Finding the Best Fit
The three councils within the Orbis partnership deliver local government services to end users at various locations, ranging from corporate management offices and fire stations to youth centers. Shrinking budgets had caused the councils to look at blending back-office systems as a way to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. However, diverged and disparate infrastructures made it hard for the security and networking teams to obtain an overarching view of compliance and IT operational needs.
Orbis member Surrey County Council had already chosen Splunk Enterprise as part of its own IT infrastructure modernization effort. Following a recommendation, the council chose Splunk ES as a natural fit to offer a standardized SIEM solution across all three councils, replacing existing products as they reached end of life or were deemed no longer fit for purpose.
Morgan Rees, technical delivery manager, Surrey County Council says, “Our desire within the partnership is to put everything on a converging basis but we must make sure that it’s fit for purpose for each individual council. East Sussex was using a version of LogRhythm which was coming up to end of life, so they looked at what was on the market, and what Surrey was doing and saw that Splunk was the best fit.”