Cirro

Managed Multi-Media Edge Computing

Managed Edge Data Centre CPE is designed to process data closer to the source, reducing latency and enhancing operational efficiency. With managed CPE at the edge of the network, organisations can harness the power of real-time data processing, enabling rapid decision-making and unlocking new opportunities for innovation.

Features

• UK 24x7 support desk
• Full management wrap and additional managed services
• Full project management
• MEC design, delivery and management
• Optimised workflow distribution over multi-nodes
• Ability to share resources with public / private models
• Robust edge security measures & access controls
• Scalability and flexibility, adapt to evolving computing demands
• Green building certification
• Edge PUE (power usage effectiveness)

Benefits

• Enhanced Performance with fully managed MEC CPE
• Reduced Latency & optimal edge performance
• Already delivered to local sites in UK & US
• Best practice and proven methods for delivery
• Supports IoT, AI, Automomous vehicles & 5G initiatives
• Smart city / smart cities edge processing power higher resiliency

£9 to £28 a unit a month

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

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 michaelo@cirro-solutions.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

599384207698642

Contact

Michael Owen
020 3418 0412
michaelo@cirro-solutions.co.uk

Service scope

• Service constraints: None
• System requirements: 1st Line Helpdesk

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Dependant on severity/priority and customer specific SLA including hours covered.; ; Typically from 30mins to 2hours
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Commercial Support includes a named Account Manager, monthly Service Review documentation and Quarterly service improvement / strategic planning discussions. ; ; Service reviews provide a transparent way of summarising service performance, billing, change requests, risk register, agreed actions and P1-P3 incidents and details of all SLA reports and helpdesk calls. ; ; Cirro Infrastructure & Platform Support levels: ; 1. Cirro supports and patches the hypervisor and the VM where agreed, or customer patches their Platforms; ; 2. Access to Cloud Architects and system experts on Time and Material basis or under Agreement ; ; 3. Architects help scope & design where needed ; ; 4. Support per VM instance as either (Charged per VM): ; Optimisation + Application Performance Monitoring + VM Monitoring + Fully managed OS; ; Monthly or quarter service reviews cover full SLA breakdown, Service Improvement Plans, billing & scheduled maintenance; ; Customer provided named contact to Support desk; ; Can incorporate bespoke maintenance patching windows & customer specific Policies (Change Control, Security, Major Incident)
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Full training is provided (online or onsite) to run through all aspects of the service based on an agreed SoW which details the level of support, migration, testing and training required. The main focus is to train system administrators in how to best utilise the platform, how to monitor, report and implement changes and how to invoke back-up or DR. Training is provided by qualified internal Cloud9 personal who themselves are responsible for day to day activities associated to management and administration of Cirro systems. Importantly we also focus on understanding non-technical and procedural changes. We can also sub-contract cultural and business process management re engineering to a specialist 3rd party such as Stable Logic (see price book & service description document). Cirro also provide documentation for training, support purposes, auditing and compliance. Documentation covers the design of the Cirro environment, the security documentation which includes supported protocols and network ports any back-up and retention policies including the portal to manage back-up locations, destinations, retention and restorations.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats:
  • Word
  • Excel
• End-of-contract data extraction: Cirro offer a managed transition or Exit that covers: 1 - Managed transition to an alternative provider; process detailed in the Agreement and a SoW will be produced to cover all aspects of contract exit, charged on time & material basis. 2 - User or nominated 3rd party, migrates data to new platform, typically using standard software to do so with limited support from Cirro (charged on Time & Material basis) Cirro will then securely remove all user data for the platform in accordance to an Exit Plan. Customers need to ensure they have copies of any data including back-ups and event logs. In some instances it is possible for the customer to buy dedicated Cirro infrastructure or assets at an agreed market rate. Onsite assets (such as VDI zero clients) can be detailed in an assets register for customers to purchase at the end of a service Term. Cirro can (upon request) provide a certification confirming full data removal and system cleaning, which includes the method used and date of completion. Cirro asks that the customer's administrator removes and destroys all customer data within the Cirro environment prior to a full system cleanse.
• End-of-contract process: The contract and Sales Order will detail all the pricing elements for the delivery and running of the services as and when the agreement ends. The customer may wish to extend for an additional or shorter term, these commercial terms can be accommodated under G-Cloud10 guidelines / restrictions. Should the customer wish to exit at the end of the contracted term, then the Exit Plan will be invoked. This document looks at an exit plan including migrating services to another provider, to internal platforms or whatever other options have been detailed. This will also include likely costs. At this time a formal SoW will be produced to detail the level of involvement required from Cirro to transition services to another provider. This is charged on a Time & Materials basis, the rates of which are details at the start of the Agreement. A Customer may wish to request the new provider assists with the transition and therefore limiting assistance and costs from Cirro . Cirro will always look to provide professional support and assistance to reduce risk and maintain service during any major transition.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: This is dependant on the solutions implemented, for Veeam this would be a Veeam UI.; ; Users can set the service up through the UI or we do this on users behalf as a managed services. The agents are downloaded, pre-configured to the platform and the UI for confirmation.; ; File or system level restores are available through the portal as well as testing and reporting. ; ; System alerting is available through the portal and on error via email.
• Web interface accessibility standard: None or don’t know
• How the web interface is accessible: Interface available as Web UI via web broswer or CLI through access controls
• Web interface accessibility testing: We use standard Web technologies and security methods to reduce risk, such as HTTPS, SSL and support various access control methods. Vendor specific UI's have been tested and are supported by them.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: API's provide access to all types and operations, available as REST API, customers can gain better integration into the Cloud Services platform. Operational and performance motioning can provide insight and control, delivering automation and business intelligence. The REST API covers: User Operations User Elements User Types Extension Operations Extension Elements Extension Types Admin Types Admin Elements Admin Operations The requirements for integration can be discussed at an early stage to ensure the right technology is deployed to support the stated outcomes.
• API automation tools:
  • Chef
  • Terraform
  • Puppet
• 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
  • Windows
• Using the command line interface: Windows PowerShell is a command line tool that allows for scripted operations inside the Windows platform. Microsoft builds their applications with PowerShell back-ends that allow full control (which is not often the case with the GUI) of the application and its functions. PowerShell has a unique set of commandlets for each application. There are, as all of you would hope, a set of PowerShell commandlets that can be used to script the operations of Veeam Backup & Replication. At present, there are just over 100 commandlets for Veeam Backup & Replication that range from Add-VBRBackupJob to Sync-VBRBackupRepository and everything in between.; ; PowerShell can be run locally or remotely and can be run from within the PowerShell command line interface or through other supported tools like System Center Orchestrator.; ; With PowerShell you could manage replication and automate very complex processes.; ; A full reference library is available from Veeam.

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type:
  • Automatic
  • Manual
• Independence of resources: Through logical resource segregation and resource allocation to each environment, ensuring consistent performance of all users in each customer environment. This approach ensures no one customer can act as a resource thief against another and that complete independence exists. When customers approach resource limits, auto-scaling can be applied to a predefined upper agreed limit. ; Each customer has a designated resource pool which is proactively monitored and managed.
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting:
  • API
  • 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:
  • Windows event logs
  • Resource history (changes)
  • Application Performance Monitoring
  • Vulnerability Scan alerts
  • Network performance
  • IDS/IPS & Network Security
  • Error alerts - back-up failures
  • Risk register against GDPR, ISO 27001, Cyber Security
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

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

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• 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
• 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 every 6 months
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
  • Hardware containing data is completely destroyed
• 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:
  • Hypervisor, VMware, HyperV, Xen
  • Baremetal Machines
  • Virtual Machine instances
  • Datadases
  • IOS, MAC OSX, Windows, Android, Linux
  • Entire Data Centre replication
• Backup controls: Each user has a dedicated UI to manage back-up routines, set retention policies and periods and invoke restoration to an existing restoration device; which can be a Cirro server on a pre-allocated vLAN. Many organisations will already be using Veeam Cloud Connected which is fully supported and heavily used by Cirro. Infrascale is also used in some instances. Users have full control over setting schedules for data sets. All data is encrypted locally on the source device, encrypted in transit and at rest at the Cirro destination. Alerts based on failed back-ups can be sent
• Datacentre setup:
  • Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
  • Multiple datacentres
  • Single datacentre with multiple copies
  • Single datacentre
• 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:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Bonded fibre optic connections
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Service range from 99.9% to 99.999% SLA depending on design and requirement.; Cirro associate SLA performance with Material Breach so customers can exit an Agreement due to continued poor performance. Cirro allows customers to go through User Acceptance Testing & Sign-off pre-billing to reduce the risk of performance related issues and minimising commercial risk or exposure; this also ensures customer know how the platform performs. Cirro also looks at the platform performance, not just it's On/Off availability, performance is what users notice and so our focus is on consistent, high performance and service continuity. A significant amount of focus is around the performance of the environment, including platform latency and capacity to ensure user-experience. Cirro also has a Support response time and severity SLA.
• Approach to resilience: Resilience has been built at every level of the environment and is tailored to fulfil customer SLA and service requirements. We use multiple providers Data Centre and network providers with a networking layer that ensures full visibility, control and resilience. ; ; Hardware is typically HPE Gen10 blades and 3Par SSD, running HyperV or VMware with support for Citrix environments. The platform has full DC and Hypervisor resiliency with additional snapshots taken for archiving and off-line back-up. Each tenant will then have a specific level of resilience which can range from a single instance up to mirrored over multiple DC’s with Database clustering and network-based load balancers.
• Outage reporting: The Major Incident Process for a core outage ensures that all affected customers are notified at pre-allocated touch points, this is normally via email and phone. Each customer has access to the ticketing system which provides continual updated on any incidents and the Support desk pro-active keep customers informed. This process covers:; P1-P2 Core platform and network incidents; P1-P2 Customer specific platform, Service and networking incidents ; Platform API’s are available that provide performance information and alerts based on thresholds for both Cloud Core and Customer specific elements.; Should a major incident occur, a Root Cause Analysis is completed and delivered to affected users, this details; Problem, Severity & Impact, Timeline of Events, Root Cause, Category, Corrective Action Taken, Preventative Action Taken and Service Improvement Actions to mitigate future risk.

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)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: All management interfaces are only accessible by named and security vetted individuals via a two factor authenticated session on an IPSEC v2 VPN tunnel. All connections are logged and audited. Multiple failed attempts automatically lock the individual user account with automated notification sent. All passwords are timed and must be unique and can't be recycled. Cirro also support Software Defined Networking (SDN) virtualisation technologies, including Network Virtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) and Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN). These technologies are designed to supported better connectivity, access and scalability specifically for cloud computing environments.
• 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)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Devices users manage the service through:
  • Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)
  • Dedicated device over multiple services or networks
  • Any device but through a bastion host (a bastion host is a server that provides access to a private network from an external network such as the internet)
  • Directly from any device which may also be used for normal business (for example web browsing or viewing external email)

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: 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: No
• 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:
  • Data Centre environments are PCI DSS certified
  • Our Infrastructure Providers have ISO-27001 certification
  • Data Centre environments are Cyber Essentials certified
  • Data Centre environments are HIPAA certified

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: We follow ISO 27001 Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) and CSA guidelines as well as best practice for Cyber Security.; Our providers are accredited to the appropriate standards, such as ISO 27001, 9001, PCI DSS, Cyber Security Essentials.; Cirro will be completing ISO 27001 independently
• Information security policies and processes: We follow ISO 27001 Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) and CSA guidelines as well as best practice for Cyber Security.; Our providers are accredited to the appropriate standards, such as ISO 27001, 9001, PCI DSS, Cyber Security Essentials.; Cirro will be completing ISO 27001 independently

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: Changes made by the Customer to their Private Cloud environment which they support themselves is done so at the Customers risk. Where Cirro provides Support of the Customers environment, all change requests must be formally submitted and approved by Cirro, they are fully audited and assessed against risk. The request has to include: 1. Reason a. Improving security b. Improving performance or functionality c. Reduce operational overhead or cost 2. Request to be approved by Cirro’s: a. Service Manager b. System Architect c. InfoSecurity 3. Change request must include: a. Expected outcome b. Test plan c. Roll-back plan d. SoW
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: All systems are scanned for vulnerabilities every month. Cirro uses the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) for all Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) provided by the National Vulnerability Database. Scoring for non-CVE vulnerabilities is provided by UB’s vulnerability scanning tool. A priority is placed on patching or mitigating the vulnerability based on these scores and the logical location of the vulnerability within Cirro's network infrastructure. Remediation occurs within 10 business days for critical vulnerabilities.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Our service management processes are ITIL V3 aligned and have a particular focus on Security Incident Management System and Continuous Service Improvement. Some of the components of this system have been provided below: - Network and Host-based IDS/IPS - Traffic monitoring and intelligent traffic analysis - Packet capture and analysis to enable investigations into alerts - DNS monitoring to detect DNS lookups to known or suspected malware - Botnet monitoring – hunts for and alerts on any type of connection - Web and email threat monitoring - Geographic analysis of all attacks and traffic Automated systems ensure ultimate continual protection.
• Incident management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Incident management approach: Prevention: The understanding of and application of insight gained from the intelligence Detection: The interpretation of any events of interest occurring to discriminate between legitimate and abnormal events to identify anomalous activity Investigation: The analysis of anomalies to determine whether they are emerging threats that may lead to a security incident Reaction: Our analysts use tailored, predefined and configured Playbooks to efficiently inform their reaction to an identified threat Response: The planning of effective mitigation in response to the cyber-attack, the communication of these plans to all relevant stakeholders, and the collaboration with all relevant parties to carry out mitigation.

Secure development

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

Separation between users

• Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: Yes
• Who implements virtualisation: Supplier
• Virtualisation technologies used: Hyper-V
• How shared infrastructure is kept separate: An organisation is the container for a tenant and forms logical boundaries between tenants. Each organisation gets units of resources defined by the Org vDCs it has. The resources that get defined at the Org vDC are compute, storage and network. When a Org vDC is created, a Provider vDC is used to allocate resources to the Org vDC. The Provider vDC maps these resources into different containers, which isolates the units of compute.

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
• Description of energy efficient datacentres: Data centres adhere to ISO 50001 Energy Management and 14001 Environment Management (which we also hold).

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  Commitment to Reduce Carbon Footprint and Climate-Related Initiatives In alignment with our commitment to reducing our ecological impact, we are dedicated to collaborating with our customers and suppliers to contribute to environmentally sustainable initiatives that improve ecosystems and reduce ecological impact. Our primary objective is to minimise the environmental impact of our operations. Focus on Environmental Impact Reduction Our main focus is to engage in discussions with our customers to explore collaborative approaches for reducing the environmental impact, particularly by minimising non-essential travel, to reduce energy usage and wastage of time and materials, all of which have an impact on operational consumption. As we transition back to regular operations, we are focused on reducing our physical impact, including initiatives such as flexible working, minimising printing, and enhancing recycling efforts. We are committed to optimising our physical office requirements to ensure efficient resource utilisation. Future-Focused Solutions and Efficiency We are dedicated to designing future-oriented solutions that embed efficiency into our design and delivery processes. Leveraging the momentum generated by the pandemic, we aim to build on successful new working methods. At Cirro, we are continually looking to identify potential improvements in the way we work to improve our operational efficiencies which directly impact energy usage, travel or ecological impact. By championing these initiatives, we are steadfast in our commitment to not only reduce our own ecological impact but also to actively engage with our stakeholders to foster environmental sustainability and support initiatives that have a positive impact on our world.

  Equal opportunity

  Delivering Social Value Theme 4 and PPN 06/20 Model Award Criteria In the following section, we elaborate on our approach to fulfilling Social Value Theme 4 and the relevant PPN 06/20 Model Award Criteria Our strategy, aligned with WSP’s 2022-24 Inclusion & Diversity Strategy, encompasses the following initiatives: Skill Development for Underrepresented Groups We are committed to supporting the development of new skills that lead to recognised qualifications for underrepresented groups. Addressing Inequality in Employment, Skills, and Pay We will demonstrate a clear commitment to identifying and addressing inequality in employment, skills, and pay within the contract workforce. This includes implementing time-bound action plans to monitor the inclusion and progression of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees from underrepresented groups. Supporting In-Work Progression Our approach includes support for in-work progression, aiming to assist individuals from disadvantaged or minority groups in transitioning into higher-paid roles by developing new skills relevant to the contract. Real-World Equal Opportunity When recruiting, Cirro has a policy to ensure that all names, ages, race or gender details are removed from CVs, so we focus on interviewing and employing the most suitable person for the role.

  Wellbeing

  Wellbeing Initiatives In our commitment to prioritising the well-being of our teams, we are dedicated to supporting the health and well-being of our employees, contractors, suppliers and customers. Flexible Working Support We offer flexible working conditions to our staff. They have a clearly defined job description, they know what needs to be done and they have the flexibility they need to be able to do that whilst balancing home life, physical and mental health. Internal Support Cirro’s works typically in virtual teams, it’s important that we have ‘virtual’ tea breaks and have regular discussions. Cirro also keeps an eye on the level of output expectations and workloads of employees to ensure the right resourcing levels and workloads. During periods of high-intensity working, such as working on tenders, delivering projects or whatever it might be, Cirro ensures employees take time out once this is more practically possible to ensure employees can refresh and relax.

Pricing

• Price: £9 to £28 a unit a month
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: A tailored trial can be arranged in a limited form for a 30-day period. Customer go through User Acceptance Testing to ensure the Cirro solution is fit for purpose. Trials may be limited in functionality and integration. All Terms & Conditions apply to trial users
• Link to free trial: https://cirro-solutions.co.uk/contact-us

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 michaelo@cirro-solutions.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.