# 5-FWAASTX-0127 Texas for E-Rate Cat 2 Consortium Form 470# 270000237

IDEA Public Schools is seeking a qualified vendor to deliver a cloud‑native Firewall‑as‑a‑Service (FWaaS) solution that complies with Zero‑Trust Architecture (NIST SP 800‑207) for its Texas charter‑school network under the E‑Rate Cat 2 program. The contract will run for three years beginning July 1 2027, with two optional one‑year renewals. The vendor must provide licensing, implementation, configuration, 24×7 support, maintenance, and all related services for an estimated 87,257 user licenses, and must meet strict service‑level guarantees (99.99% availability, rapid response times, and detailed reporting). All proposals must be submitted by October 21 2026, and a non‑mandatory virtual pre‑proposal conference is scheduled for September 11 2026. The solution must be fully cloud‑based, E‑Rate eligible, and free of prohibited equipment (e.g., Huawei, ZTE). • Provide a complete FWaaS platform (licensing, deployment, ongoing management). • Support Zero‑Trust policies, identity‑aware access, advanced threat protection, web/DNS filtering, and integration with Microsoft, Google, and other SaaS services. • Deliver 99.99 % uptime, 24 × 7 technical support, and service‑level credits for failures. • Supply 87,257 licenses (3‑year term) with optional content‑filter add‑on (E‑Rate ineligible). • Must hold valid SPIN and FCCRN numbers and certify no “Red Light” status. • Pricing must be fixed for the initial term; no price increases allowed during the base period. • Submission requires a sealed hard‑copy proposal plus electronic copy on flash drive; no fax/email submissions.