Epimorphics Ltd

Epimorphics Data Platform

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

Features

• flexible, high performance data storage replicated for fault-tolerance and scalability
• fully standards-compliant linked data and FAIR data publication
• codelist, vocabularies and other reference data publication and management
• Data Catalog, Concept Store, Measurement Store and other optional components
• 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
• Improved data governance for architecture and data custodians

£3,500 to £7,000 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 14

Service ID

589992645535401

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 but adaptable. Generally within 4 hours during support hours (08:30-17:00, Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays). See Service Definition documents for further 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. See our Service Definition document for full details.; ; We include: availability and support response SLA, bug fixing, security updates, backups, new software versions as part of our base service.; Additional support time, for miscellaneous help and advice, answering end user questions etc is also available.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: We offer support in getting started as an extra or via our dedicated Data Publishing service under Cloud Support. We also provide training via our Linked Data Training Service.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: No user data is collected by the system – the only data stored on the data platform is data supplied by the client or server logs. 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 optional extras. 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 Platform Service as an extra. Test environments can be provided and configured.
• 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: Some customisation work is available as a optional extra, or by 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:
  • 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 Security Clearance (SC)

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
  • TTL
  • XML
  • SPARQL
  • GraphQL
  • Batch-API
  • CSVW
  • Others
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • RDF
  • TTL
  • JSON-LD
  • GeoJSON
  • XML
  • CSVW
  • Restful API
  • SPARQL
  • Others via data connectors
  • Whatever file format a data providers wants to use

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

• Social Value:

  Social Value

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

  Fighting climate change

  We're committed to adopting good sustainability practices. We recognise that through our business activities and operations we inevitably impact on the environment. We aim throughout our business activities to enhance our positive and reduce our negative environmental impacts.; ; Our values promote support for the environment in all aspects of our work. We evaluate contracts before bidding to assess if a successful outcome will have a beneficial effect on the environment. Many of our past projects have been about publishing environmental data, with direct and indirect benefits to sustainability outcomes.; ; We assess our ESG risk and compliance, and manage our corporate sustainability goals, using the Ecovadis platform. We report our emissions on our website and a published Carbon Reduction Plan (in line with PPN 06/21).; ; We've assessed and are audited for our Scope 1 to 3 emissions since 2021, reducing where possible and considering offsetting where not. We are on a path to have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions to near zero by the Autumn of 2024. However, we recognise that our main impact is through our Scope 3 emissions. We've actively made choices to reduce these emissions but are also working towards more formalised SBTi through the SME route, as the new cloud-hosting assessments are published.; ; We have transitioned to formal remote working, actively reducing employee commuting and the emissions associated with a large office space. We've a project to assess and measure our scope 3 home-working emissions.; ; We deliver support and host software on cloud services, chosen in-part for their carbon-reduction plans. We select data centre locations that optimise those reductions. We recognise the residual impact of the design choices we make and aim to design efficiently. We deliberately scale services to meet the need, not adding additional resources that increase costs and energy use.

  Covid-19 recovery

  Workplace conditions for our teams and those of our customers are vital to their physical and mental wellbeing. Since the wide-ranging impacts of the Covid19 pandemic we have changed the way we work to support recovery by strengthening our flexible working practices and providing support to staff. In addition, our innovative work on building a web of open data supports new employment opportunities and new ways of working in the technology industry.; ; Our actions since the easing of pandemic restrictions have involved moving to formal home working for all staff, with technology that supports mobile and home working and online collaboration with customers.; ; We recognise that there is still a place for face to face meetings and co-working and when we do so we follow government guidelines to ensure the safety of our team and customers. We do this with an aim to keep travel to a minimum, so that is sustainable but also flexible to employee and evolving team needs.; ; In recognition of the mental wellbeing impact of the pandemic and ensuing changes we have an active project refreshing our wellbeing policy. This has led to the implementation of an Employee Assistance Programme and will strengthen further as we implement other recommendations from the six standards in the Mental Health at Work Commitment.

  Tackling economic inequality

  As a growing, 100% employee owned SME we look to provide flexible opportunities directly to our staff and indirectly through the data services we provide via GCloud.; ; We work in an innovative, disruptive, evolving sector. We have strong research and development investment and are growing our technology product base as we scale-up and evolve.; ; Through our GCloud contracts we have helped publish many open datasets, including in ways that help to promote new and innovative businesses using that data to drive their own growth. For instance by helping to publish the Land Registry's UK House Price Index and associated price paid data we support the real estate industry and others.; ; We help local communities and promote a resilient supply chain when we select subcontractors by favouring those that share our ethos and use local and not-for-profit organisations. Examples include: a local design company for branding and design support (who we provided with a guaranteed level of income through the first year of the Covid pandemic), and a not-for-profit data consultancy.; ; We further promote a resilient supply chain as a Prompt Payment Code signatory, working in collaboration with other businesses, and by promoting SMEs wherever possible.; ; We support local university students by running summer internship programmes. These have helped 15 students develop their careers. Some have taken up employment at Epimorphics after finishing their studies, others have found high value jobs elsewhere in the tech sector.; ; We invest in community building. For example we have sponsored a number of initiatives such as local data technology meetups, technology summer school / boot camps and Open Data Camps, in part to support access to networking, and knowledge sharing with a diverse, wider community. We annually pick a number of initiatives as a focus or priority.

  Equal opportunity

  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 an SME we recognise that we have an existing disparity of our diversity across the company. We have strived to identify gaps and improve representation through our recruitment practices. We measure representation across all levels and pay quartiles for: gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, sexuality, age, disability and caring responsibilities. We have looked to enhance our policies across priority areas.; ; 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. We continue to ensure that there are no barriers to hiring disabled people. ; ; We work with recruitment partners to actively remove biases from our recruitment adverts, in particular to increase the reach of adverts and to help attract more diverse talent from non-traditional routes.; ; As a company, we've had high levels of staff retention, above average for Tech Sector SMEs. We have and maintain an understanding of how pay relates to our key representation, and assure that there is no pay disparity.

  Wellbeing

  We're an employee-owned, people centred business and believe that the health and wellbeing of our team, and customers is important. We also evaluate contracts before bidding to see if a successful outcome will have a beneficial effect on communities. Many of our past projects have been about publishing environmental data, with direct and indirect benefits to health and community cohesion outcomes.; ; We improve community integration by collaborating with digital service users in user experience design and testing. This ensures that the services we design are user-centred and meet the needs of the communities they are aimed at.; ; We've always provided a flexible working environment, allowing our employees to work from home or in co-working environments. We supply the right technology to allow our team to work with our customers remotely to keep commuting to a minimum and increasing opportunities for recreation time for all. Since Covid we've moved to a home-working set up and monitor the wellbeing of our staff to ensure they have the right blend of flexibility and face-to-face time so that working contributes to their wellbeing, rather than detracting from it.; We've an active project refreshing our wellbeing policy. This has led to the implementation of an Employee Assistance Programme and will strengthen further as we implement other recommendations from the six standards in the Mental Health at Work Commitment.; ; Managers regularly check-in with their staff on a one-to-one basis, and flag challenges for discussion. We operate an open supportive model for the whole team, but recognise that we may miss issues. We're exploring the use of surveys to measure, quantify and track employee wellbeing with an aim to explore any improvements that can be made on an ongoing basis.; ; A portion of our profits from this and other contracts are used to support our local community.

Pricing

• Price: £3,500 to £7,000 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.