CDS

Azure cloud hosting

Access and manage cloud services and resources with Microsoft Azure cloud hosting and Azure managed services. As Microsoft Partners, we're experienced in implementing Microsoft technologies, including Azure PaaS and IaaS, and developing microservices and API-based architecture. Build, deploy, and manage apps easily and quickly using a secure, flexible cloud infrastructure.

Features

• Azure is aligned with NCSC Cloud Security Principles
• Infrastructure-as-Code, secure self-service portal and API
• Design, configuration and implementation of Azure
• Consultancy on the size/type of Azure package
• Migration support to Azure
• Architecting, hosting management and implementation of Azure
• Disaster recovery using Azure tools
• Up to 24x7x365 service desk with CDS support agreement
• SC and NPPV cleared personnel
• VDI provision and desktop as a service

Benefits

• Cost-effective, managed Azure hosting
• Virtually limitless scalability to provide resources when you need them
• Configure the solution that is right for your application
• Assurance of expert Microsoft Azure support
• Carbon-neutral hosting
• Deliver compelling digital services with cloud-native applications
• Have confidence in the security of your data
• Aligns with National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) best practice
• A flexible, consumption-based cloud model with low infrastructure support costs
• Transform your services in the Azure cloud

£9.26 a virtual machine a month

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 bidteam@cds.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

208619506716792

Contact

Matt Johnson
0113 399 4000
bidteam@cds.co.uk

Service scope

• Service constraints: None
• System requirements: None

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: 9am-5pm Monday to Friday as standard; up to 24x7x365 by arrangement. SLAs vary by contract
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: We provide second- and third-line support and maintenance for deployed services via our ISO 20000-certified Service Desk, which uses an ITIL methodology to maintain the integrity and availability of business-critical, high profile and complex systems. Our Service Desk provides: •Incident and service request management •Problem management •Change management •Release and deployment management •Service level management and service reporting •Configuration management •Service management plan •Service level agreement. Clients can interact with the Service Desk via email, telephone or via an online ticketing system. All CDS Service Managers and Service Desk staff are ITIL-certified. Support and maintenance contracts stipulate a minimum level of support provision per month, appropriate to the size and complexity of the service; this entitles clients to a certain number of hours of support, at standard day rate. Additional time is chargeable at the agreed contract day rate. The SLA is flexible and can be tailored to customers’ requirements; as support needs vary, provision can be reviewed every six months to ensure it continues to meet client requirements. Typical SLAs include Service Desk support Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm; we can provide out of hours (on-call) support, up to 24x7x365.
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: CDS Cloud and Infrastructure teams support clients with cloud onboarding from discovery services through to service definition, planning and migration services. All new customers are assigned a specialist onboarding team which includes a Project Manager, Solution Architect and Customer Success Manager that will provide proactive support and advice for the duration of onboarding and go-live. This team leverage any additional assistance from DevOps / DevSecOps and specialist cloud and data architects to ensure solutions are provisioned as designed and maximised for workloads and planned scalability. Your specialist onboarding team will also provide access to a range of user guides and training materials as required, or facilitate further specialist user training as agreed. ; ; Onboarding scope and transition services are bespoke to every customer but can include: discovery, systems audit and knowledge transfer planning, agreeing and documenting migration, defining support needs, processes and future governance, development of a Service Delivery Plan, cloud build and configuration including user accounts and permissions, setting up support services and supporting service desk documentation, training and professional services to support go-live and post go-live periods.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats:
  • Online videos
  • 3rd party training portals providing interactive onboarding and upskilling
• End-of-contract data extraction: A basic exit management plan is part of new customer onboarding at CDS and an essential part of cloud migration services. Access to data and its extraction / process can be included as part of user acceptance testing (UAT) where customers can be given access to test the data extraction process itself. Data extraction process, documentation and support services are available through CDS professional services groups and is a chargeable service aligned to SFIA rate card.
• End-of-contract process: Standard contract terms will include details of contract duration and aligned notice periods along with agreed communication process for contract termination including details of 3rd party service providers including specific Cloud partner / platform. Contract commercials include service provision up to the end date of the contract. Any requirement to extend contract term, support exit planning, migration or data transfer should be requested in advance of contract end date. These services, and any required post contract end date, would be provided at an additional cost aligned to SFIA rate card. At the end of the contract, all services included in the contract are deactivated, decommissioned and subscriptions cancelled.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: The Azure management portal is the primary interface for creating and administering the service.
• Web interface accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 A
• Web interface accessibility testing: N/A
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: The majority of Azure resources can be created and managed through the API.
• API automation tools:
  • Ansible
  • Chef
  • OpenStack
  • Terraform
  • Puppet
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: HTML
• Command line interface: Yes
• Command line interface compatibility:
  • Linux or Unix
  • Windows
  • MacOS
• Using the command line interface: Azure services can be managed via CLI or PowerShell.

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type:
  • Automatic
  • Manual
• Independence of resources: Azure is a hyper-scale public cloud service designed for large enterprise workloads.
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting:
  • API
  • Email

Analytics

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

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Microsoft

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• 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)
  • Other locations
• 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 CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• 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:
  • Virtual machines
  • Database
  • Storage
• Backup controls: Users with sufficient access rights can manage backup schedules.
• Datacentre setup:
  • Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
  • Multiple datacentres
  • Single datacentre with multiple copies
  • Single datacentre
• Scheduling backups: Users schedule backups through a web interface
• Backup recovery:
  • Users can recover backups themselves, for example through a web interface
  • Users contact the support team

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Azure services have differing levels of availability, architecture design will also play a part in the overall avaialability of the service. Availability up to 99.99% is achievable with Azure.
• Approach to resilience: Available on request
• Outage reporting: Public dashboard and email alerts

Identity and authentication

• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Customers can raise and update support tickets using our interactive online portal and/or email. Access to our portal is by invitation only, and requires a username and password. Interaction by email can be restricted to specific domains, email addresses, or disabled altogether. We also offer access by telephone for urgent requests, and will always attempt to verify the identity of the caller, either using our standard procedure, or one agreed with the customer. Access to management interfaces are only available from the CDS network.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • 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)
  • 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 have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: NQA
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 13/7/2021
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• 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
• Information security policies and processes: CDS is certificated to BS EN ISO27001 – Information Security Management System and registered under the Data Protection Act 1998. (DPA No. Z5255664), and is Cyber Essentials Plus certified. CDS ensures client information is securely maintained through our audited processes and procedures. These are detailed in our SYSOPS which form part of our ISO27001 accreditation which is independently audited twice yearly. Our SYSOPS cover personnel and IT security requirements. All staff are BPSS cleared at minimum. CDS endeavours to ensure that personal data is kept secure against unauthorised or unlawful loss or disclosure. CDS employs a dedicated Security manager (ITSM).

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: CDS operate a mature Change Management process, which is certified to the ISO 20000 standard. We ensure that all configuration or service changes are put through a controlled Change Management process, to ensure that impact and risk are managed, quality is maintained, and that changes are planned, documented and approved. Impact and risk assessment includes security considerations. Our Change Register is underpinned by a Configuration Management toolset and process, which charts the lifecycle of configuration items, and allows for them to be linked to service transactions, such as incidents and changes.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: CDS undertake periodic independent pen and vulnerability scanning of our networks and network services. This forms part of our ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation. CDS also undertake vulnerability scanning of client solutions during development and at the point of release. Any identified vulnerabilities are assessed based upon the threat type and business risk. Those issues requiring attention form part of a remediation plan. The individual items are logged and assigned a priority based upon severity and tracked through our ITIL service desk.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Our perimeter networks are protected with DDoS mitigation layer which is further reinforced with threat detection and response as part of every ingress/egress point. IDS and IPS are in place on all firewalls and all suspicious activity is logged and alerted to a central location. Additionally all firewalls and networks are registered with the NCSC Early Warning service. Infrastructure device logs are reported to a centralised SIEM solution with profiling in place to detect malicious activities such as repeated, failed administrator login attempts as well as more sophisticated events indicating exfiltration attempts.
• 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: CDS operate a mature Incident and Service Request Management process, certified to the ISO 20000 standard. The process is operated by our Service Management tool, which is interactive and can be configured to support the ticket workflow and metrics agreed with customers. Customers can report and update incidents via our interactive portal, email and telephone. Though we operate a core Incident Management policy and process, these can be tailored within customers Service Level Agreements to support common incidents and events. We operate a separate Major Incident Management process, which can provide incident reports, post-mortems etc., when criteria are triggered.

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: Supplier
• Virtualisation technologies used: Other
• Other virtualisation technology used: Azure
• How shared infrastructure is kept separate: Azure is a multi-tenant service, which means that multiple customer deployments and VMs are stored on the same physical hardware. Azure uses logical isolation to segregate each customer’s data from the data of others. Segregation provides the scale and economic benefits of multi-tenant services while rigorously preventing customers from accessing one another’s data.

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
• Description of energy efficient datacentres: A 2018 study found that using the Microsoft Azure cloud platform can be up to 93 percent more energy efficient and up to 98 percent more carbon efficient than on-premises solutions.; Micrososft Azure has committed to 100% renewable energy by 2025.

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity

  Fighting climate change

  CDS is committed to being an organisation that minimises its environmental impact, while establishing a sustainable environment for the benefit of staff, customers and suppliers. ; ; CDS is certified to the internationally recognised standard BS EN ISO 14001: 2004 – Environmental Management. The standard underpins our commitment to look after the environment, prevent negative environmental impacts, manage waste and reduce our carbon footprint. ; ; CDS is Planet Mark 3 accredited, helping us to transform society, the environment and economy by measuring our carbon and social data. We have also signed the UK SME Climate Change commitment and have pledged to halve our carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050. ; ; The Bailie Group (of which CDS is part), is also certified to ISO 50001 Energy Management System, which focuses our efforts on continually improving energy performance. ; ; Our aims for 2024 are: ; - Maintain zero to landfill ; - Reduce energy consumption by 5% YOY ; - Install solar panels at our head office site.

  Tackling economic inequality

  CDS is committed to creating new businesses, new jobs and new skills within our local communities, designed to address economic inequality. ; ; Employment opportunities and training ; CDS commits to reducing the skills gap by providing apprenticeships, training opportunities and supporting ex-offenders in creating employment opportunities in our local communities. ; ; As a national company, CDS operates from three primary offices, each run as an autonomous business unit, managed by locally based teams. This regional structure has resulted in CDS becoming a community-focussed organisation and is committed to using local suppliers and subcontractors. ; ; Apprenticeships ; CDS has an ongoing commitment to recruit and provide job opportunities in our local communities through apprenticeships. In the past two years we have provided nine apprenticeships, of which four have become full-time employees. A further four are currently taking apprenticeship degrees via Leeds Beckett University. ; ; Supporting educational attainment and addressing skills gaps ; CDS is committed to supporting educational attainment to reduce the skills and employment gaps in the local communities in which we work. ; ; Initiatives include delivering careers talks in local schools about pursuing a digital career, career mentoring, mock interviews, CV advice and careers guidance. We also Provide work placements for school/university leavers and the unemployed: 1-6 weeks, more for internships ; ; Volunteering in the local community ; We make a valuable contribution to the community by supporting local charities and social enterprises. Each year our colleagues choose a local charity to be our charity of the year, that is aligned to our purpose and values. ; ; In 2024, we will be working in partnership with Business In The Community (BITC) in our quest to continually improve what we do, and operate as a responsible business that makes a positive impact in our community.

  Equal opportunity

  CDS regards its Equality and Diversity Policy as an integral part of its overall company strategy and is committed to encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion among its workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. It recognises the value of working with differences, and not against them. Our aim is for a workforce that is truly representative of all sections of society and our customers, and for each employee to feel respected and able to achieve their full potential and enjoy a fulfilling career with us. ; ; CDS positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation (protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act 2010). Our recruitment process is fair, equal, and non-discriminatory and works on the premise that the best person for the role will be offered the job. ; ; CDS is proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer (Level 1). With access to expert knowledge and guidance, we are committed to providing an accessible and inclusive recruitment process and working environment for everybody. ; ; In 2022 CDS invested in a new recruitment applicant tracking system (JobTrain), which includes an accessibility module to support applicants with disabilities. The system uses ReciteMe to offer a toolbar that helps neurodivergent candidates with their application. ; ; CDS gives all staff the chance to achieve their full potential. We deal with people solely based on merit and will ensure fair and equal treatment including appraisal - access to training - career development - job allocation - promotion - grievance and disciplinary matters. ; ; In 2024, in partnership with Business in the Community, we will be developing our Diversity & Inclusion Strategy and defining a set of key objectives to help measure progress and implement change.

Pricing

• Price: £9.26 a virtual machine a month
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• 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 bidteam@cds.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.