F5 (Load Balancers) Implementation/Replacement

This decision relates to the procurement and implementation of the replacement to the existing load balancer (f5) hardware within the MPS.

Load balancers are a critical component of the MPS’ IT infrastructure, providing mechanisms to distribute load across several appliances in order to meet performance requirements and also in the provision of resilience to ensure service continuity in the event of a single component failure.

The current f5 estate is shortly to reach End of Software Support Life (EoSSL) and requires replacement in order to remain fully supported.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve capital expenditure of £1,183,000 for the replacement of the existing f5 legacy estate under a modern hybrid licencing model (HELA) better aligned to the MPS Digital Policing infrastructure strategy.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The MPS load balancer (f5) estate is duplicated in two MPS data centres (Eagle and Hawk), as part of the MPS’ Secure External Gateway (MSEG) deployed in a service resilient design.

1.2. There are a number of f5 devices in the MPS Estate that are at end of software support.

1.3. The requirement to replace the existing f5 platform is driven by the current f5 hardware and software in use within the MPS going End of Life (EoL). Afer this point the f5 manufacturer do not provide security updates or hotfixes to the software as part of their normal service. The software will move into extended support, during which they will offer "reasonable effort" technical support and on occasion may offer a customer access to certain software updates which may include security or stability-related software releases. This extended support will continue until 2025.

1.4. In view of the criticality of the services that the MPS’ f5 estate provides to both staff and front-line policing it is not desirable that support be limited to just “reasonable effort” by the manufacturer. The MPS requires that such critical devices be current within the manufacturer’s model range and fully supported.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. Load balancers are a critical component of the MPS’ IT infrastructure, providing mechanisms to distribute load across several appliances in order to meet performance requirements and also in the provision of resilience to ensure service continuity in the event of a single component failure.

2.2. Ongoing revenue cost of £280k per annum from 2022/23 will be funded from the MOPAC Approved DP Networks Revenue Budget.

2.3. The F5 estate within MPS provides the internal and external primary load balancing capabilities key to providing the critical services that all MPS officers and staff use, directly and indirectly.

2.4. This approach also enables MPS to remove the use of Cisco GSS load balancers from the MPS estate and to standardise load balancing capability under the new F5 environment, reducing operational expenditure, risk and the need to retain expertise with respect to these legacy Cisco devices.

2.5. The new F5 high performance devices will be delivered under a new Hybrid Enterprise License Agreement (HELA). This will enable future planned migration to a more agile, flexible and consumption-based usage model in the future.

2.6. An IT Health Check (ITHC) will be undertaken by BT as part of the delivery of the proposed solution.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The capital cost of £1.183m is to be funded from MOPAC Approved Digital Policing Capital Budget in 2021/22.

3.2. Revenue costs of an additional £280k per annum from 22/23 onwards will be funded from the MOPAC Approved DP Networks Revenue Budget.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations). All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services in excess of £189,330 shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations.

4.2. This report confirms that the proposed works orders with BT and Keysource are to be procured through the MOPAC’s Networks and Service Integration and Application Management ‘Tower’ contracts respectively. The report also confirms the technical and financial scope of the proposed orders are within the respective ‘Tower’ contracts.

4.3. Directorate of Legal Services confirms that on the basis of the information provided in the report the extension of this service is in accordance with Public Contract Regulation 72(1) (b): Economic or technical reasons.

4.4. Paragraph 7.23 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Director of Strategic Procurement has delegated authority to approve the award of all contracts, with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure. Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime reserves the right to call in any MPS proposal to award a contract for £500,000 or above.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. Procurement will be through the existing Networks Tower Supplier BT under the terms of the Tower contract remaining in effect until March 2022, and assured to be conformant under that contract.

5.2. This solution:

• Provides lower device and licensing costs for additional future MPS needs under the HELA cost model.

• Enables the migration of licenses to virtualised deployments in the future as software is not locked to the underlying hardware / device, in alignment with MPS infrastructure strategy.

• Delivers a more agile and commercially efficient scalability to absorb additional MPS F5 future requirements.

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. As this paper relates to infrastructure services only, and in particular communications infrastructure not concerned with data “at rest”, there are no special privacy or GDPR considerations applicable.

6.2. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals.

6.3. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects.

6.4. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the project meets its compliance requirements.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. There are no adverse implications to Equality and Diversity through the approval of this recommendation.

7.2. This is a development of/replacement to an existing service as a consequence of which this work does not change aspects relating to equality or diversity.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. Report