Skip to main content

Help us improve the Digital Marketplace - send your feedback

NquiringMinds Ltd

NQM API Gateway

NQM Secure API Gateway platform provides you with the tools to turn existing data and compute assets into secure externally accessible API. A fully secure platform implementing zero trust principles.

Features

  • Build APIs rapidly with full lifecycle management
  • Quickly surface data assets through APIs
  • Quickly surface compute capability through APIs
  • Fine grained routing and tunnelling
  • Edge based capability for routing to local resources
  • Auditing, metering and building
  • Analytics for insight and performance
  • Builds on identity credential and authorisation capability (zerotrust)
  • Supports REST, websockets, gRPC, streaming and more
  • Highly secure

Benefits

  • Monetise existing data and compute assets
  • Highly secure, reduces risk of API abuse
  • Real time integration with partners and stakeholders
  • Rapidly develop and eternalise value added services
  • Integrate services across organisation securely
  • Increase productivity

Pricing

£2,000 an instance a month

  • 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 nick@nqminds.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 8 9 7 6 1 7 5 6 2 3 4 0 7 8

Contact

NquiringMinds Ltd Nicholas Allott
Telephone: 07714145711
Email: nick@nqminds.com

Service scope

Service constraints
N/A
System requirements
Linux based OS for platform install

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
2 hours - Mon-Fri 8-6 5 hours all other times
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 A
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support
Yes, at an extra cost
Web chat support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support accessibility standard
WCAG 2.1 A
Web chat accessibility testing
User testing
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
Basic support provided in the original package Enhanced support (on site/one to one tutorials etc) provided at £100/hour
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
System is fully documented with examples, videos and walk through. Training can be provided either online of physically.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Data can be downloaded from the system at any time. By default CSV and JSON formats are supported, New formats can be provided on request. In addition to built in export functions, the APIs provides the ability to create customised export and synchronisation functions
End-of-contract process
Customer is reminded at 3 month and 1 month before contract termination. If customer does not want to renew they are advised to take the necessary data exports. API is provide and support can be requested for customer specific data extraction. At 2 week before contract termination, we provide a shut down check list to customer for approval. On contract termination, we initiate the service shutdown, which includes data removal, data deletion and full wipe of dependent hardware.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Using the web interface
Service interface provides a user interface for back end administration functions as well as full programmatic API access
Web interface accessibility standard
WCAG 2.1 A
Web interface accessibility testing
The service has been tested by users of assistive technology across its customer base to ensure ease of use.
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
We provide a full API that provides secure, permission access to everty aspect of the platform function. Multiple APIs exist : Open API, native language APIs (JavaScript, C, Python etc), streaming and GRPC APIs
API automation tools
  • Chef
  • OpenStack
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
  • PDF
Command line interface
Yes
Command line interface compatibility
Linux or Unix
Using the command line interface
We provide a full API that provides secure, permission access to every

All capabilities are mediated through strong authentication and authorisation controls

Scaling

Scaling available
Yes
Scaling type
Manual
Independence of resources
Each user has dedicated machine
Usage notifications
Yes
Usage reporting
Email

Analytics

Infrastructure or application metrics
Yes
Metrics types
  • CPU
  • Disk
  • HTTP request and response status
  • Memory
  • Network
  • Number of active instances
  • Other
Other metrics
  • Data access
  • Analytical processes
  • Security events
  • User behaviours
  • Additional can be added easily
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

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
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
Another external penetration testing organisation
Protecting data at rest
Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
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
  • Full VM images
  • Database exports
  • Event logs (from which database can be rebuilt)
  • Files
Backup controls
Fully configurable form UI or from API
Datacentre setup
Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
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)
Data protection within supplier network
TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
We aim to provide 99.9% availability across our application portfolio and historically have achieved this figure. If we fail to meet this objective within any calendar month the customer can apply for a commensurate refund.
Approach to resilience
Underlying physical availability is provided with appropriately configured commercial cloud based provider (typically Azure or AWS). At a software level we can provide clustering, replication and round robin allocation of resource requests. Precise resilience requirements can be negotiated with the end customer. Full details in request.
Outage reporting
We provide all of - data dashboard - API - email alerts System availability is measured both through the end application availability and health checks on all dependent underlying processes

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)
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Every user is authenticated by known and trusted authentication provider and is provided with an appropriate authorisation level. This authorisation level determine what service they have access to. This authorisation fine grained allowing access to micro service definitions. The authorisation levels can be grouped to common authorisation roles. Any user requesting support/management out of band (e.g. phone) will have to provide appropriate authentication credentials to access service
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
Devices users manage the service through
  • Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)
  • Dedicated device on a government network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated device over multiple services or networks

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
At least 12 months
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
Between 6 months and 12 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
No
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
  • Cyber Essentials Plus
  • Working towards 27001
  • We inherit standard security certification of AWS https://aws.amazon.com/security/

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
Other
Other security governance standards
We are Cyber Essentials Plus certified and are seeking to secure ISO/IEC 27001. We are putting in place the necessary governance to achieve this standard.
Information security policies and processes
Reporting flow - internal /external report - Chief Security Officer - Chief Executive Officer We are currently Cyber Essentials Plus certified and initiating ISO 27001 certification. We have in place the following policies - Vulnerability disclosure - Data breach - Business continuity - Data retention - Incident handing - Device on boarding/life cycle - Employee on boarding/life cycle - Firewall and systems access - Secure development

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
All changes to configuration/change management are singed off by two appropriately qualified personnel. All changes and processes are required monthly by our chief security officer. Vulnerability checks are run against our underlying software components continuously using online tools Full security policy documents can be provided on request.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Our vulnerability threat analysis comes from four primary dimensions - underlying compute platform - dependent software components - employee - external software attack Systems exist for real time behavioural analysis for the underlying platform and employee behaviour, with appropriate alerting and escalation. Continuous threat analysis is performed on underlying software components. We monitor the relevant CERTS for vulnerability reports additionally Full security policy documents can be provided on request.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
The platform supports an integrated system log that aggregate relevant logs across component behaviour, network behaviour and user behaviour. Alerting system is defined that includes both explicit rule based alerts and statistical/ML backed anomaly detection. Alerts are evaluated by the internal security team escalating to our CSO as required Full security policy documents can be provided on request.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Incident can be reported internally, externally or by paying users. Incidents can be reported by email, phone or web interface. Standard forms and triaging processes exist to streamling reporting and level one handling. Incident reports can be exacted in multiple formats using built in tools Full security policy documents can be provided on request.

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
No

Energy efficiency

Energy-efficient datacentres
Yes
Description of energy efficient datacentres
Our standard installation comes on AWS
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/sustainability/

Social Value

Social Value

Social Value

Equal opportunity

Equal opportunity

Support in-work progression to help people, including those from disadvantaged or minority groups, to move into higher paid work by developing new skills relevant to the contract.

Pricing

Price
£2,000 an instance a month
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
Free access to the TDX can be provided to prospective clients for a 4 week trial.

A 4 week fully supported trial is also available for £10k

This will include access to all features of the TDX and all APIs

TDX application are negotiated separately.
Link to free trial
Demos can be found on https://nquiringminds.com

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