Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity provider and contract details: FOI release

Information requested

1. What do you use for WAN connectivity – MPLS, Internet Circuits or both?

2. Who currently provides these services?

• MPLS –
• Internet Circuits –

3. When do your current contracts expire for?

• MPLS –
• Internet Circuits

4. Have you adopted or are considering SD-WAN as a technology

• Fully adopted
• Partially adopted
• Considering/Reviewing
• Have not considered?

5. In light of Covid and the increase in home working, have you considered or adopted technologies such as SASE (secure access service edge)?

6. If you have not adopted SASE, how do you currently provide remote access? i.e. VPN

7. What vendor do you currently use for VPN connectivity?

8. When does your current VPN contract (support/licences) expire?

9. Do you outsource your current WAN infrastructure or mange this in-house?

10. If outsourced who do you outsource this to?

11. If outsourced, when does this current agreement come to an end?

Response

Please see the annotated answers below:

1. What do you use for WAN connectivity – MPLS, Internet Circuits or both?

Both.

2. Who currently provides these services?

MPLS –  SWAN SWAN | Scottish Wide Area Network (scottishwan.com).
Internet Circuits – SWAN, Commsworld, Virgin Media, BT, Vodafone.

3. When do your current contracts expire for

MPLS – Most are co-termed to April 2023.
Internet Circuits - Most are co-termed to April 2023.

4. Have you adopted or are considering SD-WAN as a technology

Fully adopted?
Partially adopted?
Considering/Reviewing?
Have not considered?

Partially adopted.

5. In light of Covid and the increase in home working, have you considered or adopted technologies such as SASE (secure access service edge)?

Yes where appropriate.

6. If you have not adopted SASE, how do you currently provide remote access? i.e. VPN

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance an exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies to your request. Disclosing this information would substantially prejudice our ability to carry out the effective conduct of public affairs. Providing details about the information you have requested into the public domain could subsequently be used by attackers, taking into consideration both the external and insider threat, to evade any protective monitoring we might or might not have in place. This could therefore enable them to target specific types of attack or data exfiltration methods and would constitute substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs.

7. What vendor do you currently use for VPN connectivity?

See previous answer.

8. When does your current VPN contract (support/licences) expire?

See previous answer.

9. Do you outsource your current WAN infrastructure or mange this in-house?

Part managed by SWAN, part in-house.

10. If outsourced who do you outsource this to?

SWAN.

11. If outsourced, when does this current agreement come to an end?

2023.

About FOI

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