A new £1.8 million high speed network will bolster administrative security and resilience and facilitate virtual hearings and remote juries within Scottish courts.
MLL Telecom have been awarded the three-year contract to provide a new managed software defined wide area network (SD-WAN) – which is set to be deployed by August.
Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service awarded the contract following a competitive tender process where increased security, resilience and bandwidth availability were high priorities.
This was in line with SCTS’s ‘technical roadmap’ to enable authorised staff members secure and reliable remote access to its central and cloud-based IT systems.
MLL’s managed SD-WAN solution will ensure their secure and seamless connection to key administrative applications while also facilitating, for example, virtual hearings, remote juries, and livestreaming of court proceedings.
“We are delighted to be providing SCTS with a modern high quality SD-WAN solution which is aligned to their requirements for ensuring a highly efficient, secure and reliable administrative services to the judiciaries of Scotland,” said James Stamford, senior project manager at MLL, which is headquartered in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
“This project brings the additional challenges of connecting many older, often listed buildings along with the remoteness of certain highland and island locations. MLL is therefore working very closely with our chosen carrier partners to ensure the smooth delivery of our proposed solution within a short timeframe.”
MLL’s integrated mixed carrier WAN solution is being rolled out across all 54 SCTS sites including those in remote highland and islands areas. The SD-WAN includes dual rather than single circuits and the implementation of Fortinet firewalls. The network will be monitored and supported 24/7 by MLL’s Network Operations Centre (NOC).
Mike Milligan, SCTS executive director of change and digital innovation said: “MLL’s provision of a secure, reliable and highspeed SD-WAN, matched the SCTS technical roadmap and design and will maximise our ability to support the courts and members of the public. The provision of this flexible and highly responsive service is designed to support the introduction of emerging digital capabilities that will benefit the entire justice system.”