North Wales Fire and Rescue Service (NWFRS) helps to protect an estimated population of 678,461 people over an area of 2,400 square miles as well as hundreds of thousands of tourists and visitors who come to North Wales every year.
Advatek has a long relationship with NWFRS, as the managed service provider for their firewalls.
NWFRS was coming to the end of their support renewal contract for their firewalls. On a recommendation from an IT colleague at another emergency service, NWFRS approached Advatek to support their devices.
“My colleague spoke very highly of Advatek. He and I have similar challenges and I highly value his opinions.” Says Steve Morris, NWFRS
The firewalls protect the network and as such are critical to the running of the Service. As such, it was crucial that NWFRS chose a supplier with expertise in cyber security and had skilled engineers certified by the vendor.
Steve continues: “Cyber security expertise was one of my demands of the contract; I needed someone who really knows what they’re talking about. We’re a small team with a big responsibility so I need to know that when I do pick up the phone, it’s going to be sorted,”
Advatek is cyber security specialist and partner with many leading security vendors. With a service desk manned by expert security engineers, and many years’ experience of working in the Emergency Services sector, Advatek fitted the bill.
As part of the Enhanced Managed Service contract, NWFRS has access to enhanced support, active monitoring and alerts, TAC Management, Incident Management and third line support.
As their managed service provider, Advatek has worked with NWFRS on several other IT projects. Most recently, Advatek has helped the service with the replacement of the wireless LAN network, configuring and installing new access points and advising on them on the purchase of APs to support the administration staff who shifted to home and hybrid working during the pandemic.
Advatek takes great pride in building strong, collaborative working relationships with all of their customers, and NWFRS is no exception. Advatek understands that for an emergency service, downtime, slow running networks or security threats can have huge consequences.
“As a category one responder, we rely on our networks to be available round the clock for split-second mobilisations. When we do raise incidents, we will always make clear the criticality of the issue. We needed a partner who was small enough to understand and flex to our needs whilst being big enough to deliver without compromise”.
Advatek brings together the very best in technology and our own skilled and expert consultants to deliver innovative, managed services, cloud, networking and security solutions for businesses and public sector organisations across the UK.