Business telecom firm Magnet has been awarded a lucrative contract to provide Limerick City Council with high-speed connectivity to the Government’s virtual private network (VPN).
The 50MB per second fibre connection will be fully managed for the council by Magnet Business and will give the council centralised and secure access to a range of Government departments and State agencies.
The contract was awarded to Magnet after a competitive tender process.
The VPN will utilise the Limerick Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) to link to Magnet’s infrastructure in Dublin.
Limerick City Council serves a local population of over 54,000 people and employs a staff of 630 people.
“We are also anticipating an increase in demand from our customers, especially with the pending launch of the new Limerick City Council website and the upsurge in traffic the system will experience due to the council’s additional online services, such as e-payments for, for example, traffic enforcement,” explained Alfred Jones, IS project leader at Limerick City Council.
“The increased bandwidth required, our security needs and the expert guidance on what solutions best fit our specific needs as a public sector organisation have all been met by Magnet Business,” Jones added.
The council provides a full range of services from housing and community services to motor tax, water and sanitation, planning and development, environment, road transportation and infrastructure, library, museum, arts and recreation services for the local community.
Magnet sales and marketing director Donal Hanrahan said the deal follows hot on the heels of a similar agreement with Offaly County Council and enables Limerick City Council to cap its usage in order to manage costs.
“As well as offering the ability to prioritise individual applications over the link, the service makes it possible to increase bandwidth at a later date without additional investment in equipment or a physical technical presence on site,” said Hanrahan.
By John Kennedy