RFI - Firewall Solutions

Background
The University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), part of the University System of Maryland (USM), is seeking detailed information from firewall vendors regarding their products, capabilities, and service models. UMD aims to evaluate potential solutions as part of a future-looking firewall strategy that aligns with the needs of a higher education environment, emphasizing high-performance networking, flexible integration, and scalable security services.

This Request for Information (RFI) is intended solely for planning and decision-making purposes and does not constitute a commitment to procure any products or services.

Work Details
Vendors are invited to provide detailed responses addressing the following areas:

1. Product Overview and Architecture: Overview of firewall product line, architecture supporting high availability and management at scale, capabilities for traffic inspection and application awareness, subscription model features.

2. Integration and Interoperability: Integration with Aruba Clearpass, dynamic tagging capabilities, role-based access control, API support, integration with identity management systems like Fischer Identity and ITSM tools like ServiceNow.

3. Security Features: List of available subscription security services (e.g., intrusion prevention, malware protection), licensing models for these services, threat intelligence feed incorporation, SSL decryption capabilities.

4. Management and Monitoring: Description of management platforms including centralized vs distributed options, logging and analytics capabilities.

5. Scalability and Performance: Explanation of how the solution scales across diverse networks with performance specifications for various models.

6. Customer Base: List of comparable higher education institutions using the products with case studies illustrating deployment success in university environments.

7. Support and Training: Available support models and training offerings tailored for higher education IT teams.

8. Licensing Flexibility: Description of licensing models including tiered pricing or consortia discounts for USM institutions.

Period of Performance
Responses are due by October 20, 2025 at 12:00 PM EDT.

Place of Performance
The contract will be performed at the University of Maryland College Park located in College Park, MD.

Bidder Requirements
Vendors must submit their responses in writing via email to the Procurement Officer Ruthie Campbell-Taylor by the specified deadlines and must not include confidential information in their submissions.