#7-FWAASOH-0127 Ohio for E-Rate Cat 2 Consortium Form 470# 270000238

IDEA Greater Cincinnati, Inc. (IDEA) is seeking a qualified vendor to deliver a cloud‑native Firewall‑as‑a‑Service (FWaaS) solution for its Ohio charter schools under the E‑Rate program. The vendor must provide licensing, implementation, configuration, ongoing maintenance, 24×7 support, and ensure compliance with Zero‑Trust Architecture (NIST SP 800‑207) and all E‑Rate rules. The contract will start around July 1 2027, run for an initial three‑year term (with up to two optional one‑year renewals), and cover approximately 1,420 FWaaS licenses deployed across two Ohio campuses. Proposals are due Oct 21 2026; a virtual pre‑bid conference is scheduled Sep 11 2026 (non‑mandatory). • Scope: Cloud‑based firewall platform, licensing, deployment, configuration, monitoring, and support. • Required features: 99.99 % availability, 1‑hour critical incident response, Zero‑Trust policy enforcement, identity‑aware access, content filtering, integration with Microsoft Purview DLP, SD‑WAN tunneling, and reporting. • Compliance: Must hold valid SPIN and FCCRN, adhere to E‑Rate eligibility rules, and avoid prohibited vendors (e.g., Huawei, ZTE). • Duration: 3‑year base term (July 1 2027 – June 30 2030) with two optional 1‑year renewals. • Deliverables: Licenses, cloud resources, implementation services, training, documentation, and ongoing technical support. • Evaluation: Fixed‑price proposal, no price increases during base term, clear separation of E‑Rate eligible vs. ineligible costs.