TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THRU: Tom Kisela, City Manager
FROM: Susan Galvan, Assistant City Manager
1. Subject
title
Authorize purchase of advanced email threat protection annual subscription from 1903 Solutions.
body
2. Summary
The Information Technology department is looking to enhance email security by implementing an artificial intelligence (AI) based email threat protection system called Harmony Email & Collaboration developed by Check Point Software.
3. Recommended Action
recommendation
Approve the purchase of advanced email threat protection annual subscription from 1903 Solutions for $31,720.00.
end
4. Fiscal Impact
The expense for this annual subscription is $31,720.00 and will be funded through:
780.1601.53915.00000 IT Maintenance Annual Software License & Maintenance
5. Strategic Plan Goals
Goal 4: Provide outstanding public service
c: Enhance technology to improve public accessibility to information and services.
6. Discussion and Background
The IT department has been using the email protection provided with its Microsoft 365 E3 licensing (Microsoft Defender) since transitioning email from on premises to the cloud. Unfortunately, at the E3 licensing level the tools are limited in capability and take a couple hours of staff time daily to analyze false positives (mail flagged as bad but is good) as well as false negatives (mail that is delivered but is bad). The IT department has examined the marketplace for a more viable solution and has evaluated three top solutions.
|
Product |
Cost |
Notes |
|
Microsoft E5 licensing |
$137,460 |
Annual cost w/3 year commit |
|
Darktrace /EMAIL |
$41,724 |
Annual cost w/3 year commit |
|
Check Point Harmony |
$31,720 |
Annual cost w/1 year commit |
All three products were evaluated during a proof of concept (tested in our environment with a small subsection of users/mailboxes) over a period of several weeks each. While both Microsoft and Darktrace had very powerful solutions, they are both built for larger IT departments that have a dedicated security team to manage the tools in order to maximize the value. The Check Point Harmony product was extremely effective and easy for our existing team to manage. One additional benefit of using the Check Point Harmony solution is its ability to provide Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) certification. This will become very important as the two largest email providers (Google and Yahoo) will no longer deliver email unless it is DMARC certified by February 2025.
The IT department recommends that we procure the Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration through 1903 Solutions for $31,720.00. This solution will both increase our email security posture as well as save staff time on a daily basis.
7. ATTACHMENTS
• 1903 Solutions quote