Case Study

Local Government

How we supported a local authority to enhance and protect their application delivery network with F5 and Fortinet

A local authority needed assistance enhancing remote access services and delivering safe user access to internal and external web-based services
They had already been using F5 products for approximately a decade and needed an expert partner to help them achieve optimal configuration and maintain ROI
We provided design, planning, implementation and operational support for a number of F5 products as well as Fortinet’s FortiGate
The authority now delivers a secure and robust web application environment, while ensuring safe and consistent access for users

Download this case study here:Local Authority

The Problem

A local authority needed support and guidance to protect their application delivery network and fully secure their IT assets and data against common cyber attacks. Having already been successfully using F5 products for approximately a decade, the authority needed to work with an F5 specialist who could help them maintain application lifecycle and security and maximise return on investment while delivering powerful new digital services. As the UK’s most certified F5 specialist and F5 Gold Partner, they approached us for support in determining the right solutions for their environments, delivering the optimal configurations and setups and providing operational support.

More than two million attempted cyber attacks were made against UK councils in 2022, with cyber criminals increasingly targeting local authorities and governments.

To protect their employees, users and data, the authority needed to:

Enhance existing remote access services
Deliver safe access to internal and external web services without operational disruption, whilst protecting vital web services and data for council tenants, employees and social care partnerships
Improve protection of public-facing web services against cyber security threats
Segment their network to allow users access to only the resources they required
Get access to the right support with upcoming projects, such as cloud hosting

Here’s what we did.

Working closely with the local IT team, our expertise and agility at FullProxy have allowed us to deliver complex, time dependent and secure IT solutions. In turn this has enabled the local authority to provide scalable and secure digital services for their staff, service partners and constituents alike. At FullProxy we regard our working relationship with the local authority as a key partnership. We envisage the partnership growing stronger, whilst continuing to deliver value added services for the foreseeable future.

Stephen Mellon, Technical Consultant, FullProxy

Our Solution

We provided full consultation, design, planning, implementation and operational support for all F5 solutions within the authority’s infrastructure.

Starting with its public-facing web services, we ensured these were behind three optimally configured products:

F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall (AWAF): The F5 AWAF provided web application security for common applications such as Microsoft Office, while offering protection against DDoS attacks, bot defence capabilities, API protection and signature-based attacks that help protect web applications from common cyber security threats, including the OWASP top 10
F5 Access Policy Manager (APM): The addition of APM created a secure environment for users to remotely access applications in their infrastructure, while preventing data leaks
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM): LTM enabled the authority to securely and efficiently route web traffic to a third-party cloud web proxy provider

This combination provided seamless remote access, application delivery and performance and network firewalling, while offering state-of-the-art cyber protection with pre-built and certified application security and remote access policies.

We also delivered a web filtering solution using Fortinet’s next-generation firewall, FortiGate. This provided a high level of threat prevention and protection, including blocking user access to malicious domains and harmful web content, bandwidth control and preventing common social engineering techniques and malware downloads.

The Results

As a result of working with us, the authority is now able to deliver a secure and robust web application and remote access environment that provides a consistent user experience and access to data, while protecting against threats.

They benefit from a highly segmented and secure network environment that ensure that employees, tenants, students and service partners receive access to only the resources they require.

Are you interested in finding out more about the products mentioned in this case study? If the answer is yes, why not arrange a chat with one of our consultants today who can talk through F5 and Fortinet solutions that are right for your network.

Products used

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager

F5 Access Policy Manager

F5 AWAF

FortiGate