it is proposed that Fortinet APs are purchased.

The intention was to mix these approaches for deployment:

·         Straight swap of Cisco AP for Fortinet AP across a whole site

·         Swap out Meraki APs across a whole site with Fortinet AP

·         Redeploy existing Meraki APs to the Civic Centre (NB: once the Civic Centre is vacated, the Meraki Wireless Infrastructure will be decommissioned)

This would achieve the aim of completely removing the Cisco solution harmonising wireless access point infrastructure to a single vendor and management overlay once the Civic Centre is vacated. Until then, we will re-utilise the Meraki solution so as not to overbuy the new Fortinet solution for a site we know is closing. 

Options/alternatives considered:

Option 1: Do Nothing. Not a viable option due to the out-of-support Cisco equipment and potential security vulnerabilities.

Option 2: Replace all the existing Cisco and Meraki Wireless AP’s with the Fortinet Range of Wireless AP’s.

Option 3: Replace the existing Cisco Wireless AP’s with the Fortinet Range of Wireless AP’s and redeploy the appropriate number of Meraki Wireless AP’s Points at the Civic Centre to replace existing Cisco Wireless AP’s.

The preferred option was Option 3.

Decision

Cabinet authorises the replacement of the existing Cisco Wireless AP’s with the Fortinet Range of Wireless AP’s and redeploy the appropriate number of Meraki Wireless AP’s Points at the Civic Centre to replace the existing Cisco Wireless AP’s. The old Cisco Wireless Infrastructure can then be decommissioned. By utilising the FortiNet solution this gives a significant saving compared to equivalent Cisco wireless infrastructure, which is currently circa £430K for hardware alone without installation, implementation and support. Additionally, by redeploying the existing Meraki Wireless AP’s at the Civic Centre this also reduces costs further.

Consideration was given to the commercially sensitive information in relation to Item 7: Wireless Infrastructure Replacement.

Resolved:

That Cabinet authorises the replacement of the existing Cisco Wireless AP’s with the Fortinet Range of Wireless AP’s and redeploy the appropriate number of Meraki Wireless AP’s Points at the Civic Centre to replace the existing Cisco Wireless AP’s. The old Cisco Wireless Infrastructure can then be decommissioned. By utilising the FortiNet solution this gives a significant saving compared to equivalent Cisco wireless infrastructure, which is currently circa £430K for hardware alone without installation, implementation and support. Additionally, by redeploying the existing Meraki Wireless AP’s at the Civic Centre this also reduces costs further.