Objectives

The primary objective of this tender is to procure a Firewall Assurance Tool that enhances the University of Johannesburg's (UJ) network security, visibility, and compliance. The solution aims to provide centralized firewall management, real-time monitoring, automated compliance checks, and improved policy enforcement across multi-vendor firewall environments. This initiative supports UJ’s strategic goal of establishing a resilient, scalable, and secure IT infrastructure that safeguards institutional data and aligns with industry standards.

Scope

The scope of work includes the implementation of a comprehensive Firewall Assurance Solution that:

• Addresses security needs such as policy management, misconfiguration detection, and compliance reporting (e.g., NIST, CIS, PCI-DSS, HIPAA).
• Supports multi-vendor firewall environments (e.g., Fortinet, Huawei, SonicWALL, Cisco) with normalization and unified management.
• Provides features like rule optimization, change management, threat analysis, automation, visualization, and performance tuning.
• Enables deployment in virtual environments and supports scalability for future growth.
• Includes audit trails, rollback capabilities, and proactive vulnerability management.
• Integrates with SIEM platforms (e.g., Elastic SIEM) for automated compliance and threat response.

Technical Requirements

The technical specifications for the solution include:

• Configurable and manageable firewall policies ensuring security and compliance.
• Detection of misconfigurations, shadowed/redundant rules, and policy overlaps.
• Support for rule recertification, cleanup, and optimization for performance.
• Cross-vendor support with normalization capabilities.
• Change simulation, impact analysis, and change tracking for accountability.
• Automated policy enforcement and real-time alerting for violations.
• Visual topology mapping and detailed reporting features.
• Performance analysis to identify latency-causing rules.
• User and application access control validation.
• Vulnerability detection on onboarded devices.
• Deployment flexibility in virtual environments.

Skills Requirements

The successful bidder must demonstrate:

• Experience with multi-vendor firewall management and security solutions (minimum 3 years preferred).
• Proven capability in deploying and supporting firewall assurance tools in complex network environments.
• Expertise in compliance standards such as NIST, CIS, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA.
• Ability to provide integration with SIEM platforms and automation tools.
• Strong support and maintenance capabilities, including response times aligned with UJ’s support hours.
• References from relevant projects within the last 5 years, demonstrating successful implementation and support.