ARCHIVED: Completed project: Replacement of Data Center and virtual network firewalls

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Primary UITS contact: David B. Hunter

Completed: May 2013

Description: This project replaces the firewalls within each of the two IU data centers at IUB and IUPUI. Each data center has two firewalls for redundancy. We purchased two additional firewalls (one for each campus) to serve redundant virtual network entry/exit points. These firewalls are able to provide security and logging for virtual networks, such as the Health Sciences Network (HSN), Building Management and Security (BMS) network, and the PCI network.

Milestones and status:

June 1, 2012: RFP released
Summer 2012: Began the evaluation process, and participated in proofs-of-concept with contending vendors; made the necessary decision
December 31, 2012: Deployed firewalls within each data center
March 2013: Indianapolis Data Center converted to new firewalls
May 2013: Bloomington Data Center converted to new firewalls

Benefits:

More responsive management, with additional reporting and troubleshooting features
Higher per-flow throughput on the firewalls, exceeding 1 Gbps
Ability to aggregate Ethernet interfaces and provide a maximum throughput of 20 Gbps within the data centers (10 Gbps for the virtual networks)
Addition of redundant firewalls for virtual networks (HSN/PCI/BMS), two of which were previously served by router ACLs (or filters)

Project team:

Jason Mueller, Network Architecture
David B. Hunter, Manager, Campus Network Infrastructure

Participating network engineers:

Damon Beals
Chris Gallardo
Seth Garrett
Tony Brazzell
Ken Dunn

UISO representatives:

Keith Lehigh
Nate Johnson

Governance:

Enterprise Infrastructure:

Dennis Cromwell, AVP Enterprise Infrastructure
Kirt Guinn, Director, Telecommunications Infrastructure