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Computacenter (UK) Ltd

Computacenter - Palo Alto Cortex XDR

Cortex XDR is the world’s first detection and response app that natively integrates network, endpoint and cloud data to stop sophisticated attacks. Leveraging advanced AI / ML driven techniques, Cortex XDR unifies prevention, detection, investigation, and response in one platform for unrivalled security and operational efficiency.

Features

  • Identifies and prevents exploits and malware at the endpoint/device
  • Replaces traditional antivirus with advanced AI driven multi-method prevention
  • Replaces complex EDR solutions with a fully-integrated approach
  • Pre-emptive inspection of unknown executables and files
  • Assists organisations in meeting various compliance standards
  • Patch and protect End of Support operating systems
  • Local analysis via machine learning, continual protection in offline environments
  • Behaviour-Based Ransomware Protection
  • Support for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS and VDI workloads

Benefits

  • Prevent cyber breaches by identifying/blocking zero-day threats
  • Protects and enables users to conduct daily activities without concern
  • Automates prevention without manual intervention
  • Reduces cost and complexity by replacing legacy antivirus platforms
  • Technique-based exploit prevention works to prevent known and zero-day exploits
  • Cost effective service supporting all environments (small or large)
  • Flexible policy-based file access for different user group requirements
  • Behavioural Threat Protection detects and stops attack activity
  • Detailed malware analysis and reporting
  • Available integrations with the Next-Generation Firewall and other services

Pricing

£9.20 a unit

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at government@computacenter.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

6 1 9 3 2 5 6 7 4 3 2 6 3 6 9

Contact

Computacenter (UK) Ltd Karen Baldock
Telephone: +44 (0) 1707 631000
Email: government@computacenter.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
Public cloud
Service constraints
A minimum of 200 endpoints is required.
A supported operating system is required.
System requirements
Please contact us for full details

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
24x7x365 Support
Priority 1 (Critical) - < 1 Hour
Priority 2 (High) - 2 Hours
Priority 3 (Medium) - 4 Hours
Priority 4 (Low) - 8 Business Hours
Support Service Level Agreements (SLA) are identical for Monday to Friday and Weekends/Public Holidays.
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
All Cortex products from Palo Alto Networks come with a standard support offering included which entitles the customer to 24x7x365 email and telephone support.
Other 'enhanced support' options exist inclusive of premium customer success support and provision of dedicated engineers for short or long term engagements - all such options can be negotiated and applied as required
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
As a customer or partner of Palo Alto Networks, provision to our online training platform (Beacon - https://beacon.paloaltonetworks.com/student/catalog) is made available. Which enables customers and partners to learn at their own pace and only invest in classroom training either when they are ready or if they need to at all.
Palo Alto Networks offers on-site training (EDU-210, EDU-214, EDU-220, EDU-330, and more) and online training (EDU-110, EDU-114, EDU-120, etc.).
In addition, publicly accessible user-documentation which details everything from initial setup through to ongoing maintenance & usage and how to use the API.
Professional Services are also available in the form of "Quickstart" packages to rapidly onboard organisations.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Cloud data that Palo Alto Networks hold on an organisation/tenant can be exported and deleted by contacting Palo Alto Networks support. If no contact is made data will automatically be purged after 90 days post cessation of the contract(s).
End-of-contract process
At the end of the contract, if the organisation chooses not to renew and continue with the service all data pertaining to the organisation is deleted. If the organisation chooses to renew then the service continues as normal. 90-days prior to the contract expiration date an initial reminder email is sent, followed up by gradually increasing reminders until the date of expiration.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
Application to install
Yes
Compatible operating systems
  • Android
  • IOS
  • Linux or Unix
  • MacOS
  • Windows
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Architectural differences between platforms create natural functional differences for applications generally, with Cortex XDR being no different. Handheld platforms such as iOS and Android ar more limited in overall functionality than a Desktop OS so therefore a more limited service is provided and required.
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
None or don’t know
Description of service interface
Cortex XDR provides an easy-to-use interface that you can access from the hub. By default, Cortex XDR displays the Predefined Dashboards when you log in. If desired, you can change the default dashboard or Build a Custom Dashboard that displays when you log in.
Accessibility standards
None or don’t know
Description of accessibility
- Manage Incidents
- Triage Incidents
- Perform Incident Investigations
- Perform Threat Hunting
- Build Reports / Dashboards
- Build data queries
- Monitor Dashboards
- Perform remediations actions
- Manage Endpoint Policies & Profiles
Accessibility testing
N/A
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Get Audit Agent Report
Blacklist Files
Whitelist Files
Quarantine Files
Get Quarantine Status
Restore File
Retrieve File
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
API sandbox or test environment
No
Customisation available
No

Scaling

Independence of resources
Palo Alto Networks through an automated process is constantly evaluating and monitoring the load placed upon the application. Each customers instance is unique so there is no risk of shared resources being fully utilised by another organisation. As load increases the service will automatically bring online additional compute resources to accommodate the additional load.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
- Disk
- Memory
- Network
- Number of active instances
- Other – Asset details, compliance, policy violations
- Agent Installations
- VPN Usage
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Reseller providing extra support
Organisation whose services are being resold
Palo Alto

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Other security clearance
Government security clearance
Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
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
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
  • Other
Other data at rest protection approach
Service are supplied from Google and Amazon Data centers (further information to follow)
Google Security statement
https://cloud.google.com/security/overview/
https://cloud.google.com/security/

AWS Security Statement
https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-center/controls/
https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws-security-whitepaper
https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-center/data-centers/

All logs are stored in the Cortex data lake, user activity is monitored and stored in the Cortex data lake for the agreed retention period.
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
Data can be extracted in a number of ways including via the extract of data in reports being extracted as CSV files.
In addition, there is a more formalised and enterprise capability available which involves the forwarding of alerts our of Cortex XDR. You can save your ingested, parsed data in an external location by exporting your event logs to a temporary storage bucket on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), from where you can download them for up to 7 days
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
Data is compressed and saved as a line-delimited JSON gzip
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
Data is compressed and saved as a line-delimited JSON gzip.

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Data protection within supplier network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
Other protection within supplier network
Palo Alto Networks uses a proprietary encryption layer for API calls, telemetry and update services.

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Palo Alto Networks commits to using commercially reasonable efforts to make the Cortex XDR service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (excluding downtime resulting from any planned outage wherein Palo Alto Networks had provided prior notice
or any emergency outage making it impracticable for Palo Alto Networks to issue advance notice). Palo Alto Networks commits to achieving uptime availability of 99.9 percent, measured over the calendar month.
Approach to resilience
Palo Alto Networks delivers the Cortex XDR service utilising public cloud providers Amazon Web Services and Google Compute Platform. Within each of these providers the use of “availability zones” (AZ) to ensure geo and service redundancy and resiliency within a region (e.g. United Kingdom) and at a regional level with traffic being able to be steered to another region/availability zone/location should an incident occur.
Outage reporting
A public dashboard available at status.paloaltonetworks.com and via email alerting

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Restrictions can be implemented by restricting IP addresses able to access the management interface(s). In addition a role-based access control (RBAC) system is in place to further restrict users to user definable configuration views and modes.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
BSI
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
28/04/2022
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
Our ISO/IEC 27001 certification relates to the information security management system and not the products or services of the certified organisation.
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification
Gemserv Ltd
PCI DSS accreditation date
22/09/2021
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover
As per section 2a of the PCI-DSS certificate, there are no areas that were marked as ‘Not Included’. We therefore confirm we are compliant across all relevant requirements for our services as a Hosting Provider, Managed Services and Payment Processing.
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
Yes
Other security certifications
No

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
  • CSA CCM version 3.0
  • ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
Palo Alto Networks has a formal Enterprise Risk Management program, which includes the performance of an annual risk assessment, with periodic updates, as applicable, to identify and assess key risks and their mitigation approaches. The scope of the program encompasses information security risks and product risks. Our security program consists of a risk-based approach that includes administrative, technical and physical safeguards reasonably designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of customer data. Palo Alto Network's information security program is aligned to ISO 27001/2, and includes key controls from HIPAA, PCI and SOC2.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
Both Palo Alto Networks and the end-user organisation are in full control of their relevant and respective change control processes.
Additional details are available upon request.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Applications and software that collect, transmit or display, or process End User Data, Palo Alto Networks conducts an application security assessment review to identify common security vulnerabilities as identified by industry recognized organizations annually or for all major releases, whichever occurs first. The scope of the security assessment will primarily focus on application security, including, but not limited to, a penetration test of the application, as well as a code review.

Palo Alto Networks utilizes a qualified third party to conduct the application security assessments. Palo Alto Networks may conduct the security assessment review directly, following industry standard best practices.
Protective monitoring type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach
Applications and software that collect, transmit or display, or process End User Data, Palo Alto Networks conducts an application security assessment review to identify common security vulnerabilities as identified by industry recognized organizations annually or for all major releases, whichever occurs first. The scope of the security assessment will primarily focus on application security, including, but not limited to, a penetration test of the application, as well as a code review.

Palo Alto Networks utilizes a qualified third party to conduct the application security assessments. Palo Alto Networks may conduct the security assessment review directly, following industry standard best practices.
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
This information is available upon request

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

Computacenter ensures that our business practices deliver effective stewardship of the environment in line with the Social Value Model. Computacenter's science-based emissions reductions targets are approved with the SBTi. Our Net Zero Journey Group Emissions is now just 16% of 2015 levels as outlined in our carbon reduction plan to achieve ‘Net Zero’ carbon emissions by 2040.

Business travel is necessary, both for our customer requirements and for our staff. We have materially reduced business travel, ensuring all business trips are necessary, helping reduce carbon emissions. We are investing in technology to allow greater use of existing communication platforms as part of our ‘hybrid working’ strategy. One of the key benefits we believe this will help us realise is reducing emissions from business travel by 35 per cent by 2025 (compared to 2019). For G-Cloud services this means that we will drive the use of virtual, technology-enabled meetings as much as possible for all internal and external sessions, including those with our wider supply chain.

Further to this we can provide customer advisory services which include guidance and recommendations on how to improve their sustainability performance to help inform customer decision making whilst achieving the desired commercial and technical outcomes through the services being provided.

Computacenter has introduced incentives to encourage the replacement of the existing Fleet with Ultra Low Emission Vehicles. We have 44 electric charging points across 2 of our locations to encourage the adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles, either through our company car scheme or privately. For this framework specifically, this means that our consultants, project managers and engineering resource will have access to a ULEV vehicle via our company car scheme and the ability to charge a vehicle at Computacenter office locations.

Covid-19 recovery

Throughout the pandemic we have closely followed and implemented government guidance relating to the workplace and COVID-19. We created a COVID-19 risk assessment to enable us to understand the improvements that need to be made to our workplace conditions in line with the Government COVID-19 secure workplace guidelines and the business advice that is now current. It looks at the risks of COVID-19 in the workplace, such as hygiene, & cleaning and then states what we must put in place to mitigate these risks.

As we enter the recovery phase of the pandemic, we have introduced hybrid working for our employees. This will allow most employees including those delivering G-Cloud services increased flexibility in how and where they work ensuring that we still deliver the best service to our customers whilst looking after our people.

Our COVID-19 steering committee is there to identify activities that will improve workplace conditions then plan, build and regularly monitor various programmes focused on supporting the COVID-19 recovery effort. At these meetings, chaired by our Chief People Officer (‘CPO’) Sarah Long, our CIO John Gibbs and Services operations, the steering committee discuss changes that need to be implemented, identify areas of improvement, and review our roadmap of new activities.
Throughout the life of the contract, we will use our existing activities (as well as those that are in development in due course) to continue to improve workplace conditions in support of the COVID-19 recovery effort.

Questions relating to travel were included in the COVID-19 surveys that were issued through the pandemic. The assessment highlighted concerns people had about public transport. To help all employees; managers were coached and given guidance about being flexible with start/finish times. We continue to adapt our approach based on feedback received through the steering committee and employee surveys.

Tackling economic inequality

As a diverse and inclusive organisation with a strong focus on equality and driving in-work progression, our approach to recruitment and employment is aligned to recognised industry best practices such as the 5 principles of quality work as set out in the Good Work Plan.

Our Employee Impact Groups for disadvantaged or minority groups provide representation, support, and community engagement, feeding into our People Panel ensuring all voices are heard, underpinning our wider ambition of building a sustainable business for the long term.

We put specific measures in place to provide opportunities to under-represented groups or those who face barriers to employment, including comprehensive outreach programmes for schools and universities, as well as partnerships with non-profit organisations within our communities. We continue focus on reaching harder to reach groups and people who are underrepresented in our sector by working with charities and schools in the local community to offer career talks and work experience opportunities. Our school outreach programme has over 130 volunteers dedicating over 2,600 hours running activities for employability and life skills in schools, colleges, and universities.

Computacenter is one of the 9 founding members of ‘Technology Community for Racial Equality’ (‘TC4RE’), a group set up to drive racial equality throughout the technology industry, with which we are delivering a half-day virtual event on ‘Enabling Ethnic Diversity’ featuring a series of expert keynotes, live panel discussions and interactive workshops with representation from across the UK technology community.

Furthermore, Computacenter are a silver level partner in the Armed Forces Covenant and has introduced a programme that provides the opportunity to attain a degree and ServiceNow certification whilst receiving full salary for armed forces leavers. This programme is the first of many programmes we intend on running to help ex-forces personal transition back into the workplace and the IT industry.

Equal opportunity

Computacenter is committed to providing equal opportunities to all through fair recruitment practices and employment conditions across our organisation.
We are a Disability Confident ‘Committed’ employer, committed to making lasting changes to our business creating a diverse talent pool. We work with partners through our community outreach, who are specialists in disability. An example is our work with Knightsfield School in Welwyn Garden City, a specialist school for deaf children.  We run at least 3 ‘get work ready’ events with them, as well as offer up to 4 work experience opportunities and onsite visits every year.

For this contract, we will use existing initiatives (as well as others that are in development) to provide career opportunities for individuals from under-represented groups to address requirements for specific skills or roles with a focus on increasing skillsets through the life of the contract. This will include apprenticeships aligned to security and cloud/infrastructure departments, as well as industrial placements and graduate schemes for our ServiceNow Centre of Excellence, with specific focus on delivering cloud-based services to our customers.

Our workforce for services delivered under this framework will have access to existing initiatives aimed at supporting in-work progression and development for those from disadvantaged/minority groups. For example, our gender diversity initiatives include our Growing Together programme, which over 150 women have been through so far, of which over one-third have been promoted or taken a new role within a year following the mentoring and coaching provided.

We are also committed to driving racial equality across our business and the wider technology industry. We are a founding member of ‘Technology Community for Racial Equality’ which recently delivered a half-day virtual event on ‘Enabling Ethnic Diversity’ featuring a series of expert keynotes, live panel discussions and interactive workshops with representation from across the UK technology community.

Wellbeing

We understand how important employee Wellbeing is for a sustainable business model, therefore we are committed to creating a sustainable supply chain. Ensuring the wellbeing of our employees are looked after will positively affect productivity, recruitment, and retention rates.

In November 2021, a designated UK wellbeing manager was appointed and has since launched our wellbeing strategy, which aligns with the Social Value Model and the 6 standards of the Mental Health at Work Commitment, signed in July 2021. We are actively implementing the enhanced mental health standards as recommended through the ‘Thriving at Work’ review, and NICE mental health at work guidelines, as part of our Wellbeing strategy. The strategy encompasses four pillars of wellbeing, mental, physical, financial, and social.  We are a Menopause friendly organisation and have created a support network for those in need.

We have 109 Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) accredited staff in the UK, trained by Mind, who act as Wellbeing Champions providing mental health first aid support and promoting our wellbeing services which those delivering G-Cloud service provisions will have access to. These champions are from every business area and from different seniority. We hold events throughout the year organised by our UK wellbeing manager and Champions, which have included celebrating World Mental Health days, Menopause awareness, financial wellbeing webinars and sponsored events to raise money for our mental health charity partners.

2021 also saw the launch of our new groupwide app-based programme ‘Be Well’ which gives our people access to over 3,000 fitness, nutrition, health and wellbeing courses through Humanoo. Through this app we have launched an extremely popular groupwide step challenge and has encouraged our people to be more active, with over 35% of our workforce now using the app and covering over 1.8bn steps so far.

Pricing

Price
£9.20 a unit
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
No

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at government@computacenter.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.