Paradyn boosts connectivity and cybersecurity for Donegal Co Co in €80K deal

Paradyn, Ireland’s only end-to-end IT and communications service provider, today announces that it has delivered a new connectivity and cybersecurity solution for Donegal County Council in an €80,000 deal over 3 years.

Following a competitive tender win, Paradyn designed and implemented a robust and high-speed Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), for the Council to deliver greater connectivity across more than 25 office locations, including Lifford, Letterkenny, Donegal Town, Carndonagh, and Dungloe. This will enable improved communication and collaboration for the Council?s 900+ employees.

The next-generation technology will also increase productivity, availability, and accessibility of vital applications and services for remote workers. In turn, this will enhance the service that the Council provides to 160,000 citizens in Donegal and create a much better user experience for members of the public.

Furthermore, this project has connected Arranmore Island to the Council’s corporate network for the first time ever, establishing a virtual private network (VPN) from the island’s library access point in the Community Centre to the Council’s corporate network. As a result, this connection will deliver greater accessibility to Council services to the island and its inhabitants.

The new network leverages Cisco Meraki enterprise technology and is delivered via a cloud platform. It will strengthen the Council’s security, mitigating the risk of cyber-attacks and delivering more visibility across the network and devices. The solution does not require configuration backups by third parties and gives more control to the IT team who will be able to implement changes to the network remotely. Paradyn is also providing proactive support from its Security Operations Centre.

Donegal County Council will reduce its connectivity costs through the unified solution with an expectation to get a full return on its investment over the next two years.

Sean Dunnion, Project Leader Information Systems, Donegal County Council said: “We wanted to ensure that our staff and the public have high quality and secure access to our services across the entire county. This investment helps us to deliver the highest levels of service to our citizens and allows our staff to be more connected, secure, and productive – whether they are working from home or in the office.

“By choosing Paradyn as our IT partners, we are futureproofing our services and reinforcing our alignment with the Donegal Digital Action Plan. We are also ensuring that our systems are both accessible and protected in this age of remote working and communication.”

Fergal Meehan, Head of Sales and Support – Public Sector, Paradyn, said: “We are delighted to have won this tender with Donegal County Council. It is already starting to deliver very positive results and is benefitting the Council, its staff, and the wider public.

“As well as enabling greater accessibility and productivity, this unified solution delivers extensive insights across all connected devices and seriously strengthens security. With this implementation, Donegal County Council can now enjoy the benefits of a highly connected communications infrastructure which delivers greater capabilities and a higher return on investment.”