Next-Generation Firewall and Network Security Solution
Overview
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SUMMARY
KEY REQUIREMENTS
BUDGET
EstimateCONTRACT DURATION
TIMELINE
Pre-Submittal Conference: October 15th, 2026 at 2:30 p.m. Central Time.
Deadline for Questions: October 12th, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Central Time.
Response Submission Deadline: October 28th, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Central Time.
QUESTION DEADLINE
CONTACTS
Primary procurement contact — name, title, email, and phone
Additional decision-makers and their departments
Issuing Agency
Board Of Education Of The City Of Chicago
DESCRIPTION
The issuing organization seeks a vendor to provide a next-generation firewall and network security solution that will replace and enhance its existing Palo Alto Networks environment. The solution must protect data centers, the Internet edge, business-to-business connections, hub sites, cloud environments, and administrative facilities.
Required capabilities include application-aware policy enforcement; granular application-function control; intrusion prevention; antivirus, anti-malware, and anti-botnet protection; command-and-control detection; DNS threat protection where proposed; cloud-based threat intelligence; and automated and manual malicious-file detonation. Detonation results must be distributed to relevant enforcement points and made visible through a centralized management console.
The solution must also support inbound and outbound TLS/SSL decryption with policy exceptions, privacy controls, certificate lifecycle procedures, decryption-failure visibility, and performance reporting. It should support multiple domain controllers, site or domain-controller discovery, group mapping, minimized service-account use, certificate-based authentication where available, and identity continuity during directory or connector outages. Centralized logging, monitoring, alerting, and reporting are required for system health, traffic, threats, authentication, access, configuration, audit, and administrative events. The contract period will be one year.
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Frequently asked questions
- When is the submission deadline?
- Submissions are due October 28, 2026. Questions must be submitted by October 12, 2026.
- What is the budget for this RFP?
- Settle estimates the budget at $500,000 – $2,000,000. The issuer has not published an official figure.
- Who issued this RFP?
- It was issued by Board Of Education Of The City Of Chicago. The work is located in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
- Who is a good fit for this opportunity?
- Cybersecurity and network security vendors with enterprise firewall expertise
- Experience replacing or enhancing Palo Alto Networks environments
- Proven capabilities in threat prevention, malware detonation, TLS/SSL inspection, and centralized security management
- Expertise integrating security platforms with directory services, identity systems, cloud environments, and distributed networks
- Ability to provide implementation and support services for a one-year contract
Analysis generated by Settle AI from the source RFP.
RFP Hunter shows what is open. Settle shows what is forming.
Settle pieces together buyer signals, budgets, contract activity, and the sources your team already monitors. See why an opportunity fits and what to do before the RFP posts.