06 May 2022

Managed services and self-styled “transformative” technology provider Nasstar has begun work on a new contract awarded to a facilities management services provider to run a new secure network required by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Last summer, Vinci Facilities was appointed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) to provide hard facilities management services. The South East Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) contract provides hard facilities management services for more than 6,200 buildings and infrastructure assets at 59 MoD sites in London and the home counties.

The initial seven-year term – there are three additional performance-related option years – is worth £1.1bn, comprising £423m for the core FM contract and a potential £732m for additional works. The FDIS contract represents a shift in the DIO’s service delivery approach to better manage military built estate across the UK.

“We see this as the beginning of a strategic partnership between Vinci and Nasstar which will transform the performance and flexibility of our networks across various client sites,” said Ben Paddick business solutions director at Vinci Facilities. “Clearly, for the MoD, security is a critical concern and Nasstar working with Fortinet (as an expert partner) has developed a solution that will enable us to run a more flexible and resilient network that enables us to take advantage of all the benefits that the cloud and IoT devices can bring, with security at its core.”

The network and supporting applications will be delivered via a single control pane, with the aim of making it easier to manage. Nasstar is using SD-Branch technology, including a local area network, switches and wireless access points that have already been approved by the MoD.