Somerford Associates Limited

Splunk Cloud and Enterprise

Splunk Enterprise monitors and analyses machine data from any source to deliver operational intelligence that optimises your IT, security and business performance. With intuitive analysis features, machine learning, packaged applications and open APIs, it is a leading enterprise-wide analytics platform.

Features

  • Collects and indexes log and machine data from any source
  • Powerful search, analysis and visualization capabilities empower users
  • Fraud and cyber threat detection analysis
  • Real-time analysis and insight for operational intelligence and business reporting
  • Information Assurance and security analytics
  • Automated compliance monitoring, alerting and reporting
  • Monitor non-heterogeneous networks with unpredictable formats
  • Monitor Logistics RFID and logistics databases machine data (HUMS)
  • Monitor Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) data
  • Big Data Analytics and visualisation

Benefits

  • Monitor performance of network infrastructure against Service Level Agreements
  • Real-time network intelligence, avoid costly network escalations/downtime
  • Consolidate legacy software tools
  • Provide effective security compliance and reduce costs
  • Detect and reduce internal and external cyber threats/abuse
  • Proactively monitor clients/users understand and anticipate their needs
  • Increase security and network management assets productivity
  • Automate business processes
  • Analyse and visualise ‘big data’ internet traffic and machine data
  • Analyse machine data from systems with varying formats

Pricing

£1,725 a licence a year

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

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

7 0 8 7 6 2 3 2 3 7 4 6 3 1 5

Contact

Somerford Associates Limited Penny Harrison
Telephone: 07897075103
Email: penny.harrison@somerfordassociates.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
Service constraints
None
System requirements
  • Hardware non Windows> 2 x 6 core 2+GHZ, 12GB RAM
  • Windows> 2 x 6 core 2+GHZ, 12GB RAM
  • Linux, 3.x, 4.x or 5.4.x and higher
  • Mac OS 10.15
  • Windows Server 2016 or 2019

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Mon-Fri 9am-5:30pm excl bank holidays customers receive an initial response within one business hour
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
No
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support
No
Onsite support
Onsite support
Support levels
We provide support from priority 1 to priority 4 cases on any existing configuration or part of the platform that is in total or partial failure as well as not working as expected. We also provide configuration guidance and recommendations for use cases. Each customer receives their own Account Manager who works closely with Support and ensures that cases can be followed up. Somerfords Support desk is available as a value added service in addition to the maintenance and support purchased alongside the license.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Splunk can provide free evaluation licences. Somerford Associates will provide Professional Services to help plan and execute your deployment and offer a full catalogue of training services to support the deployment.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
The Splunk tool provides analysis and visualisation of data from various sources. The data rests at its original location and does not solely reside in Splunk. Therefore there is no need for data extraction at end of contract
End-of-contract process
If a licence is terminated Splunk can provide Professional Services at extra cost to help the Buyer to migrate their analytic needs to another supplier.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Mobile web browser functionality is the same.
Splunk Mobile App provides visualisations, alerting and interactivity to execute actions from a finger press.
With the Splunk Augmented Reality app, you can create your own virtual workspace in augmented reality via your phone.
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
The Splunk Enterprise REST API provides methods for accessing every feature in our product. Your program talks to Splunk Enterprise using HTTP or HTTPS, the same protocols that your web browser uses to interact with web pages, and follows the principles of Representational State Transfer (REST).
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
The user is able to configure dashboards, alerts, reports and underlying target data sources. Configuration can be through Splunk Web, Splunk's Command Line Interface (CLI), Splunk's REST API or directly within configuration.

Scaling

Independence of resources
Splunk Cloud sits on dedicated infrastructure scaled appropriately to each customers license size. Alternatively Splunk sits in the buyers network or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider and therefore contention is under their control.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Splunk has a monitoring console that will display information such as usage of resources, number of searches/reports by user, the types of queries they are running, and also any latency in data ingestion, parsing, or searching.
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports

Resellers

Supplier type
Reseller providing extra features and support
Organisation whose services are being resold
Splunk

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
Managed by a third party
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
In-house
Protecting data at rest
Other
Other data at rest protection approach
Splunk's own cloud service uses logical data separation, authenticated user accounts, and industry standard hardening. Data in transit is encrypted with industry standard SSL and data at rest is encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption. This service is acccredited to ISO27001. We can help the buyer to enable a similar configuration suitable for their data at rest protection.
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
There are many ways that a user can export data. Splunk provides a REST API to export data. Data can be exported by the Splunk Web facility. Users can use the Command Line Interface, SDK's and data forwarding tools.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • XML
  • JSON
  • Raw data
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
  • XML
  • JSON
  • Raw data

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Data protection within supplier network
TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Splunk Cloud is considered available if you are able to log into your Splunk Cloud Service account and initiate a search using Splunk Software. Splunk continuously monitors the status of each Splunk Cloud environment to ensure the SLA of 100% uptime. In addition, Splunk Cloud monitors several additional health and performance variables.

Alternatively Splunk sits within the Buyers network or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider. Availability is controlled by the Buyer or their cloud provider
Approach to resilience
Splunk handles resilience by replication of data across a cluster of Splunk Indexers across data centres. Splunk Cloud maintains a seven-day backup of data and configuration files and backups run continuously.

Alternatively Splunk sits within the Buyers network or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider. Resilience is the responsibility of the Buyer or their cloud provider
Outage reporting
Splunk provides a cloud monitoring console to monitor the health of your Splunk Cloud environment. Email alerts are also available.

Alternatively Splunk sits within the Buyers network or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider. Outage reporting is the responsibility of the Buyer or their cloud provider.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
The Splunk user authentication system allows the assignment of roles which provide highly granular custom permissions. The Buyer can define all roles using a list of capabilities and data access restrictions.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least once a year
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • 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
No audit information available
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
Schellman & Company, LLC
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
03/02/2022
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
Deployment in customers own environment
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
Yes
CSA STAR accreditation date
N/A
CSA STAR certification level
Level 1: CSA STAR Self-Assessment
What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover
Deployment in customers own environment
PCI certification
Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification
Schellman & Company, LLC
PCI DSS accreditation date
14/02/2022
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover
Deployment in customers own environment
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
Yes
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
  • HIPAA
  • SOC 2 Type II
  • IRAP Protected
  • Shared Assessment

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
Our Cloud based service uses trusted third-party validation. Auditing of our processes and policies efforts to safeguard customer data to industry standards worldwide. Working with our audit partners, SOC 2 Type 2 attestation is completed for all Splunk Cloud customer environments and ISO 27001 certification is completed for Splunk Cloud customer environments provisioned for data ingestion of over 20GB/day

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
For Splunk initiated changes, maintenance is performed at most once per month and Customers will receive notice of Routine Maintenance by email at least 48 hours in advance. You can request an alternate time within the Routine Maintenance window if required. For Customer initiated changes, the maintenance can be performed regularly. Customer's will receive email notice when such maintenance is starting and when complete.

Alternatively Splunk sits in the network of the Buyer or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider, Configuration and change management is the responsibility of the Buyer or their supplier.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
We have a robust process for threats to the Splunk platform. We maintain a policy of evaluating all potential security vulnerabilities that are discovered internally or externally within two business days of discovery. We use the industry standard CVSSv2 to rate vulnerabilities. In the case of critical risk, high impact vulnerabilities, Splunk will make all reasonable effort to supply patches, assuming that patches are a viable stop-gap for customers who cannot otherwise upgrade Splunk.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Splunk monitors application and platform components of the service for potential issues. Cloud Operations staff monitor alerts and logs for issues, and log a ticket for issues that require remediation. In the event of application or data compromise affecting customer data, the customer is notified immediately and remains in contact with the remediation team until resolution.

The security measures of Splunk and AWS/GCP are further described in the Splunk Docs at https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/SplunkCloud/latest/Service/SplunkCloudservice#Security
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Splunk maintains an incident response policy and program, with defined processes, roles and responsibilities. Customers may submit security issues through the normal support channels or any additional channels as provided in the EULA.

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
No

Social Value

Fighting climate change

Fighting climate change

As an organisation that works closely with the public sector, Somerford is keen to demonstrate our commitment to supporting the achievement of the Net Zero target of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Management and staff at Somerford have been conscious of our impact upon the environment even before the Climate Change Act was introduced, and we’ve adopted environmentally friendly practices as the business has grown. Consequently, Somerford ‘s business already has a reasonably low carbon footprint, and will continue to strive for further reductions wherever possible because this is beneficial for our business, our stakeholders and the environment.

We will use our influence as a value added reseller of leading edge software products and supporting professional services to select supplier-partners whose own carbon reduction philosophy and plans are aligned with ours, and who can show commitment to the Net Zero target. In practical terms, this means we participate in a carbon-net-zero supply chain in the delivery of the solutions from our supplier-partners to our customers.

For further details, please see our Carbon Reduction Plan online at https://www.somerfordassociates.com/carbon-reduction-policy-and-plan/
Covid-19 recovery

Covid-19 recovery

During the Covid-19 pandemic, our robust business continuity measures, prudent fiscal policy, and the benefits of a highly flexible team, meant we were well prepared for the difficulties ahead.

Staff wellbeing has been at the forefront of our Covid-19 recovery plans, taking care of their physical and mental health, including;

* home working to avoid unnecessary exposure to the virus
* providing safe office space where staff personal circumstances dictated
* regular contact, albeit remotely, to prevent isolation
* organised e-based social events to maintain interaction;

As a result we have been able to:

* give uninterrupted service to our customers
* move our staff to home working
* avoid compulsory redundancies and minimised furlough
* in 2020, gain an 11% increase in revenues
* continue to grow the workforce by over 10% in the same year
* take on new partners to enhance our solutions portfolio
* invest in staff education to meet future customer needs.

Changes in business practices due to Covid-19 have shown that flexible work patterns can be very effective, and we’re unlikely to fully return to our previous style of working.

Our solutions have also helped customers to cope with their changing work patterns too - supporting their Covid recovery by providing the infrastructure, tooling and monitoring to support their own remote, flexible and sustainable ways of working.
Tackling economic inequality

Tackling economic inequality

Somerford is a healthily growing business, and actively strives to create employment opportunities that are inclusive of all socio-economic groups. For example:

* In the past 5 years, 20% of our staff entered our employment from leaving school, college or university;
* We have supported 12 apprenticeships;
* We run an internal academy scheme to build a broad range of technical skills in those who have the inherent skills, attitude and capability to become our next generation of experts;
* We actively participate in the Armed Forces Covenant Scheme and help to redeploy and reskill leavers from the Armed Forces. So far, 16 staff have joined us in this way;
* The ethnic mix of our staff is more diverse than that of our local community.

Strong technical skills are key to the delivery of services to our customers, so we’ve invested heavily in staff training - in 2020 alone, staff successfully completed over 100 technical courses.
Equal opportunity

Equal opportunity

Somerford is an equal opportunities employer and does not discriminate on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, gender reassignment, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief or age.

We do not discriminate on the grounds of disability. We take particular care to respect the rights of those with disabilities, throughout all stages of recruitment and employment. We make reasonable adjustments to ensure those with disabilities are not disadvantaged in the workplace, eg. adjusting working hours or providing special equipment to help to do their job.
Wellbeing

Wellbeing

Somerford is committed to promoting and supporting the wellbeing of all of its staff. We aim to create a culture which focuses on prevention of issues in the workplace that can adversely affect staff health and wellbeing, and where issues are identified, they are managed promptly before they can have a detrimental impact.

This includes:
* providing staff with clarity and purpose regarding their job role;
* ensuring staff have the capability, training, support and encouragement to conduct their role confidently and effectively;
* providing a physical working environment that is suitable for the work to be carried out effectively;
* encouraging staff to maintain a sensible work-life balance;
* minimising the stressful impacts of work;
* ensuring bullying and harassment have no place in the working environment;
* managing sickness and absence effectively;
* considering requests for career breaks and sabbaticals;
* providing medical assistance to staff;
* encouraging employee fitness;
* promoting dignity at work.

Pricing

Price
£1,725 a licence a year
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
Full capablity of a Splunk Enterprise license for 60 days allowing indexing up to 500 megabytes of data per day. This can be converted to a perpetual Free license or the buyer can purchase an Enterprise license to continue using the expanded functionality designed for multi-user deployments.
Link to free trial
https://www.splunk.com/en_us/download/sem.html?ac=sitelink_freedownload&gclid=Cj0KEQjw5YfHBRDzjNnioYq3_swBEiQArj4pdC_6Iz6y

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