Epimorphics Ltd

Epimorphics Data Integration & Publishing Platform

Our data integration and publishing platform enables organisations to transform and integrate data from a wide variety of systems and then make that integrated data available for consumption through easy-to-use APIs. Customised data transformations can be used to ingest data from a wide variety of sources including near-real-time data streams.

Features

• flexible, high performance data storage
• fully standards-compliant linked data publication platform
• widely used within the UK public-sector
• replicated for fault-tolerance and scalability
• examples include publishing near-real time data
• ingest data from a wide variety of sources
• data quality, validation and data quality integrated with data flows
• data integration - high-performance with large data volumes
• hosted and managed enterprise Data Platform Service
• enable advanced front-end app interfaces beyond the standard UI

Benefits

• robust, reliable publication of sustainable, trusted and usable 5-star data
• adaptive/flexible platform can be grown to meet changing needs
• deployment flexibility on the cloud or within your own infrastructure
• provide customers with integrated, live updates twenty-four hours a day
• build data integration into your transforming organisation
• bring data from your legacy systems into one place
• publish high-quality data that is actually used
• enable teams to start integrating, managing, curating and using data
• data sharing via flexible APIs and bulk download
• create and deliver services with user needs at their heart

£750 to £3,000 a unit 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 gcloud@epimorphics.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

362518345780734

Contact

Alex Coley
0127 5399069
gcloud@epimorphics.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: No specific constraints
• System requirements:
  • Modern web browser
  • Web access from customer site (http and https)

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Dependent upon specific implementation. Generally within 4 hours during support hours (08:30-17:00, Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays). See Service Definition documents for full details.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Phone support: No
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: Support levels are agreed with the client during the setup phase. We also provide an incident reporting service. ; ; The basic service is available during normal business hours (09.00 – 17.30 Mondays – Fridays, excluding public holidays). We provide an email address for incident reporting and will respond to any notification within 4 hours. If an incident results in loss of service we will restore the service within 1 business day; in all other cases we will use reasonable efforts to resolve the incident as quickly as possible.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: We offer support in getting started with our dedicated Data Integration and Publishing service under Cloud Support. We also provide training via our Linked Data Training Service.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: No user data is collected by the system – the only data stored on the publishing platform is data supplied by the client. On termination of the contract all client data will be securely deleted. During the life of the contract clients can request access to a copy of all the data stored on the system. We have also supported public sector clients in transitioning the technology to their own infrastructure.
• End-of-contract process: On termination of the contract all client data will be securely deleted. We can support clients in transitioning the technology to their own infrastructure or alternatives at additional cost.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: We use responsive design wherever possible
• 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: For all service levels an API is provided for access to the data. Full customization of this API is possible through our associated support services. For the fully flexible service level, an API is provided to enable automated update, conversion and publishing of data updates. On-boarding of new data sources and new data formats, is not available through the API but requires configuration through our Data Integration and Publishing service. Test environments can be provided under our fully flexible service level and configured using our Data Integration and Publishing service.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Using our associated support services, buyers can carry out extensive customisations of this service - see service description document

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Each customer's instance of the service runs on dedicated and replicated cloud-first hardware on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Request counts (real time dashboard available) and full web server logs allowing clients to breakdown requests by URL, client and requester IP. We can install analytic tags on pages to allow clients to perform their own detailed usage and user journey analysis. Regular reports can be provided as part of our fully flexible service level.
• Reporting types:
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• 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
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: Less than once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: The service is designed to export data - as a data publishing platform
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • RDF
  • RESTful API
  • JSON-LD
  • CSV
  • TTL
  • XML
  • SPARQL
  • Graph-QL
  • Batch-API
  • Others
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • RDF
  • TTL
  • JSON-LD
  • Geo-JSON
  • XML
  • Others via data connectors

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)
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: Network operates as a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) within Amazon Web Services infrastructure providing full subnet isolation. Administrator access is through passwordless ssh and TLS (>1.2).

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: We typically host services on AWS who provide no availability guarantees, so we do not offer an SLA on availability. In practice, however, we achieve more than 99% availability. For the fully flexible service specific SLA options can be discussed.
• Approach to resilience: Apart from our entry level service all services are offered on replicated servers operating in different availability zones.
• Outage reporting: Outages are detected using configurable service monitoring probes via a mix of industry-standard monitoring software (Prometheus / Alertmanager, Sensu) and external cloud-based uptime services. Outages are reported through a notification service that allows for both real time (slack) and email delivery of notifications. Just as important, we collect a rich range of metrics at the infrastructure and workload level that support dashboards and alerts, allowing us to detect many service health issues (such as overload or reducing disk space) before they lead to outages. Real time notification of application software errors via Sentry and Prometheus / Alertmanager round out the approach.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: No
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: We provide user authentication and user-level access control
• Access restriction testing frequency: Less than once a year
• Management access authentication: Other
• Description of management access authentication: Management access for the underlying tooling is configurable to use username / password, OAuth2 based Identity federation service or other methods. This would be configured upon setup.

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: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: We take security of our service seriously. All management of the service take place over encrypted channels (TLS/SSH). The service runs in a Virtual-Private -Cloud with full subnet isolation which limits the attack surface. Instances of the service have been subjected to several formal penetration tests by external third-parties and been approved. Any (minor) weaknesses discovered by testing have been mitigated. We use shared infrastructure management cookbooks to embody best-practice for server configuration. We perform regular service updates to apply security patches for underlying software. We subscribe to security-alert channels for that software and apply emergency security patches if necessary.
• Information security policies and processes: Information security is the responsibility of all employees, who are expected to be aware of security best practice and to apply it in ways commensurate with the nature of our service and of the data we hold. We have a flat management structure and it is the responsibility of the company directors to ensure appropriate security best practice is applied. We have a plan to achieve Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation and expect to move towards full ISO27001 accreditation through further formalisation of our security policy and processes.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: The service is managed using infrastructure-as-code. We are transitioning from Chef-based configuration management to deploying on Kubernetes clusters [*] using a "gitops" workflow. The entire infrastructure and service configuration is defined in declarative deployment files under git-version-control, which automatically control the configuration of the running cluster. A Change Request ticket can be linked to a Pull Request which implements the change. This allows for peer-review of proposed configuration changes before release and full trace-back of all configuration changes and reasons. ; [*] in specialised cases we deploy containerized workloads directly onto machine instances managed using Ansible (following a full infrastructure-as-code approach)
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Instances of the service have been subjected to several formal penetration tests by external third parties and been approved. When appropriate lessons learned from these tests are embodied in operational cookbooks to ensure they are applied to future systems.; ; We maintain a regular maintenance schedule for update of service components and have automation to simplify the update process. All services are updated at least monthly and typically more frequently. We subscribe to security alert channels for relevant software and adjust our update schedule if priority patches are needed, including performing out-of-hours emergency patching when necessary.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Our protective monitoring processes are tailored to the nature of our service. As an open data service provider our most significant vulnerability is denial of service, including accidental denial of service from bad clients. We detect this through automated service availability monitoring, real time performance metric dashboards and server logs. Responses include blocking requestors, rate throttling, and modifying service API implementation to remove DOS vulnerabilities. Responses times are detailed under service levels.; ; System compromise leading to data change would be detectable through server logs recording authorization requests and update transactions. Data is redundantly stored at multiple levels enabling quick recovery.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: We provide extensive monitoring for our services; most incidents are detected by our own monitoring, though we provide an email mechanism for users to report incidents. Following an incident we provide an email summary to any affected customers.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  - We regularly assess our full carbon footprint, to quantify, as far as possible, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the operations of Epimorphics, the services that we use and the services that we run for others.; ; - We have assessed and been audited for our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, reducing where possible and offsetting where not.; ; - Our company values promote support for the environment in all aspects of our work. We evaluate contracts we accept to see if a successful outcome to the contract will have a beneficial effect on our environment.; ; - We operate as a Carbon Neutral plus organisation, and publish our footprint details as part of our sustainability statement here: https://www.epimorphics.com/sustainability-summary-statement
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  - Connecting and using data in new innovative ways, and providing it to others for re-use via the web, encourages delivery of remote, modern digital services and new ways of working.; ; - Information Technology is a high-growth industry. We are based in the South West of England and an alumnus of the business incubator and enterprise partnership SetSquared. As a growing SME we look to provide flexible opportunities directly to our staff and indirectly through the data services we provide via GCloud. ; ; - We operate a flexible working approach, designed to be able to adapt to changing needs. Our workforce can operate remotely to maintain social distancing and avoid unsustainable travel solutions. In reopening our workplace we have implemented government guidelines to ensure the safety of our team and customers.
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  - Information Technology is a high-growth industry. We are based in the South West of England and an alumnus of the business incubator and enterprise partnership SetSquared. As a growing SME we look to provide flexible opportunities directly to our staff and indirectly through the data services we provide via GCloud.; ; - We have regularly run a paid summer internship programme with a number of practical, technical internship projects. These have been successfully completed by 15 students and re-trainees since 2016, supporting their career development. Some have taken up employment at Epimorphics after they have finished their studies. ; ; - We work with local universities to explore student projects, and have supported the University of Bristol in running a Computer Science Student project working with visualisation software on public sector data.; ; - We are 100% employee owned SME adding to the diversity of the supply chain. We are a Tech Talent Charter Signatory - a commitment to work together in the industry to increase the inclusion and diversity of the tech workforce in the UK in a measurable way. We are committed to achieving greater inclusion and diversity in our team, providing equal opportunity for all.; ; - We work in an innovative, disruptive, evolving sector. We have a strong R&D investment and are growing our technology product base as we scale-up and evolve.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  - We are 100% employee owned SME adding to the diversity of the supply chain. We are a Tech Talent Charter Signatory - a commitment to work together in the industry to increase the inclusion and diversity of the tech workforce in the UK in a measurable way. We are committed to achieving greater inclusion and diversity in our team, providing equal opportunity for all.; ; - As a growing SME, we have recruitment practices that work with others to support our inclusion commitments. The original motivation for our flexible working policy was to ensure that we provided equal opportunities for disabled people, and we continue to ensure that there are no barriers to hiring disabled people.; ; - We work with local branches of groups support IT education for people from different backgrounds e.g. Rails Girls, a charity helping girls learn IT skills.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  - We improve health and wellbeing in our workforce as part of being a people centred organisation. We are 100% employee owned and so our people are core to who we are.; ; - We have always provided a flexible working environment, allowing our employees to work from home or in co-working environments as well as from our offices. When Covid meant that working from home full-time was necessary we invested in ensuring that all our employees had a suitable working environment, and continue to monitor this.; ; - We look to maximise our social impact in working with others, this includes the projects we do but also the suppliers that we use. For example, we consider local businesses and other SMEs as a priority in our procurement practices.; ; - We improve community integration by collaborating with digital service users in user experience design and testing.; ; - A portion of our profits from this and other contracts are used to support our local community, for example in donating to local schools to enable them to procure IT equipment.

Pricing

• Price: £750 to £3,000 a unit 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 gcloud@epimorphics.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.