Case Study: City of Aurora achieves millions in cost savings and streamlined network security with Fortinet

How Fortinet Saved the Second-Largest City in Illinois Millions of Dollars on Networking and Security

The City of Aurora, Illinois, faced a fragmented, high‑cost network when CIO Michael Pegues set out to modernize the city’s IT after decentralization left departments with separate teams, unsegmented Layer‑2 infrastructure, and critical gaps in cybersecurity—most notably minimal protection at the water treatment plant. Legacy vendors drove up total cost of ownership and limited visibility, creating urgent risks for public safety, utilities, and city services.

Working with partner Scientel Solutions, Aurora deployed the Fortinet Security Fabric—FortiGate NGFWs with FortiGuard, FortiAnalyzer, FortiSwitch, FortiAP, FortiNAC, and Secure SD‑WAN—to centralize management, segment networks (isolating water, police, fire, 911, and public venues), and improve visibility and threat detection. The results: faster provisioning (switch setup cut from ~30 to <10 minutes; VPN from ~3 hours to ~15 minutes), doubled bandwidth, automated threat blocking, a lean IT team that can scale without new hires, and more than $5 million in device/support savings over five years plus about $150,000 in annual electricity reductions.

City of Aurora

Keith Wouk

Director of IT Operations