Australian Federal Police sign $20.5m Cisco deal

The Australian Federal Police has signed its largest contract with Optus Networks, a three-year $20.5 million agreement covering “enterprise Cisco” technology.

The contract is understood by iTnews to have been signed at the end of last week.

There are two year-long extension options, which, if exercised, could see the agreement run through to April 2031.

A spokesperson for the Australian Federal Police linked the contract to Cisco, which is known to be a long-term vendor at the agency.

“The contract relates to an enterprise Cisco technology agreement that supports the AFP’s existing ICT environment,” the spokesperson told iTnews.

“It covers licensing and support for technologies already in use to maintain reliable, secure day‑to‑day operations. 

“For security reasons, the AFP does not publicly disclose detailed technical or operational information about its ICT systems.”

The spokesperson added that the $20.5 million contract “represents value for money and fulfils operational and governance requirements.”

It’s not apparent what arrangement the new contract supersedes. 

AFP has entered 132 contracts with Optus Networks over the years, albeit nothing close to having a $20.5 million value. 

The agency has infrequently discussed its IT infrastructure; in 2024, it outlined how a combination of cloud, SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE) is being used to meet the distributed, high-capacity needs of investigators.

An architecture diagram published at the time did not contain vendor or product names, although Cisco participates in many of the described spaces.

The $20.5 million Cisco deal via Optus Networks comes about six months after the agency signed a $20 million deal with Dell for its private cloud infrastructure.