Bytes Software Services

CloudGateway SASE Platform

Cloud Gateway offers flexible networking and security solutions, rapidly connecting you to multiple cloud providers, the HSCN, PSN and internet. We build and manage your bespoke SASE solution. As a trusted public sector provider we hold Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO27001 and ISO9001 accreditations. bssgc

Features

• Cloud Connectivity
• Enterprise Connect: RAS, Site & Data Centre Connectivity
• Managed WAN Services
• PSN and HSCN Connectivity
• Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS), ZTNA Service
• Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and Proxy
• Web Application Firewall (WAF)
• Core Connect & Transit-Only Connectivity
• My Cloud Gateway Portal
• FTPS and FTP VPN Access services

Benefits

• A digital foundation that enables transformation
• Connect anything to everything
• Get away from lengthy contract tie-ins
• Enable remote network access for your workforce
• Scalable and elastic cloud-native architecture
• No physical hardware constraints for rapid deployment
• Protect your network from security threats
• Control internet and application usage
• Gain visibility of network traffic, security events in real time
• Fully managed service with cloud networking expertise

£276 a user a year

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at tenders@bytes.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

153281881768859

Contact

Chris Swani
+44 (0) 7951 326815
tenders@bytes.co.uk

Service scope

• Service constraints: None
• System requirements:
  • Any end user device capable of IP based connectivity
  • A supported OS that can support SSL VPN software.
  • Presence in the same UK Data Centre(s) as Cloud Gateway.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: SLA options offer 24x7 or Business hours support. P1 response under 24x7 support is 15 minutes at all times.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: "Standard support in business hours (Mon-Fri 09:00-17:30 excl Bank Holidays). SLA provided. Priority 1 incident response within 1 hour, resolution within 4 hours.; ; Premier support 24x7x365. SLA provided. Priority 1 incident response within 15 mins, resolution within 2 hours. Monthly Service reports and review meetings.; ; 5 days onboarding support included.; ; All customers receive access to the My Cloud Gateway portal which provides visibility of your network and security ecosystem including: ; - Dashboard; - Network connectivity status; - Licence utilisation data; - Bandwidth usage; - Firewall policy information if applicable; - Support / Ticket management"
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: To ensure we design and build the right platform that fits your needs, our pre-sales team will work with you to understand your requirements and draw up a proposal. When the proposal has been signed off by you, our service delivery team will hold a kick-off session with you to plan the onboarding process. At this point we will ask you to provide some information which will vary depending on the nature of your deployment. Once all this information is received, we'll complete the technical deployment, test connectivity and security policy is working, before passing to you for a period of acceptance testing and sign off. As soon as you sign it off, we'll enter live service for the length of your contract term.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: "Cloud Gateway does not process data on behalf of customers.; ; Where Cloud Gateway obtain customer data for the purposes of service and product delivery (including account management, financial payment and user support), it is only retained for as long as it is necessary to be kept, which may include compliance with legal obligations. ; ; At the end of a contract, or upon request from the customer where retention is not required by law, data will be deleted in accordance with our Data Retention policy. "
• End-of-contract process: "The customer has the opportunity to renew the service or end the contract. If the decision is to end then the customer has two options:; 1 – The contract end date is confirmed to the customer and the service termination and billing will align to that date; 2 – We work together to agree an exit plan to migrate the services to another supplier. This will be charged at our consultative rates. Any extension to our services during the transition will be chargeable."

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: "Using the web interface - When the service goes live, you will be given login details to access our customer portal, My Cloud Gateway. Through My Cloud Gateway, you can access reports and real-time analytics for your network connections and security events. My Cloud Gateway also provides a ticketing function, allowing you to speak directly to our support team to make a request or raise an incident. New features and functionality are added to My Cloud Gateway regularly to improve user experience.; ; Web interface accessibility standard - WCAG AA; ; Web interface accessibility testing - Automated testing completed annually "
• Web interface accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Web interface accessibility testing: None
• API: No
• Command line interface: No

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type:
  • Automatic
  • Manual
• Independence of resources: We enforce customer segregation by using dedicated tenancies. This ensures that a customer's Cloud Gateway service is not affected or shared by other users.
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting:
  • Email
  • Other
• Other usage reporting: Via our portal

Analytics

• Infrastructure or application metrics: Yes
• Metrics types:
  • HTTP request and response status
  • Network
  • Number of active instances
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller (no extras)
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Cloudgateway

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Backup and recovery

• Backup and recovery: Yes
• What’s backed up:
  • Log files and system configurations pertaining to the service
  • Extended metadata and log files can be accommodated
  • Backed-up data can be exported for reporting and analysis
• Backup controls: "Users do not control backups. All backup and recovery administration is handled by us as part of our fully managed service.; All back up files are encrypted, and priority is given to ensuring the best available encryption algorithms, such as AES-256 bit. "
• Datacentre setup: Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
• Scheduling backups: Supplier controls the whole backup schedule
• Backup recovery: Users contact the support team

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
• Data protection within supplier network: IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: 99.95% service availability across Cloud Gateway infrastructure to the customer site, not necessarily to the user as they may be connecting via other connectivity methods. Service credits are applicable in certain scenarios based on the infrastructure that is within Cloud Gateway's control.
• Approach to resilience: Our service is built using overlays inside a highly resilient hybrid cloud architecture. Consequently each component, each set of components, each stack and each full tenancy is designed to be resilient at multiple points. This is achieved in its simplest form by having more than one of each component part available (akin to traditional High Availability), but also by leveraging cloud resilient functions such as Multiple Availability Zones, Multiple Regions, or both.
• Outage reporting: Our service sends alerts to our monitoring and engineering teams to inform them of any potential outages. The issues are sanitised to see if they require manual intervention by our team, or whether automatic recovery has occurred. If manual intervention is required then a proactive alert ticket is raised within our service desk portal. Our service desk portal shows tickets that are being worked on and these can be viewed by the client at any time. In addition, e-mail alerts can be created against any incidents relating to an outage, which will then be sent to approved recipients.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google apps)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
  • Other
• Other user authentication: The exact configuration depends on the specific product/service (see Service Categories above), and can be tailored depending on customer requirement. 2-factor authentication is also used
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Our service has a robust set of multi-layered security functions at its core. Access to and from any service is managed, maintained and enforced in line with customer approved policy but also in line with access control procedures, such as following the principle of least privilege and adhering to the need-to-know, role-based access control methodology.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Devices users manage the service through:
  • Any device but through a bastion host (a bastion host is a server that provides access to a private network from an external network such as the internet)
  • Directly from any device which may also be used for normal business (for example web browsing or viewing external email)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: The British Assessment Bureau
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 21/03/2024
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Nothing. Our accreditation covers the provision of networking and security services for the public and private sector within the United Kingdom and internationally.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: Coalfire Systems Inc.
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 03/01/2024
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: The certification is achieved by our single card-payment processing vendor, Stripe. We do not process card payments any other way. Stripe are a level 1 PCI DSS compliant organisation and independently verified by Coalfire Systems Inc., as per their Attestation of Compliance
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: Cyber Essentials Plus
• Information security policies and processes: Our service is built to adhere to the HMG UK Official guidelines, which in turn adhere to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) cloud security principles and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) critical security controls. We are an ISO 27001 certified business and have been since 2020. We are also Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials PLUS certified.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: All changes are assessed and implemented in line with the agreed change management process. We have a CMDB where all configurations, service components and CI mappings to Services are maintained.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: "We take a proactive approach to identifying, logging and tracking new vulnerabilities that we become aware of. Potential threats are assessed through live monitoring and alerting within our platform. Using industry-standard tools, we also conduct purposeful vulnerability scans across the platform to test, track and confirm patch deployments and test security configurations. Scans are performed daily on critical assets and no less than weekly elsewhere across the platform. We also consume information on possible vulnerabilities through various threat intelligence feeds. ; ; Any high profile/risk vulnerabilities which require prompt action will be treated as an incident and response plans activated.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: "We identify potential compromises through live monitoring and alerting on our platform. Our monitoring and alerting rules are based on the AWS CIS Foundations benchmarks with additional controls and alerts for any non AWS infrastructure. These events are sent to our SIEM where alarms are triggered based off a set of configured rules. ; ; Depending on the severity/acitivty, the event may be treated as an incident and response plans activated in line with the incident response procedure. "
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: At Cloud Gateway we operate a robust, ITIL based Incident Management process within our end to end support model. We have extensive monitoring, configured to proactively identify potential issues and mobilise internal teams to investigate and resolve Incidents promptly. Users can report Incidents to Cloud Gateway through our dedicated customer portals, by email, or by phone. In cases where a Major Incident has been identified, our Major Incident process kicks in and email communications are issued to affected users, providing them with regular status updates throughout the incident lifecycle.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Separation between users

• Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: Yes
• Who implements virtualisation: Third-party
• Third-party virtualisation provider: AWS
• How shared infrastructure is kept separate: Our service is built on a variety of cloud platforms. It is separated by customer, and each customer has their own dedicated hosting environment, such that no two customers will ever share the same service components.

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
• Description of energy efficient datacentres: Cloud Gateway provides on-net connectivity by means of a point of presence in Equinix and ARK data centers, based in the UK. Equinix and ARK data centres meet ISO 50001 Energy Management and ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standards and both are participants of the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency.

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  Fighting climate change

  Fighting climate change

  We take our environmental management and the impact we have on the environment very seriously. We have environmental policies in place and hold the ISO14001 accreditation. Our environmental assessments are conducted annually by an external Lead ESOS Assessor; they are signed-off by the board and compliance reported to the regulator (the Environment Agency). Our environmental policy is published on our website at https://www.bytes.co.uk/company/sustainability/environmental.; Bytes achieved carbon net zero in March 2022 through approved carbon offsetting schemes. We are always seeking to reduce our impact on the environment. We aim to minimise waste, reduce pollutants and use renewable materials. Our offices have recycling facilities for cans, plastic and paper. We aim to reduce our office printing to zero within the next few years. ; An Environmental Steering Committee has been established to coordinate environmental activities and drive change.; To drastically reduce our emissions, we have switched to renewable energy. Our Head Office has reached our first milestone of using a specialist 100% renewable electricity provider. We are also exploring options to install solar panels on our Headquarters building.; Other environmental initiatives include installing electric vehicle charging points and encouraging staff to commute to work without the car (setting up a car share network and installing secure cycle parking).; We produce a SECR (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting) report that details the companies energy consumption and carbon emissions. This report is produced annually by an independent assessor. ; This report provides details of our emissions in Scope 1, 2 and 3 categories. It details the activities previously taken to reduce emissions and also recommendations for further improvements.; For scope 1,2 and 3 emissions we aim to reduce these by 50% by 2025-2026 from our 2021 baseline.; We aim to be Net Zero by 2040, covering our own operational emissions.

Pricing

• Price: £276 a user a year
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: We can, at our discretion, provide a proof of concept. This will consist of a configurable, dedicated SASE platform for a set period of time with defined outcomes, to test connectivity and establish your business needs. If technical consultancy is required, this is chargeable at the prevailing daily rate.

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at tenders@bytes.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.