Amazon WorkSpaces

Service scope

Software add-on or extension: No
Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
Service constraints: Service quotas - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/latest/adminguide/workspaces-limits.html
System requirements: N/A

User support

Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
Support response times: Developer Support: General guidance < 24 hours; system impaired < 12 hours.

Business Support: General guidance < 24 hours; system impaired < 12 hours; production system impaired < 4 hours; production system down < 1 hour.

Enterprise Support: General guidance < 24 hours; system impaired < 12 hours; production system impaired < 4 hours; production system down < 1 hour; business-critical system down < 15 minutes

Enterprise On-Ramp Support: Same as Enterprise support, except the response time when business-critical system goes down is < 30 minutes.
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: Yes, at an extra cost
Web chat support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support accessibility standard: None or don’t know
How the web chat support is accessible: You can sign in to the AWS Support Center Console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/support/home#/ by using the email address and password associated with your AWS account. To log in with other credentials, see Manage access to AWS Support Center at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awssupport/latest/user/accessing-support.html.
Web chat accessibility testing: None
Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
Support levels: Basic Support:
Included for all AWS customers, 24/7 access to customer service, documentation, whitepapers, and AWS re:Post, core “Trusted Advisor” checks, AWS Health dashboard. No designated Technical Account Manager (TAM).

Developer Support:
As above, plus business hours access to Cloud Support Associates, via email (one primary contact). No TAM. Minimum spend of $29 or 3% of monthly AWS usage charges.

Business Support:
As above, plus 24/7 access to Cloud Support Engineers via web, chat and phone (unlimited contacts); Use-case guidance, access to Trusted Advisor checks, AWS Support API; Third-party software support. Access to AWS Countdown Premium for an additional fee. Greater of $100 or spend-dependent percentage (pm).

Enterprise Support:
As above, plus proactive architectural reviews, cost analysis, consultative guidance. Access to TAM, training, AWS Countdown playbooks by AWS experts. For an additional fee, access to AWS Managed Services (AMS), AWS re:Post Private, and AWS Incident Detection and Response. Greater of $15,000 or spend-dependent percentage (pm).

Enterprise On-Ramp Support:
As above, plus concierge access to billing , pool of TAMs, security review, one AWS Countdown each year. AWS Countdown Premium available for an additional fee. Greater of $5,500 or spend-dependent percentage (pm).
Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started: AWS provides a range of resources to help customers get started on our services. These include: comprehensive documentation (in multiple formats), introductory videos, hands-on labs, online and in-person training, access to a large ecosystem of partners and support from the public sector account team.
Service documentation: Yes
Documentation formats: HTML

PDF

Other
Other documentation formats: Kindle
End-of-contract data extraction: Data may be copied out using OS-level tools (such as xopy or rsync).
End-of-contract process: Buyer may terminate the relationship with Supplier for any reason by (i) providing Supplier with notice and (ii) closing Buyers account for all services for which Supplier provide an account closing mechanism.

Buyers pay for the services they use to the point of account termination. Please see the AWS UK G-Cloud 13 Pricing Document affiliated with this Service in the Digital Marketplace.

Supplier customers retain control and ownership of their data. Supplier will not erase customer data for 30 days following an account termination. This allows customers to retrieve content from Supplier services so long as the customer has paid any charges for any post-termination use of the service offerings and all other amounts due.

Using the service

Web browser interface: Yes
Supported browsers: Microsoft Edge

Firefox

Chrome

Safari
Application to install: Yes
Compatible operating systems: Android

IOS

MacOS

Windows

Other
Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service: None other than UI
Service interface: Yes
User support accessibility: None or don’t know
Description of service interface: Users can interface with this service through the AWS Console or via a dedicated GUI
Accessibility standards: None or don’t know
Description of accessibility: Documentation supporting this service is compliant to WCAG 2.0 level A and AA requirements. Certifications for accessibility, security, and other standards are accessed through the AWS Console, using the AWS Artifact service.

AWS provides two graphical user interfaces, the AWS Management Console and the AWS ElasticWolf Client Console. The AWS ElasticWolf Client Console has incorporated Section 508 requirements and AWS has prepared a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) for the Console, which outlines the Console’s accessibility features.
The VPAT is available to customers using AWS Artifact, a self-service portal for on-demand access to AWS’ compliance reports.
Accessibility testing: N/A
API: Yes
What users can and can't do using the API: Create and manage workspaces. Amazon Workspaces themselves are a GUI and are accessed accordingly.
API documentation: Yes
API documentation formats: HTML

PDF
API sandbox or test environment: Yes
Customisation available: Yes
Description of customisation: The user can install their own applications into the workspace

Scaling

Independence of resources: Customer environments are logically segregated to prevent users and customers from accessing resources not assigned to them.

Services which provide virtualized operational environments to customers (i.e. EC2) ensure that customers are segregated via security management processes/controls at the network and hypervisor level.

AWS continuously monitors service usage to project infrastructure needs to support availability commitments/requirements. AWS maintains a capacity planning model to assess infrastructure usage and demands at least monthly, and usually more frequently. In addition, the AWS capacity planning model supports the planning of future demands to acquire and implement additional resources based upon current resources and forecasted requirements.

Analytics

Service usage metrics: Yes
Metrics types: Available, Unhealthy, ConnectionAttempt, ConnectionSuccess, ConnectionFailure, SessionLaunchTime, InSessionLatency, SessionDisconnect, UserConnected, Stopped, Maintenance
Reporting types: API access

Real-time dashboards

Resellers

Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
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: Supplier-defined controls
Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
Protecting data at rest: Other
Other data at rest protection approach: AWS adheres to independently validated privacy, data protection, security protections and control processes. (Listed under “certifications”).

AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud; customers are responsible for security in the cloud. AWS enables customers to control their content (where it will be stored, how it will be secured in transit or at rest, how access to their AWS environment will be managed).

Wherever appropriate, AWS offers customers options to add additional security layers to data at rest, via scalable and efficient encryption features. AWS offers flexible key management options and dedicated hardware-based cryptographic key storage.
Data sanitisation process: Yes
Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation

Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach: Using image import/export, packaging applications
Data export formats: Other
Other data export formats: Using image import/export, packaging applications
Data import formats: Other
Other data import formats: Using image import/export, packaging applications

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

Other
Other protection between networks: Network devices, including firewall and other boundary devices, are in place to monitor and control communications at the external boundary of the network and at key internal boundaries within the network. These boundary devices employ rule sets, access control lists (ACL), and configurations to enforce the flow of information to specific information system services.

ACLs, or traffic flow policies, are established on each managed interface, which manage and enforce the flow of traffic. ACL policies are approved by Amazon Information Security.
Data protection within supplier network: Other
Other protection within supplier network: Customer environments are logically segregated to prevent users and customers from accessing resources not assigned to them. AWS gives customers ownership and control over their content by design through simple, but powerful tools that allow customers to determine how their content will be secured in transit.
AWS enables customers to open a secure, encrypted channel to AWS services using TLS/SSL, and/or IPsec or TLS VPN (if applicable), or other means of protection the customer wish to use.
API calls can be encrypted with TLS/SSL to maintain confidentiality; the AWS Console connection is encrypted with TLS.

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability: AWS currently provides SLAs for several services. Due to the rapidly evolving nature of AWS’s product offerings, SLAs are best reviewed directly on our website via the links below:
https://aws.amazon.com/legal/service-level-agreements/

Well-architected solutions on AWS that leverage AWS Service SLA’s and unique AWS capabilities such as multiple Availability Zones, can ease the burden of achieving specific SLA requirements.
Approach to resilience: The AWS Business Continuity plan details the process that AWS follows in the case of an outage, from detection to deactivation. AWS has developed a three-phased approach: Activation and Notification Phase, Recovery Phase, and Reconstitution Phase. This approach ensures that AWS performs system recovery and reconstitution efforts in a methodical sequence, maximizing the effectiveness of the recovery and reconstitution efforts and minimizing system outage time due to errors and omissions.

AWS maintains a ubiquitous security control environment across all regions. Each data centre is built to physical, environmental, and security standards in an active-active configuration, employing an n+1 redundancy model, ensuring system availability in the event of component failure. Components (N) have at least one independent backup component. All data centres are online and serving traffic. In case of failure, there is sufficient capacity to enable traffic to be load-balanced to the remaining sites.

Customers are responsible for implementing contingency planning, training and testing for their systems hosted on AWS. AWS provides customers with the capability to implement a robust continuity plan, including the utilization of frequent server instance back-ups, data redundancy replication, and the flexibility to place instances and store data within multiple geographic regions across multiple Availability Zones.
Outage reporting: Public dashboard; personalised dashboard with API and events; configurable alerting (email / SMS / messaging)

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed: Yes
User authentication: 2-factor authentication

Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)

Username or password

Other
Other user authentication: AWS’s Identity and Access Management (IAM) system allows you to control access to AWS services/resources. No actions are permissible without authentication. IAM facilitates the issuance of access permissions per user/group. MFA is available at no extra cost. AWS CloudTrail allows you to log, continuously monitor and retain events related to API calls across your AWS infrastructure.
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: AWS IAM provides user access control to AWS services, APIs and specific resources. Other controls include time, originating IP address, SSL use, and whether users authenticated via Multi Factor Authentication devices. API calls to launch/terminate instances, change firewalls, and perform other functions are signed by customers’ Amazon Secret Access Key (either the root AWS Account’s Secret Access Key or the Secret Access key of a user created with IAM). API calls can be encrypted with TLS/SSL for confidentiality and customers can use TLS/SSL-protected API endpoints.
Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
Management access authentication: 2-factor authentication

Other
Description of management access authentication: AWS controls access to systems through authentication that requires a unique user ID and password. AWS systems don't allow actions to be performed without identification or authentication. Remote access requires multi-factor authentication. All remote administrative access attempts are logged and reviewed by the Security team for unauthorized attempts or suspicious activity. Incident response procedure is triggered in case of suspicious activity. AWS employs the concept of least privilege, allowing only the necessary access for users to accomplish their job. User access to AWS systems requires documented approval from authorized personnel.

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: You control when users can access 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: Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: EY CertifyPoint
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 22/11/2023
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A
ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
CSA STAR certification: Yes
CSA STAR accreditation date: 22/11/2023
CSA STAR certification level: Level 2: CSA STAR Attestation
What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover: N/A
PCI certification: Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: Coalfire Systems Inc.
PCI DSS accreditation date: 13/12/2023
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: N/A
Cyber essentials: Yes
Cyber essentials plus: Yes
Other security certifications: Yes
Any other security certifications: ISO 27017

ISO27018

SOC1/2/3

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

Other
Other security governance standards: ISO 27017, ISO27018, Cyber Essentials Plus, CSA CCM version 4.0, SOC1/2/3
Information security policies and processes: AWS implements formal, documented policies and procedures that provide guidance for operations and information security within the organisation. Policies address purpose, scope, roles, responsibilities and management commitment.

Employees maintain policies in a centralised and accessible location. AWS Security Assurance is responsible for familiarizing employees with the AWS security policies.

AWS has established information security functions that are aligned with defined structure, reporting lines, and responsibilities. Leadership involvement provides clear direction and visible support for security initiatives.

Policies are approved by AWS leadership at least annually or following a significant change to the AWS environment.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach: Changes to AWS services and features follow secure software development practices, including security risk reviews prior to launch. Developer access to production environments is via explicit access system requests, subject to owner review and authorisation.

Teams set bespoke change management standards per service, underpinned by standard AWS guidelines.

All production environment changes are reviewed, tested and approved. Stages include design, documentation, implementation (including rollback procedures), testing (non-production environment), peer to peer review (business impact/technical rigour/code), final approval by authorised party.

Emergency changes follow AWS incident response procedures. Exceptions to change management processes are documented and escalated to AWS management.
Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach: AWS Security performs vulnerability scans on the host operating system, web applications, and databases in the AWS environment. Approved 3rd party vendors conduct external assessments (minimum frequency: quarterly). Identified vulnerabilities are monitored and evaluated. Countermeasures are designed and implemented to neutralise known/newly identified vulnerabilities.

AWS Security monitors newsfeeds/vendor sites for patches and receives customer intelligence via http://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting/.

AWS customers are responsible for all scanning, penetration testing, file integrity monitoring and intrusion detection for their Amazon EC2 and Amazon ECS instances/ applications. Scans should include customer IP addresses (not AWS endpoints). AWS endpoint testing is part of AWS compliance vulnerability scans.
Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach: AWS deploys (pan-environmental) monitoring devices to collect information on unauthorized intrusion attempts, usage abuse, and network/application bandwidth usage. Devices monitor:

• Port scanning attacks
• Usage
• Application metrics
• Unauthorized connection attempts

Near real-time alerts flag potential compromise incidents, based on AWS Service/Security Team- set thresholds.

Requests to AWS KMS are logged and visible via the account’s AWS CloudTrail Amazon S3 bucket. Logs provide request information, under which CMK, and identify the AWS resource protected through the CMK use. Log events are visible to the customer after turning on AWS CloudTrail in their account.
Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach: AWS adopts a three-phased approach to manage incidents:

1. Activation and Notification Phase
2. Recovery Phase
3. Reconstitution Phase

To ensure the effectiveness of the AWS Incident Management plan, AWS conducts incident response testing, providing excellent coverage for the discovery of defects and failure modes as well as testing the systems for potential customer impact.

The Incident Response Test Plan is executed annually, in conjunction with the Incident Response plan. It includes multiple scenarios, potential vectors of attack, the inclusion of the systems integrator in reporting and coordination and varying reporting/detection avenues.

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 v3.0)

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks: Yes
Connected networks: Public Services Network (PSN)

Police National Network (PNN)

NHS Network (N3)

Joint Academic Network (JANET)

Health and Social Care Network (HSCN)

Other
Other public sector networks: Rli

Social Value

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

Fighting climate change

As part of The Climate Pledge, Amazon—including AWS—is committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 (10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement). As part of this commitment, Amazon is on a path to power its operations with 100% net renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of their original 2030 commitment. Amazon has over 500 global renewable energy projects and, in 2022, 90% of electricity consumed by Amazon was attributable to renewable energy sources, up from 85% in 2021. In 2022, the electricity consumed in 19 AWS Regions was attributable to 100% net renewable energy. A study by 451 Research found that AWS infrastructure is five times more energy efficient than the average surveyed European enterprise data centre. AWS achieves lower energy use in its data centres through innovation, such as designing cooling systems that reduce energy and water use (https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/environment/the-cloud/water-stewardship), and using real-time sensor data to adapt to changing weather conditions. Additionally, AWS is committed to being water positive by 2030. That means we will return more water to nearby communities and environments than we use in our data centre operations. AWS’s global data centre water usage efficiency (WUE) was 0.19 L/kWh in 2022, a 24% year over year improvement from 0.25 L/kWh in 2021, demonstrating AWS’s leadership in water efficiency among cloud providers. We will include specific and measurable additional social value commitments as part of contracts procured via G-Cloud for customers that require them. These commitments will align with the scope and scale of each contract and each customer’s priorities. Examples of potential commitments include game days, hackathons, immersion days and well-architected reviews to explore ways in which cloud technology can help organisations achieve their sustainability goals.

Covid-19 recovery

In support of the COVID-19 response, AWS provided highly scalable and reliable infrastructure capacity, technical support, and AWS services to help customers with their research, remote work and learning, and other solutions to address their needs and the effects this is having on communities and businesses. Examples include hosting the AWS Covid-19 data lake, a centralized repository of up-to-date and curated datasets focused on or related to the spread and characteristics of Covid-19 and helping the NHS to innovate and experiment quickly by funding proof of concepts. In 2021, we launched the AWS Health Equity Initiative as a three-year, $40 million commitment to help solve gaps in health equity. Since then, 229 organizations have contributed innovations to the program to help address disparities in social determinants of health around the world. Having distributed more than $30 million of the original funds, we see even greater potential to support more organizations using the cloud to make a difference in the health and lives of underserved populations. In January 2024, AWS announced an additional $20 million in funding for the Health Equity Initiative, bringing the company’s total commitment to $60 million in cloud credits and technical expertise. We will include specific and measurable additional social value commitments as part of contracts procured via G-Cloud for customers that require them. These commitments will align with the scope and scale of each contract and each customer’s priorities. Examples of potential commitments include access to health equity cloud credits to support a proof of concept application to bridge gaps in health equity.

Tackling economic inequality

Since 2010, Amazon has made direct investments in our UK operations of more than £56B. These direct investments raise the economic activity in a given region, and creates a ripple effect through the economy as the firms that supply goods and services to Amazon expand and associated household spending increases. In the past five years Amazon has onboarded more than 3,000 apprentices. More than 100,000 UK SMEs now sell on Amazon, many of which are located outside of London. SMEs based in Manchester, Belfast and Glasgow selling on Amazon recorded some of the highest average annual revenues, surpassing the average annual revenue of London-based sellers. Amazon also provides small business owners, start-ups and entrepreneurs with tools and opportunities to succeed, like the Amazon Small Business Accelerator. We also offer the Amazon Sustainability Accelerator, an equity-free programme supporting start-ups who are driving sustainable innovation. We’re here to help entrepreneurs to grow their skills and scale their businesses so they can maximise their climate impact. We provide training and support for educational attainment through schemes including AWS Academy, which helps prepare students for industry-recognized certifications and careers in the cloud, AWS Educate, which provides hundreds of hours of free self-paced training and resources, AWS Training and Certification, which helps to build and validate skills, and AWS re/Start which prepares unemployed and underemployed individuals for cloud careers through classroom-based training. We will include specific and measurable additional social value commitments as part of contracts procured via G-Cloud for customers that require them. These commitments will be aligned with the scope and scale of each contract and each customer’s priorities. Examples include enabling access to AWS Activate, AWS Academy, and AWS Educate, provision of AWS Training and Certification courses to enable skills development, and coordinating employability sessions and mentorship.

Equal opportunity

As part of our Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility leadership principle, Amazon supports initiatives that reduce barriers to entry for entrepreneurs and young learners exploring STEM education. AWS has invested $50 million to support the creation of STEM-focused programs at AWS and partner organisations and announced our intent to help 29 million people around the world grow their technical skills with free cloud computing training by 2025. For example, AWS re/Start is a cohort-based workforce development training program that prepares individuals for careers in the cloud and connects them to potential employers. A technology background is not required to apply. The program is free to the learner and focused on helping unemployed or underemployed individuals launching a new career. AWS re/Start’s collaborating organizations support underrepresented groups, minorities, displaced individuals, young people, and more. Our programmes also reach young learners to inspire the next generation of talent, and to ensure that learners from all backgrounds have the opportunity to access STEM education. For example, AWS GetIT is a fully-funded, flexible educational programme that helps students consider a future career in tech. With AWS GetIT, you will help your students learn human and digital skills as they learn what it takes to design an app, work together to create an app idea, and meet professionals in tech. We will include specific and measurable social value commitments as part of contracts procured via G-Cloud for customers that require them. These commitments will be aligned with the scope and scale of each contract and each customer’s priorities. Examples of potential commitments include enabling access to training and support for organisations working to support under-represented groups or provide resources to digitally excluded individuals.

Wellbeing

AWS is committed to providing the support, benefits, and opportunities its employees need to be successful. AWS offers employees access to benefits to support physical and financial well-being, including access to healthcare coverage and long-term savings plans. Additionally, employees around the world and their eligible dependents have access to an Employee Assistance Programme that provides mental health support 24 hours a day. AWS gives quarterly Well-Being Days for the Public Sector organisation within AWS, where employees are encouraged to spend the day volunteering, enhancing well-being skills through freely available trainings, or do other wellness activities like meditate or exercise. Further, we have a UK-based Health and Well-Being Affinity Group, which raises awareness of what mental health is and bring attention to what resources exist to support employees and their families. Our leadership principles describe how Amazon does business and we demonstrate the leadership principles through our actions every day. One of our leadership principles, Strive to Be Earth's Best Employer, encapsulates our focus on ensuring a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment Our global teams work closely with suppliers to communicate our standards and help suppliers build capacity to provide working environments that are safe and respectful of human rights. We routinely evaluate our supply chain to understand the highest risks to workers and prioritise our efforts. Our supply chain standards can be found here: https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/amazon-supply-chain-standards-english.pdf We will include specific and measurable additional social value commitments as part of contracts procured via G-Cloud for customers that require them. These commitments will align with the scope and scale of each contract and each customer’s priorities. Examples of potential social value commitments include hosting immersion days and events, holding webinars, and providing local grants to organisations focused on promoting health and wellbeing.

Pricing

Price: £0.26 a unit an hour
Discount for educational organisations: Yes
Free trial available: Yes
Description of free trial: 2 Standard bundle Ubuntu, Windows, or Amazon Linux virtual desktops with 80 GB Root and 50 GB User volumes, running in hourly metering mode, for up to 40 hours of combined use per month for the first three months using WorkSpaces.
Link to free trial: https://aws.amazon.com/free/

Features

Benefits

Service documents

Framework

Service ID

Contact

Service scope

User support

Onboarding and offboarding

Using the service

Scaling

Analytics

Resellers

Staff security

Asset protection

Data importing and exporting

Data-in-transit protection

Availability and resilience

Identity and authentication

Audit information for users

Standards and certifications

Security governance

Operational security

Secure development

Public sector networks

Pricing

Service documents

Cookies on Digital Marketplace

Amazon WorkSpaces

Features

Benefits

Pricing

Service documents

Framework

Service ID

Contact

Service scope

User support

Onboarding and offboarding

Using the service

Scaling

Analytics

Resellers

Staff security

Asset protection

Data importing and exporting

Data-in-transit protection

Availability and resilience

Identity and authentication

Audit information for users

Standards and certifications

Security governance

Operational security

Secure development

Public sector networks

Social Value

Pricing

Service documents