Aridhia Informatics Ltd

Aridhia Digital Research Environment (DRE) Workspaces

Aridhia’s Digital Research Environment is a cloud-based subscription service giving project teams access to collaborative analytic workspaces tailored to their requirements. Multidisciplinary teams can integrate and interrogate data in a web-accessible workspace pre-configured with analytic technologies,rapid prototyping tools, database storage and compute resources,collaboration features, audit capabilities and information governance functionality.

Features

  • Flexible subscription model
  • Role-based access control, comprehensive audit reporting and activity tracking
  • Embedded communication features including sharing, tagging, alerts, notes, comments
  • Built-in PostgreSQL, MADlib, R, R Shiny, RStudio, Jupyter Notebooks
  • R console with open source, statistical and machine-learning analysis
  • Easy data import and ingest options
  • Scalable storage, compute and VM's
  • PostgreSQL Database
  • Automated LaTeX publishing to approved journal formats

Benefits

  • Cloud-based for anytime, anywhere collaborative analytics
  • Provisioned on-demand, scalable, and pre-configured to individual project requirements
  • Secure environment supporting information governance, Caldicott and ISO27001 standards
  • Secure accredited hosting on Microsoft Azure cloud platform
  • Extensible with ‘bring your own tools’ Virtual Desktop Service
  • Customisable with Workspace+ data services and data science support
  • Templated environments (Precision Medicine, Population Health & Integrated Care)
  • Multidisciplinary skillset support – from point-and-click to data scientists
  • Advanced data visualisation capabilities
  • Powerful support for reproducible research

Pricing

£1,200 a unit 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 andrew.fox@aridhia.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

3 1 8 9 0 7 8 4 3 7 0 5 7 3 4

Contact

Aridhia Informatics Ltd Andrew Fox
Telephone: 0131 560 1470
Email: andrew.fox@aridhia.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
Public cloud
Service constraints
Monthly planned maintenance period, 1 hours, evening/weekend
System requirements
  • Tested on latest versions of Chrome and Edge
  • Workspaces run on other browsers but we test on Chrome/Edge

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Within 1 Hour
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
No
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
Standard Service Support is included in the subscription price.
All customers have access to a Service Delivery Manager.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Online training and user documentation is available.
Aridhia service desk will provision Workspaces and user accounts.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Users can extract data directly and also work with the Aridhia service desk.
End-of-contract process
Once a subscription expires users can extract data, scripts, files, ect before Aridhia closes down the Workspace. There are no termination charges.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Chrome
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
No
Service interface
No
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
With the Workspace management API, a user with appropriate access credentials can programmatically :

Create workspaces,
Remove workspaces
Add and remove users to a workspace,
Configure user roles and permissions,
Add and remove workspace features,
Add and remove files,
Manipulate files (rename, move, copy).
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
Open API (also known as Swagger)
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Each Workspace can contain a Custom Home Page that is described in an HTML file. This allows for each Workspace to be customised with project logos, links to content specific to the project amongst other use cases.

Users can add their own Shiny apps and Containerised apps to Workspaces.

Scaling

Independence of resources
The data within each Workspace is stored in a dedicated database which is not accessible by other Workspaces. This means that users in one Workspace are not affected if the database of another Workspace comes under heavy load. Additionally, the database server is based on distributed technologies to allow for parallel processing and easy scaling to keep up with demand.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Metrics can be provided to describe the amount of disk storage is being used by a Workspace to store its data and files. The number of members within a Workspace can be provided along with records of each member's access to the Workspace.
Reporting types
Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance
Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

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 CSA CCM v3.0
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
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

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
Users of the Workspace service can easily export their data and files by downloading them to the computer from where they are accessing the application. All downloads must go through a process whereby an Administrator of the Workspace authorises any download request. The authorisation process is audited to ensure a record is kept of who requested the download, who authorised it, and which data and/or files were downloaded.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • PNG
  • PDF
  • R, SQL, etc.
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
  • PNG
  • PDF
  • R, SQL, etc.

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)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
99.5% availability excluding planned maintenance.
Approach to resilience
Aridhia Digital Research Environment works on resilient cloud infrastructure, utilising Microsoft Azure services. Data can be backed locally and to adjacent Microsoft regions.
Outage reporting
Email Alerts

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Aridhia operate a Role Based Access Control policy where only certain colleague roles are granted access to restricted areas. For example Systems Administrators have access to secure passwords but their manager does not, as that role is different.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
2-factor authentication

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 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
BSI
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
11/05/2022
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
N/A
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
No
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
  • HITRUST
  • NHS Digital Data Security and Protection toolkit

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
HITRUST
Information security policies and processes
Aridhia has an Information Security Policy which is reviewed annually or ad hoc where significant changes are required. This is held in the Information Governance page of the company’s Sharepoint intranet. There are other policies, frameworks and schedules including for example a Data Protection Policy, a Clean Desk Policy, Business Continuity and DR Framework, Induction Training plus job descriptions and a security section within the Employee handbook.

While colleagues are encouraged not to print unnecessarily, where they do a third party company (Shred-it) is engaged to securely dispose of printed papers.

Both Information Security and Business Continuity are the responsibility of the Information Security Manager, reporting in to the COO.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
Configuration items such as software licences, laptops, servers are all purchased by the Platform Services Manager via Purchase Order. Assets are recorded in an asset register as are software licences. Any licence keys or certificate keys are stored in password manager software which is limited to only a few people. Changes to production services are made after a change record is raised and approved. The change record is held in our Service Management software which is managed by the Service Desk.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Software is patched and maintained by our in house Operations team. We deploy security patches as soon as possible. Rather than wait for a planned release window we use our Emergency CAB process to agree a slot. We get our information either from our suppliers, external consultants, or from membership of user groups (e.g. we pay for membership of the VMUG = VM User Group).
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
We run a variety of monitoring software for both services and infrastructure, for example CISCO's Meraki. This monitors client devices, access points, the wireless environment, and security threats. Other software monitors storage devices such as hard disks, alerting in advance when services are degraded. Infrastructure is designed to be resilient without single points of failure (SPOFs). However where critical infrastructure is affected we will arrange an emergency CAB and make customers aware before applying any changes.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Aridhia operate within an ITIL. Relevant colleagues have ITIL certification up to ITIL v3 Expert and Service Desk staff are trained to Foundation level. Users can reports incidents by email, phone or walk-up. Emails to the Service Desk mailbox are picked up and managed by our Service Desk tool. Incident reports for minor tickets will be emailed back to colleagues and customers. For Major Incidents a Post Incident Review will take pace which is minuted and shared with Senior Management

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)

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Social Value

Covid-19 recovery

Covid-19 recovery

Aridhia has worked on several Covid-19 projects, starting with the set-up of the NHS Nightingale Hospital. This project required the rapid deployment of a secure and stable digital infrastructure. The technical and project management teams at Aridhia dealt with everything from licensing requirements to Microsoft Azure capacity issues, so that digital solutions could be put in place. Said solutions were used to provide a wide variety of logistical services to NHS Nightingale. Aridhia continued to support the underlying digital environment in terms of alerts, reporting and ensuring the ongoing information security of the environment for Nightingale.

The ICODA Workbench was developed by Aridhia to support Covid-19 exemplar studies and research projects, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For example, the ICODA Grand Challenges project allows research groups across the globe to focus on learning more about the nature of SARS-COV-2, and not on the underlying data management and governance infrastructure. This allowed teams to provide insight into improved treatments, targeted mitigation measures to stem transmission, and more. See https://icoda-research.org/
Wellbeing

Wellbeing

We are proud to have sponsored last year’s Data Science for Social Good UK (DSSGx) Datafest 2021 and look forward to our involvement in 2022. DSSGx is an affiliate program of the Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) program which is run from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. DSSG aims to help not-for-profit organisations and government bodies to achieve more with their data so that they can fulfil their mission of bettering the world and people’s lives. To achieve this, DSSG gives these organisations access to top-tier data scientists who help them to maximise the effectiveness of their data.

Datafest 2021, the DSSGx UK summer programme, is led by the University of Warwick, in collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and the Munich Centre for Machine Learning. During the programme, Fellows were selected from a long list of over 400 applicants and organised into four teams, each of which had 12 weeks to solve a specific data challenge for a government department or not-for-profit organisation. Each team was aided by DSSG mentors in data science and project management.

For the challenge, Aridhia provisioned each team with a DRE workspace so that they could collaborate with each other from their remote locations. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic meant that this year’s challenge was the first to run remotely, so a secure online collaboration environment was a critical tool for the success of the programme. We were happy that we were able to provide these Workspaces at short notice, onboard all users smoothly, and provide ongoing support for the teams who required it.

Pricing

Price
£1,200 a unit a month
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
Monthly trial.
Link to free trial
Www.aridhia.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 andrew.fox@aridhia.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.