Cabinet Office underpins technology transformation project with new Wi-Fi
Aerohive network will support 1,700 civil servants to work more flexibly

The Cabinet Office is rolling out a new wireless network to 1,700 staff as part of an ongoing technology transformation project.
Aerohive Networks will ensure civil servants can work away from their desks in any of the department's buildings, replacing its existing Wi-Fi provider, whose deal had expired.
Workers will use their business-sanctioned laptops to hook into the new Wi-Fi network, being given a choice of five different makes either running Windows or Mac OSX operating systems under the technology transformation programme.
It is not clear whether they will be able to use their personal devices too, after former Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, installed his own personal Wi-Fi network in 2013 after becoming frustrated with the department's existing systems.
The new network will help provide connectivity in meeting areas for civil servants to collaborate, which was one of the top priorities for the Cabinet Office IT team.
It also wanted a resilient network, and picked Aerohive for its support for private cloud and on-premise IT systems.
"The Wi-Fi itself is transformationally better," said Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary Richard Heaton. "It will enable colleagues and citizens in the Cabinet Office to use the latest generation of web terminals."
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Phil Keeley, principle sales engineer at Aerohive, added: "Wi-Fi has become an essential technology and any network the Cabinet Office installed must support both the speed and capacity required for its staff, its guests and other tenants in shared buildings, as well as visitors from other departments."
Maude announced that Whitehall would be free of all legacy IT contracts by 2020, and the Cabinet Office technology transformation programme aims to introduce more flexible technology to the department.
Under the aims of the project, any new technology should also be 40 per cent cheaper than the system it replaces, though neither the department nor Aerohive revealed the length or cost of the contract, citing commercial sensitivities.

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