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Computacenter (UK) Ltd

Computacenter - IBM API Connect On Cloud Reserved Instance (Dedicated)

IBM API Management solution provides organisations with the tools to Create, Run, Manage, Secure and Analyse APIs with complete lifecycle management for enterprise grade workloads. An award-winning API Portal for developers from B2B/B2C enables easy API onboarding and fantastic consumer experience. Advanced analytics provide insights to better manage APIs.

Features

  • API security and policy enforcement
  • Automated, visual, coding options for creating APIs
  • Node.js and Java® support for creating Microservices
  • Access control over APIs, API Plans and API Products
  • Advanced API usage Analytics
  • Customizable, self service developer portal for publishing APIs
  • Policy enforcement, security and control API Management
  • Dedicated & HA Instances available as SaaS on IBM Cloud

Benefits

  • Accelerates time to innovation by providing immediate API Management platform
  • Accelerates time to value by lowering cost of set up
  • Accelerates the time to value by speed of delivery

Pricing

£79 a unit

  • Education pricing available
  • Free trial available

Service documents

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

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

2 2 2 9 4 6 4 7 7 7 6 1 3 4 8

Contact

Computacenter (UK) Ltd Karen Baldock
Telephone: +44 (0) 1707 631000
Email: government@computacenter.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
What software services is the service an extension to
API Connect is delivered on IBM Cloud, which has access to more than 200+ different services that can be used to further enhance IBM API Management solution offering.
Cloud deployment model
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Community cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
Service constraints
There are no current service constraints
System requirements
  • https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/api-connect/10_reserved_instance
  • No system requirements as the software is SaaS

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
The response goal is two business hours (8AM to 5PM Monday to Friday). For Severity 1 tickets (critical business impact) there is 24x7 support.
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
No
Support levels
In the IBM Support Handbook. The hand book set out the various levels of response and details of the additional services and value added services a client may wish to take in pursuit of support for their projects http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/handbook/home.html
Support available to third parties
No

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Customers can benefit from a number of programs to help them get started 1) Proof of technology – single days lecture and lab execises on using the solution this is free of charge 2) Self paced learning and execises down loadable for the API Connect customer facing web pages – these are free of charge 3) Formal training courses role based – chargeable 4) Formal architecture and design workshops – fast start programs to pre production and production deployments via service for skills transfere – chargable
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
HTML
End-of-contract data extraction
API definitions and usage analytics and any data stored in databases can be extracted at any time by authorised user/ administrators. IBM will return the Client Data within a reasonable period in a reasonable and common format upon receiving written instructions from the Client prior to termination or expiration.
End-of-contract process
It is the responsibility of the customer to terminate the service in writing to IBM. This policy is set at the time of contracting. IBM will continue providing the service until either a product support ends creating a need to recontract for the service, or the client ceases payment.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
No
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Description of service interface
User can use the UI on IBM Cloud or the command line interface to interact with the software. The API Connect REST APIs provide complete access to the capability of the platform with the latest version (v2018) The capabilities provided by the API Connect REST APIs include the following: Automate administration of the platform. Implement scripts and tools to support a continuous integration environment for API development and publishing. Manage catalogs of APIs, and their subscribers. The operations provided in the REST API also correspond directly with commands in the toolkit CLI.
Accessibility standards
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Accessibility testing
Please refer to the IBM Accessibility Checklist at https://www.ibm.com/able/guidelines/ci162/accessibility_checklist.html IBM prides itself on accessibility, read more here: https://www.ibm.com/able/
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Please see here https://developer.asperasoft.com
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
Open API (also known as Swagger)
API sandbox or test environment
No
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Role based access controls allows controlled customisation of the developer portal and the way API are presented to the external world: see Royal Mail: https://developer.royalmail.net/

Scaling

Independence of resources
"
On IBM Cloud dedicated services this model is single tenant and hence you will have independence in the solution architecture. The public IBM API Connect solution is on a multi-tenant solution which is a shared solution on public cloud that uses technology based on Cloud Foundry to automatically scale and load balance as required. The FS Cloud API Connect can enable PCI compliance. The architecture of IBM cloud services maintains logical separation of client data. Internal rules and measures separate data processing, such as inserting, modifying, deleting, and transferring data, according to the contracted purposes."

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Metrics on all API calls are recorded and displayed in dashboards on API Connect.
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards

Resellers

Supplier type
Reseller providing extra support
Organisation whose services are being resold
IBM

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 Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
Protecting data at rest
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • 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
Equipment disposal approach
Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
The web user interface and REST APIs can be used to export configuration and usage data from the service.
Data export formats
Other
Other data export formats
  • YAML
  • JSON
Data import formats
Other
Other data import formats
  • YAML
  • JSON

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
IBM API Connect has an SLA of 99.95%
Approach to resilience
Available on request
Outage reporting
All bluemix system status updates can be found here - https://status.eu-gb.bluemix.net

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
IBM maintains individual role-based authorization of privileged accounts that is subject to regular validation. A privileged account is a duly authorized IBM user identity with administrative access to a Cloud Service, including associated infrastructure, networks, systems, applications, databases and file systems
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password

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
Between 1 month and 6 months
How long system logs are stored for
Between 1 month and 6 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
BSI
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
28/04/2022
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
Our ISO/IEC 27001 certification relates to the information security management system and not the products or services of the certified organisation.
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification
Gemserv Ltd
PCI DSS accreditation date
22/09/2021
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover
As per section 2a of the PCI-DSS certificate, there are no areas that were marked as ‘Not Included’. We therefore confirm we are compliant across all relevant requirements for our services as a Hosting Provider, Managed Services and Payment Processing.
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
Information security policies and processes
IBM has an Information Technology (IT) Security policy that establishes the requirements for the protection of IBM's worldwide IT systems and the information assets they contain, including networks and computing devices such as servers, workstations, host computers, application programs, web services, and telephone systems within the IBM infrastructure. IBM’s IT Security policy is supplemented by standards and guidelines, such as the Security Standards for IBM's Infrastructure, the Security and Use Standards for IBM Employees and the Security Guidelines for Outsourced Business Services. Such are reviewed by a cross-company team led by the IT Risk organization every six months. IBM has a dedicated Vice President of IT Security who leads a team responsible for IBM's own enterprise data security standards and practices. Responsibility and accountability for executing internal security programs is established through formal documented policies. IBM Services teams also have dedicated executives and teams who are responsible for information and physical security in the delivery of our client services.

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
IBM maintains policies and procedures to manage risks associated with the application of changes to its Cloud Services. Prior to implementation, all changes to a Cloud Service, including its systems, networks and underlying components, will be documented in a registered change request that includes a description and reason for the change, implementation details and schedule, a risk statement addressing impact to the Cloud Service and its clients, expected outcome, rollback plan, and documented approval by IBM management or its authorized delegate
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
With each Cloud Service, as applicable and commercially reasonable, IBM will a) perform penetration testing and vulnerability assessments before production release and routinely thereafter, b) enlist a qualified and reputable independent third-party to perform penetration testing and ethical hacking at least annually, c) perform automated management and routine verification of underlying components’ compliance with security configuration requirements, and d) remediate any identified vulnerability or noncompliance with its security configuration requirements based on associated risk, exploitability, and impact. IBM takes reasonable care to avoid Cloud Service disruption when performing its tests, assessments, scans, and execution of remediation activities.
Protective monitoring type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach
IBM maintains and follows policies requiring administrative access and activity in its Cloud Services’ computing environments to be logged and monitored, and the logs to be archived and retained in compliance with IBM’s worldwide records management plan. IBM monitors privileged account use and maintain security information and event management policies and measures designed to a) identify unauthorized administrative access and activity, b) facilitate a timely and appropriate response, and c) enable internal and independent third party audits of compliance with such policies. IBM systematically monitors the health and availability of production Cloud Service systems and infrastructure at all times.
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
IBM: -maintains and follows incident response policies aligned with NIST guidelines for computer security incident handling, and will comply with data breach notification requirements under applicable law. -investigates security incidents, including unauthorised access or use of content or the Cloud Service, of which IBM becomes aware, and, if warranted, define and execute an appropriate response plan. -promptly notifies Client upon determining that a security incident known or reasonably suspected by IBM to affect Client has occurred. -provides Client with reasonably requested information about such security incident and status of applicable remediation and restoration activities performed or directed by IBM

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Social Value

Social Value

Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

Fighting climate change

Computacenter ensures that our business practices deliver effective stewardship of the environment in line with the Social Value Model. Computacenter's science-based emissions reductions targets are approved with the SBTi. Our Net Zero Journey Group Emissions is now just 16% of 2015 levels as outlined in our carbon reduction plan to achieve ‘Net Zero’ carbon emissions by 2040.

Business travel is necessary, both for our customer requirements and for our staff. We have materially reduced business travel, ensuring all business trips are necessary, helping reduce carbon emissions. We are investing in technology to allow greater use of existing communication platforms as part of our ‘hybrid working’ strategy. One of the key benefits we believe this will help us realise is reducing emissions from business travel by 35 per cent by 2025 (compared to 2019). For G-Cloud services this means that we will drive the use of virtual, technology-enabled meetings as much as possible for all internal and external sessions, including those with our wider supply chain.

Further to this we can provide customer advisory services which include guidance and recommendations on how to improve their sustainability performance to help inform customer decision making whilst achieving the desired commercial and technical outcomes through the services being provided.

Computacenter has introduced incentives to encourage the replacement of the existing Fleet with Ultra Low Emission Vehicles. We have 44 electric charging points across 2 of our locations to encourage the adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles, either through our company car scheme or privately. For this framework specifically, this means that our consultants, project managers and engineering resource will have access to a ULEV vehicle via our company car scheme and the ability to charge a vehicle at Computacenter office locations.

Covid-19 recovery

Throughout the pandemic we have closely followed and implemented government guidance relating to the workplace and COVID-19. We created a COVID-19 risk assessment to enable us to understand the improvements that need to be made to our workplace conditions in line with the Government COVID-19 secure workplace guidelines and the business advice that is now current. It looks at the risks of COVID-19 in the workplace, such as hygiene, & cleaning and then states what we must put in place to mitigate these risks.

As we enter the recovery phase of the pandemic, we have introduced hybrid working for our employees. This will allow most employees including those delivering G-Cloud services increased flexibility in how and where they work ensuring that we still deliver the best service to our customers whilst looking after our people.

Our COVID-19 steering committee is there to identify activities that will improve workplace conditions then plan, build and regularly monitor various programmes focused on supporting the COVID-19 recovery effort. At these meetings, chaired by our Chief People Officer (‘CPO’) Sarah Long, our CIO John Gibbs and Services operations, the steering committee discuss changes that need to be implemented, identify areas of improvement, and review our roadmap of new activities.
Throughout the life of the contract, we will use our existing activities (as well as those that are in development in due course) to continue to improve workplace conditions in support of the COVID-19 recovery effort.

Questions relating to travel were included in the COVID-19 surveys that were issued through the pandemic. The assessment highlighted concerns people had about public transport. To help all employees; managers were coached and given guidance about being flexible with start/finish times. We continue to adapt our approach based on feedback received through the steering committee and employee surveys.

Tackling economic inequality

As a diverse and inclusive organisation with a strong focus on equality and driving in-work progression, our approach to recruitment and employment is aligned to recognised industry best practices such as the 5 principles of quality work as set out in the Good Work Plan.

Our Employee Impact Groups for disadvantaged or minority groups provide representation, support, and community engagement, feeding into our People Panel ensuring all voices are heard, underpinning our wider ambition of building a sustainable business for the long term.

We put specific measures in place to provide opportunities to under-represented groups or those who face barriers to employment, including comprehensive outreach programmes for schools and universities, as well as partnerships with non-profit organisations within our communities. We continue focus on reaching harder to reach groups and people who are underrepresented in our sector by working with charities and schools in the local community to offer career talks and work experience opportunities. Our school outreach programme has over 130 volunteers dedicating over 2,600 hours running activities for employability and life skills in schools, colleges, and universities.

Computacenter is one of the 9 founding members of ‘Technology Community for Racial Equality’ (‘TC4RE’), a group set up to drive racial equality throughout the technology industry, with which we are delivering a half-day virtual event on ‘Enabling Ethnic Diversity’ featuring a series of expert keynotes, live panel discussions and interactive workshops with representation from across the UK technology community.

Furthermore, Computacenter are a silver level partner in the Armed Forces Covenant and has introduced a programme that provides the opportunity to attain a degree and ServiceNow certification whilst receiving full salary for armed forces leavers. This programme is the first of many programmes we intend on running to help ex-forces personal transition back into the workplace and the IT industry.

Equal opportunity

Computacenter is committed to providing equal opportunities to all through fair recruitment practices and employment conditions across our organisation.
We are a Disability Confident ‘Committed’ employer, committed to making lasting changes to our business creating a diverse talent pool. We work with partners through our community outreach, who are specialists in disability. An example is our work with Knightsfield School in Welwyn Garden City, a specialist school for deaf children.  We run at least 3 ‘get work ready’ events with them, as well as offer up to 4 work experience opportunities and onsite visits every year.

For this contract, we will use existing initiatives (as well as others that are in development) to provide career opportunities for individuals from under-represented groups to address requirements for specific skills or roles with a focus on increasing skillsets through the life of the contract. This will include apprenticeships aligned to security and cloud/infrastructure departments, as well as industrial placements and graduate schemes for our ServiceNow Centre of Excellence, with specific focus on delivering cloud-based services to our customers.

Our workforce for services delivered under this framework will have access to existing initiatives aimed at supporting in-work progression and development for those from disadvantaged/minority groups. For example, our gender diversity initiatives include our Growing Together programme, which over 150 women have been through so far, of which over one-third have been promoted or taken a new role within a year following the mentoring and coaching provided.

We are also committed to driving racial equality across our business and the wider technology industry. We are a founding member of ‘Technology Community for Racial Equality’ which recently delivered a half-day virtual event on ‘Enabling Ethnic Diversity’ featuring a series of expert keynotes, live panel discussions and interactive workshops with representation from across the UK technology community.

Wellbeing

We understand how important employee Wellbeing is for a sustainable business model, therefore we are committed to creating a sustainable supply chain. Ensuring the wellbeing of our employees are looked after will positively affect productivity, recruitment, and retention rates.

In November 2021, a designated UK wellbeing manager was appointed and has since launched our wellbeing strategy, which aligns with the Social Value Model and the 6 standards of the Mental Health at Work Commitment, signed in July 2021. We are actively implementing the enhanced mental health standards as recommended through the ‘Thriving at Work’ review, and NICE mental health at work guidelines, as part of our Wellbeing strategy. The strategy encompasses four pillars of wellbeing, mental, physical, financial, and social.  We are a Menopause friendly organisation and have created a support network for those in need.

We have 109 Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) accredited staff in the UK, trained by Mind, who act as Wellbeing Champions providing mental health first aid support and promoting our wellbeing services which those delivering G-Cloud service provisions will have access to. These champions are from every business area and from different seniority. We hold events throughout the year organised by our UK wellbeing manager and Champions, which have included celebrating World Mental Health days, Menopause awareness, financial wellbeing webinars and sponsored events to raise money for our mental health charity partners.

2021 also saw the launch of our new groupwide app-based programme ‘Be Well’ which gives our people access to over 3,000 fitness, nutrition, health and wellbeing courses through Humanoo. Through this app we have launched an extremely popular groupwide step challenge and has encouraged our people to be more active, with over 35% of our workforce now using the app and covering over 1.8bn steps so far.

Pricing

Price
£79 a unit
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
For the Reserved Instance we cannot offer free dedicated environments. For public cloud there is a free tier which can allow users to try the software with a smaller number of transactions before deciding to use IBM software for the enterprise.

Service documents

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