SOMERFORD ASSOCIATES LIMITED

Chainguard - Secure, minimal container images for a hardened software supply chain

A Safe Source for Open Source.
Hardened container images, libraries and VMs, built from source daily with full SBOMs in SLSA3 environment.
Over 1,800 CVE-free container images, including AI and FIPS images.
Guarded python, java and node library ecosystems which eliminate malware risk by building everything from verified source code.

Features

• CVE-free open source software images
• Hardened container images for >1,800 image families, inc. AI images
• Guarded libraries for PyPI/python, maven/java and npm/node.js
• Hardened and optimised Virtual Machine (VM) images
• Rebuilt from source daily, minimal images
• Full Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs)
• 7 day remediation SLA for Critical CVEs
• 14 day remediation SLA or High, Medium and Low CVEs
• Custom Assembly to quickly & easily add packages
• 6 month End of Life grace period

Benefits

• Enhance developer productivity by creating code faster & more securely
• Reduce risk by drastically reducing CVEs
• Provide provenance for open software
• EOL to smoothly transition off legacy software without compromising security
• SLA provides commitment to rapid updates
• Accountability for 3rd party supply chain software audits
• Simplify compliance reporting as Secure by Design with evidence

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

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

Framework

G-Cloud 15

Service ID

454044139340692

Contact

Penny Harrison
07897075103
info@somerfordassociates.com

About your service

• Service categories:

  Application Development and Deployment

  Application development

  • Development languages, environments and tools
  • Software construction components
• Multi cloud support: Yes

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model:
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Community cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
• Service constraints: None
• System requirements:
  • Internet access to consume the service
  • Container and VM products are Linux only

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes
• Support response times: Mon-Fri 9am-5:30pm excl bank holidays customers receive an initial response within one business 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: We provide support from priority 1 to priority 4 cases on any existing configuration or part of the platform that is in total or partial failure as well as not working as expected. We also provide configuration guidance and recommendations for use cases. Each customer receives their own Account Manager who works closely with Support and ensures that cases can be followed up. Somerfords Support desk is available as a value added service in addition to the maintenance and support purchased alongside the license.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Detailed online training through edu.chainguard.dev; Specific customer training available if required.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: HTML
• End-of-contract data extraction: Chainguard holds no customer data apart from the names and emails of personnel accessing the support services
• End-of-contract process: Chainguard stops access to the service thereby ceasing customer access to the private repository which provides the purchased images, VMs and libraries.; Customer data is deleted upon leaving.; The company purges or removes customer data containing confidential information from the application environment, in accordance with best practices, when customers leave the service.
• Documentation accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers: Chrome
• Application to install: Yes
• Compatible operating systems:
  • Linux or Unix
  • MacOS
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Description of service interface: Rest API and other services via https
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Accessibility testing: VPAT/ACR Available
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: All web UI and CLI functionality is API backed
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • Other
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Using Custom Assembly; New hardened images can be requested if not already in Chainguard Directory.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Autoscaling is enabled on infrastructure components. Content is delivered by a global Content Delivery Network.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Yes, on request. Usage covers images and libraries pulled from Chainguard repository.
• Reporting types: Reports on request
• Resource tagging: No
• FOCUS resource tagging: No

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Chainguard

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• 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 SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001
• Data sanitisation type: Data Erasure

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: There is no PID apart from email addresses required for support and any data export requests can be handled by a support request
• Data export formats: Other
• Other data export formats: Plain text
• Data import formats: Other
• Other data import formats: Certificates in PEM format

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: Chainguard runs on cloud infrastructure with applications served from multiple availability zones and auto-scaling across multiple regions to target high availability (>= 99.99%).; For image serving and builds, our primary components include Google Cloud Run (us-central1, us-west1, us-east4; 99.95% SLO) and Cloudflare R2 (wnam; no uptime SLA) for distribution; GitHub Actions (99.9% SLA), Google Cloud Storage (99.9% SLA), and Google Kubernetes Engine (99.95% SLA) for build/update operations.
• Approach to resilience: Target Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is under 12 hours and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is under 1 hour, measured during annual Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) testing.; ; We conduct annual disaster tabletop exercises, update our Business Impact Analysis, and produce post‑mortems with tracked improvements after each exercise.
• Outage reporting: https://status.chainguard.dev/; ; Chainguard sends targeted customer emails for broad or material incidents (e.g. SEV1/SEV2) using approved external-communication templates, with links back to the status page and support portal for assistance

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: We use role based access controls with least privilege.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

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

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: CCPA; GDPR; SOC2 Type 2; SLSA; UK Cyber Essentials; ISO27001:2022(In progress)
• Information security policies and processes: We adhere to the processes and policies required by SOC 2 and ISO27001.
• Software Security Code of Practice: Yes

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Infrastructure and software product changes are tracked via process; ; All changes are under version control and require testing prior to deployment, impact assessment, and full documentation; modifications are strictly controlled.
• Vulnerability management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: We perform twice-weekly unauthenticated vulnerability scans against our network. We use our Cloud Security Posture Management tool to perform continuous internal scans on cloud resources and databases. Our EDR tool provides OS and device scanning on our endpoints. Findings are triaged and remediated by our security and engineering teams.
• Protective monitoring type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Our SIEM tool receives events and provides alerts and rule-based and contextual analysis for threat detection, including anomalous process execution, installation of new binaries, or use of known exploit paths. Alerts and analyses are triaged and investigated by the appropriate teams. Our networks are scanned twice weekly, and endpoints and production systems are continuously scanned with our EDR.
• Incident management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v4.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Incident management approach: Monitoring tools observe production systems, components, and endpoints. These tools create alerts based on certain behaviors or criteria that match suspicious or malicious definitions. Alerts are centralized in our SIEM tool and reviewed and triaged by our security team. When a security incident has been identified, relevant teams are brought in to investigate, contain, eradicate, and recover. Finally, a post-incident review is held to discuss root cause and prevention efforts to strengthen our security posture.
• Post-quantum cryptography secure: Yes

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 v4.0)

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Pricing

• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Latest versions of 50 of the most popular container images are available to use directly from website. Free pilots of all other images and libraries are available for an agreed pilot
• Link to free trial: https://images.chainguard.dev/directory?category=starter

Discount percentage by annual call-off contract value (excluding VAT)

• Less than £250,000: 1%
• Between £250,000 and £500,000: 1%
• Between £500,001 and £1,000,000: 1%
• Between £1,000,001 and £2,500,000: 1%
• Between £2,500,001 and £5,000,000: 1%
• Over £5,000,001: 1%

Non-mandatory Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2022 certification: No
• ISO 9001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO 9001 certification: SGS
• ISO 9001 accreditation date: Tuesday 15 March 2022
• What the ISO 9001 doesn’t cover: As our staff are a fully remote workforce the company physical office location is not covered. Clause 7.1.5 (calibration) is not in the scope. ISO 9001 does not cover financial processes.
• Quality management systems (QMS): Yes
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Please provide your Cyber Essentials Certificate Number: F416f438-c625-443c-8b8d-a1b8f3b804e3
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Please provide your Cyber Essentials Plus Certificate Number: 8d0e7cb8-30a3-4374-b713-d15f8d7f0c7d
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications: IASME Cyber Assurance Level 1 Certificate

Social value

• Section B - Commitment for Future: Delivery:

  • Mission: Kick start economic growth. To secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

    Policy Outcome 1: Fair work: That offers fair wages and good working conditions. Help people get a job, stay in work, and progress in their careers, with good employment opportunities across the country. Notes: Where there is a large proportion of labour costs in the contract, commercial teams should consider MAC in Outcome 1 as a priority

    • New or retained jobs on the contract workforce in the relevant area that meet the criteria set out in MAC 1b, 1c and 1d
    • Providing opportunities for, and measuring and monitoring of, staff workforce conditions over time, including employee engagement, involvement in decision-making and satisfaction and adapting to any changes in the results, with clear processes for acting on issues identified
    • Employment contracts that reflect actual hours worked; steps taken to ensure employees understand their contracts and have the ability to review and adjust them if actual hours regularly exceed contracted hours
    • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about, and feel empowered to, address their physical wellbeing
    • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about and feel empowered to report and address bullying and harassment
    • Payment of more than the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (as appropriate) to the contract workforce
    • Measures to support in-work progression to help people in the contract workforce, to move into higher paid work by developing new skills relevant to the contract
    • Support for educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications
    • Outline policies and practices to be applied to or put in place for the contract to mitigate and manage modern slavery risks, including: Pre-employment checks, recruitment practices. Workplace conditions, safeguarding plans and processes in place and regular monitoring with relevant groups considered, which may include sampling

  • Mission: Kick start economic growth. To secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

    Policy Outcome 2: Skills for growth: Supporting growth sectors and addressing skills gaps.

    • Support for educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications

  • Mission: Kick start economic growth. To secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

    Policy Outcome 3: Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains: Support economic growth through enabling resilient businesses, opportunities for small businesses and voluntary, community and social enterprises

    • Activities that demonstrate a collaborative way to work with a diverse range of businesses as part of the supply chain
    • Plans for positive actions with community groups.

  • Mission: Make Britain a clean energy superpower: To cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero

    Policy Outcome 4: Sustainable procurement practices: Reducing carbon footprints, minimising waste, and promoting the use of clean energy and green technologies.

    • Understanding of opportunities for additional environmental benefits delivery in the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero carbon emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies
    • Delivery of additional environmental benefits through the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero carbon emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies
    • Understanding of how to influence staff, suppliers, customers, communities and/or any other appropriate stakeholders through the delivery of the contract to support climate and nature protection and improvement

  • Mission: Break down barriers to opportunity: By reforming our childcare and education systems, to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain

    Policy Outcome 6: Employment and training: For those who face barriers to employment

    • Advertising, promotional and outreach activities designed to raise awareness of the offer to reach the target cohort
    • Offering a range of quality opportunities with routes of progression if appropriate, e.g. T Level industry placements, students supported into higher level apprenticeships.
    • Understanding of the issues affecting inequality in employment, skills and pay in the market, industry or sector relevant to the contract, and in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key sub-contractors. Measures to tackle inequality in employment, skills and pay in the contract workforce

  • Mission: Break down barriers to opportunity: By reforming our childcare and education systems, to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain

    Policy Outcome 7: Creating a pipeline of opportunities: For the contract workforce, reducing barriers to entry for under-represented groups.

    • Other measures to offer development opportunities for the target cohort(s) in the contract workforce
    • Advertising, promotional and outreach activities designed to raise awareness of the offer to reach the target cohort
    • Creation of outreach activities to create a pipeline of employees for the future contract delivery
    • Advertising, promotional and outreach activities designed to raise awareness of the offer to reach the target cohort

  • Mission: Build an NHS fit for the future: That is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.

    Policy Outcome 8: Increasing productivity through physical and mental wellbeing: In the supply chain and communities in the relevant area.

    • Understanding of issues relating to health and wellbeing, including physical and mental health, in the contract workforce

Service documents

• Pricing document

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