Fordway

Cloud Connectivity Service

Fordway's Cloud Connectivity Service provides secure, managed connectivity to Cloud services by implementing Zero Trust Network Access for users, with SD-WAN overlay over Internet links to replace fixed networks. All elements are centrally configured, managed, secured and supported within the service.

Features

• Ensures network security and resilience without dedicated MPLS connections
• Variety of bandwidth and resilience options to suit organisation/location size
• Customer organisation no longer needs to maintain private MPLS/IPVPN service
• 24 x 7 end to end service monitoring and management
• Simplifies network connectivity, no long term contractual commitment required
• ISO27000/27017/27018 and ISO20000 assured services, ISO9001 and ISO14001 certified
• Multiple resilience levels configurable to meet required SLAs
• Offers traffic prioritisation for business critical applications
• Centralised policy and security enforcement across all supported locations
• Fully resilient service across multiple UK hosted access points

Benefits

• Service operates over customer's existing Internet links
• Delivered to ISO20000, secured and audited to ISO27001/017/018 and CE+
• Many existing Government reference clients available
• Monthy charge for service, no long term contract
• Directly provided by Fordway, managed by Fordway staff
• Simplifies and secures connections to Cloud, PSN, HSCN services
• UK based end-to-end 24 x 7 service monitoring and management
• Highly secure and compliant platform, achieves OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE security mandates
• Service offers Azure Express Route and AWS Direct Connect
• Location independent service available UK wide

£60.00 to £15,000.00 a unit

• Education pricing 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@fordway.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

205510537761702

Contact

Richard Blanford
01483 528200
tenders@fordway.com

Service scope

• Service constraints: None, works across any Internet network link or type
• System requirements:
  • Cloud Connectivity service works over any existing Internet link
  • Service reuses existing client firewalls
  • Service allows homeworkers to access Cloud services
  • Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Chromebook clients supported
  • Resilient service, connections dual-homed where applicable
  • Diverse routing for additional service resilience

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Priority 1 incident 24 x 7, 15 minute response; Priority 2 incident 24 x 7, 1 hour response; Priority 3 incident 12 x 5, 4 hour response
• 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: Web chat
• Web chat support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 A
• Web chat accessibility testing: Works with assistive technologies supported by MS Teams
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: The services are supported 24 x 7 x 365 by Fordway's Service Desk to assure service availability. Fordway has a standard SLA that details response times which can be tailored to customer needs. Additional support options and services can be added to the standard support levels.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: For the initial service order Fordway need to create a unique client management and network provisioning console for the client. Once the provisioning domain is created clients can provision new connections from standard templates, and expand, contract or suspend existing instances. All provisioning is assisted by Fordway's Service Desk if needed, included within the service price. Further details are provided in the Service Description.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Fordway have an exit procedure where we work with the customer to exit or migrate away from this services, depending on the configuration of the solution. Data is held for 30 days following service termination, within this period it can be copied to other cloud services, physical devices shipped to Fordway's datacentres or supplied on agreed media.
• End-of-contract process: Fordway have an exit procedure with which we work with the user to exit or migrate away from this service, depending on the configuration of the solution. This exit procedure will include any data, performance statistics and service records as described within the contract along with any associated costs. Process requirements are detailed in the Service Description. There are no termination costs, data migration may be charged.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: Supported browsers - all including Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, Brave
• Web interface accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 A
• Web interface accessibility testing: Supports all assistive technologies supported by the base browser
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: The API is accessible through the customer portal. Users can:; 1) Start and suspend provisioned services; 2) Provision new connections under an existing agreement; 3) Check performance and utilisation of instances or groups of instances; 4) Check consumption for billing; 5) Log, track and manage Incidents, Service Requests and Change Requests; 6) Instant Message/web chat with Fordway Service Desk and other staff
• API automation tools:
  • Chef
  • OpenStack
  • Terraform
  • Puppet
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• Command line interface: No

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type:
  • Automatic
  • Manual
• Independence of resources: Each customer has guaranteed resources which are assigned and allocated when the agreement is set up. These can be increased or reduced by the client or on request to Fordway's Service Desk, autoscaling can be configured for applicable services.
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting:
  • API
  • Email

Analytics

• Infrastructure or application metrics: Yes
• Metrics types:
  • CPU
  • HTTP request and response status
  • Memory
  • Network
  • Other
• Other metrics:
  • Data link throughput
  • Data link latency
  • Conditional Access policy breaches
  • Unauthorised access attempts
  • Non compliant devices
• Reporting types:
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Security Clearance (SC)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• 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
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Backup and recovery

• Backup and recovery: Yes
• What’s backed up:
  • Device configuration and policies
  • Central management console
• Backup controls: Data restoration can be requested through Fordway's Service Desk
• Datacentre setup: Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
• Scheduling backups: Users contact the support team to schedule backups
• Backup recovery: Users contact the support team

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
  • Other
• Other protection between networks: Disclosed on request.
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: Disclosed on request.

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Fordway provide a standard SLA, dependent on the service resilience purchased, with availability up to 99.95% measured annually; 99.9% any quarter. Fordway recompense users with a credit of 2.5% of the monthly service contract value for each working hour the service has not met the SLA, up to a maximum of 20% of the monthly service charge.
• Approach to resilience: Resilience dependent on level configured into the service and number and type of network connections at each locations. Service automatically enables link failover where available and configured.
• Outage reporting: The service operates under Fordway's standard SLA appropriate to the specified service resilience level. Any service outages will be reported as per the SLA, which will be tailored to the customer's requirements. SLA performance and outage are reported into the Customer dashboard, email alerts can be configured where requested or required by the client

Identity and authentication

• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google apps)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: By customer request. Customers gain access to managed services through the Customer Portal, management interfaces are not normally exposed to clients. There are no restrictions on support channels.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Devices users manage the service through:
  • Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)
  • Dedicated device over multiple services or networks
  • 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)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users receive audit information on a regular basis
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users receive audit information on a regular basis
• 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: ISOQAR
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 14/03/2022 (recertification) original certification March 2008
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: ISO27001/27017/27018 Statement of Applicability disclosed on request.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • N3/HSCN – Annually maintain the IGSoC
  • PSN Code of Compliance and Practice
  • G-CLOUD certified and assessed
  • PAS555
  • ISO27017
  • ISO27018
  • GCloud Assured

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: All security management and reporting is defined by and run to Fordway's ISO27001, 27017 and 27018 procedures, which are externally audited for compliance.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: Fordway change and configuration process aligns with ITIL v4.0 and ISO27001/27017/27018 and ISO20000.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Fordway's risk management aligns with ISO27001/27017/27018, and is run through Fordway's 24 x 7 manned Security Operations Centre. Patching is provided for all services, and is deployed monthly with emergency/zero day patches being deployed within 48 hours. We monitor multiple sources of potential threats including NCSC, SANS, ISS, key vendors such as Talos, Cisco, Microsoft and most major IT news providers.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Fordway's security incident and event monitoring conforms to ISO27001, 27017, 27018 and DPA requirements. Any incident will be assessed for risk and prioritised accordingly. Response to P1 security incidents is within 15 minutes.
• Incident management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Incident management approach: Fordway's incident management process complies to ISO27001:2013 and aligns to ITIL best practice and ISO20000. Incident management and reporting is defined within Fordway's standard SLA and tailored to customer requirements. Incident reporting is through Fordway's Customer Portal or by phone/email. Incident reporting is through Fordway's Customer Portal or ITSM toolset integration with the customer ITSM toolset.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Separation between users

• Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: Yes
• Who implements virtualisation: Supplier
• Virtualisation technologies used: Other
• Other virtualisation technology used: Each customer has a virtual network management instance configured from a multi-tenant master, hypervisor vendor specific.
• How shared infrastructure is kept separate: A separate customer network administration console is created per client toether with defined security domain ('bubble') or number of domains, as appropriate, is created for each client, allowing client-specific network management, routing and security policies to be set up. The security domains can span multiple datacentres. Each client's instances are then configured in the security domain.

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
• Description of energy efficient datacentres: Both our providers facilities are registered on the EU Datacentres European Energy Efficiency Platform (E3P), link here: https://e3p.jrc.ec.europa.eu/communities/data-centres-code-conduct

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  Fighting climate change

  Fighting climate change

  Using Cloud offers considerable efficiency and consumption savings compared to running in house, on premises and hosted environments

Pricing

• Price: £60.00 to £15,000.00 a unit
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: No

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@fordway.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.