Manchester shakes up security as increased use of SaaS forces it to ‘think differently’

Council deploys hosted IAM in three-year six-figure deal with local IT company

The city’s council is based in Manchester Town Hall  Credit: Julius, under Creative Commons

Manchester City Council is spending more than £400,000 on hosted identity and access management (IAM) technology after concluding that its increased use of cloud-based software required it to “think differently” about its security set-up.

The council has picked Manchester-based Google Premier Partner Cloud Technology Solutions to deploy and support the IAM technology, which will be offered via a software-as-a-service model. The firm has been awarded a three-year contract, which kicks off on Monday, and will be worth an estimated £422,000.


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In a contract notice published earlier this year, the council said that it had previously had a “traditional set-up” for IAM, with physical devices placed on its network to manage access to its IT systems and services. Remote access was provided through two-factor authentication physical tokens from manufacturer RSA.

The council said: “As more ICT services based on the SaaS model are being adopted and deployed within the council, it has become necessary to think differently about how. IAM can be more efficiently deployed and managed in a secure, scalable, and easily deployable way, providing a seamless experience for our users.”

The engagement with Cloud Technology Solutions comes with an option to extend the contract by a further two years.

 

Sam Trendall

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