Softcat Limited

Azure Network Function Manager

A simple and safe service for sharing big data

Features

• Massive scalabitily - near limitless storage for analytics data

Benefits

• Near limitless storage for analytics data

£0.10 a unit

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  ODS

• Service definition document

  ODT

• Terms and conditions

  ODT

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 psitq@softcat.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

735636375719927

Contact

Charles Harrison
01628 403403
psitq@softcat.com

Service scope

• Service constraints: See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/ to determine applicable constraints based on buyers requirements
• System requirements: See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Between 8 and 1 hour depending on support plan purchased See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/plans/
• 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: Web chat
• 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: For questions about accessibility with enterprise or commercial products, please visit the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.
• Web chat accessibility testing: For questions about accessibility with enterprise or commercial products, please visit the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/plans/
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/ plus comprehensive online documentation for various solutions available across the platform. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/. We also offer free of charge remote best practice guidance from our Azure Engineers called FastTrack for Azure. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/programs/azure-fasttrack/#overview
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats: None
• End-of-contract data extraction: Customer are able to remove their data at any time through the same means they uploaded. Either over their network (internet or express route) or via the Azure Import/Export services. Also see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trustcenter/privacy
• End-of-contract process: Microsoft is governed by strict standards and removes cloud customer data from systems under our control, overwriting storage resources before reuse, and purging or destroying decommissioned hardware. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/trust-center/privacy/data-management?rtc=1

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/features/azure-portal/
• Web interface accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Web interface accessibility testing: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/ee460799.aspx
• API automation tools:
  • Ansible
  • Chef
  • SaltStack
  • Terraform
  • Puppet
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
• Command line interface: Yes
• Command line interface compatibility:
  • Linux or Unix
  • Windows
  • MacOS
  • Other
• Using the command line interface: The Azure command-line interface (Azure CLI) is a set of commands used to create and manage Azure resources. The Azure CLI is available across Azure services and is designed to get you working quickly with Azure, with an emphasis on automation. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/?msclkid=2b50e70aa91311ec9b84e2bb2e192699

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type:
  • Automatic
  • Manual
• Independence of resources: We currently have On Demand Capacity Reservation in preview https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/capacity-reservation-overview
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting:
  • API
  • Email
  • SMS

Analytics

• Infrastructure or application metrics: Yes
• Metrics types:
  • CPU
  • Disk
  • HTTP request and response status
  • Memory
  • Network
  • Number of active instances
  • Other
• Other metrics: All metrics: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/essentials/metrics-supported
• 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: Microsoft

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: None

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: Never
• Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
• 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

Backup and recovery

• Backup and recovery: Yes
• What’s backed up:
  • On-premises- Back up files, folders
  • Services (MARS) agent.
  • Azure Blobs - Overview of operational backup for Azure Blobs
  • System state using the Microsoft Azure Recovery
  • Azure Managed Disks - Back up Azure Managed Disks
  • Please request more information
• Backup controls: By assigning Azure Policies in Backup Center.
• Datacentre setup: Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
• Scheduling backups: Users schedule backups through a web interface
• Backup recovery: Users can recover backups themselves, for example through a web interface

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: Transit encryption using Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2. All traffic leaving a datacenter is encrypted in transit, even if the traffic destination is another domain controller in the same region. TLS 1.2 is the default security protocol used. TLS provides strong authentication, message privacy, and integrity, interoperability, algorithm flexibility, and ease of deployment and use.; Whenever Azure customer traffic moves between datacenters-- outside physical boundaries not controlled by Microsoft or on behalf of Microsoft-- a data-link layer encryption method using the IEEE 802.1AE MAC Security Standards (also known as MACsec) is applied from point-to-point across the underlying network hardware.
• Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: See SLA's for each service here https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/legal/sla/summary/?msclkid=0132c6f0a91b11ec927496d95a52a9a9
• Approach to resilience: Network reliability through intelligent software; Safe Deployment with AIOps ; Resiliency threat modeling for large distributed systems; Low and no impact maintenance ; For more detail please see https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/reliability/#features
• Outage reporting: Through Azure Service Health which gives personalised alerts and guidance for Azure service issues

Identity and authentication

• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google apps)
  • Username or password
  • Other
• Other user authentication: Azure Active Directory is Microsoft’s multi-tenant cloud based directory and identity management service. Azure-AD includes a full suite of identity management capabilities including multi-factor authentication, device registration, self-service password management, self-service group management, privileged account management.; ; https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/concept-authentication-methods?msclkid=b2a138a1a92d11ec918375623c320dc1
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Azure-AD can designate separate administrators to serve different functions. These administrators will have access to features in the Azure portal and, depending on their role, will be able to create or edit users, assign administrative roles to others, reset user passwords, manage user-licenses, and manage domains, among other things. A user who is assigned an admin role will have the same permissions across all of the cloud services that your organization has subscribed to, regardless of whether you assign the role in the Office365 portal, or in the Azure classic-portal, or by using the Azure-AD module for Windows PowerShell.
• Access restriction testing frequency: Never
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Devices users manage the service through: 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 have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time 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: BSI
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 01/01/2022
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Please see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/compliance/regulatory/offering-ISO-27001?view=o365-worldwide
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: Yes
• CSA STAR accreditation date: 12/02/2019
• CSA STAR certification level: Level 3: CSA STAR Certification
• What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover: None
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: Coalfire Systems Inc
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 01/11/2017
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: Service Scope is identified here http://aka.ms/azure-pci
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • FACT
  • FedRamp
  • NIST 800-171
  • FIPS 140-2
  • CCSL (IRAP)
  • ENISA IAF
  • CDSA
  • ISO27001, ISO27017, ISO27018, ISO22301, and ISO9001
  • SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 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: EN 301 549, ENISA IAF, EU Model Clauses, UK Cyber Essentials Plus, UK NPIRMT, CIS Hardened images, SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2,
• Information security policies and processes: We have policies for infrastructure security, physical security, abailability, components & boundaries, network architecture, production network, SQL DB, operations, monitoring, integrity and data protection. For more information please visit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/security/fundamentals/infrastructure-availability

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: Azure has developed formal standard operating procedures (SOPs) governing the change management process. These SOPs cover both software development and hardware change and release management, and are consistent with established regulatory guidelines including ISO 27001, SOC 1 / SOC 2, NIST 800-53, and others.; ; Microsoft also uses Operational Security Assurance (OSA), a framework that incorporates the knowledge gained through a variety of capabilities that are unique to Microsoft including the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), the Microsoft Security Response Center program, and deep awareness of the cybersecurity threat landscape. ; Please see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/SDL/OperationalSecurityAssurance and https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sdl
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Vulnerability management recommendations focus on addressing issues related to continuously acquiring, assessing, and acting on new information in order to identify and remediate vulnerabilities as well as minimizing the window of opportunity for attackers.; 1: Run automated vulnerability scanning tools; 2: Deploy automated operating system patch management solution; 3: Deploy automated patch management solution for third-party software titles; 4: Compare back-to-back vulnerability scans; 5: Use a risk-rating process to prioritize the remediation of discovered vulnerabilities; For more information https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/security-control-vulnerability-management
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Microsoft Defender for Cloud helps prevent, detect, and respond to threats. Defender for Cloud gives increased visibility into, and control over, the security of your Azure resources as well as those in hybrid cloud environment.; ; Defender for Cloud performs continuous security assessments of connected resources and compares their configuration and deployment against the Azure Security Benchmark to provide detailed security recommendations tailored for your environment.; ; Intelligent Security Graph provides real-time threat protection in Microsoft products and services. It uses advanced analytics that link a massive amount of threat intelligence and security data to provide insights that can strengthen organizational security
• 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: Microsoft has developed robust processes to facilitate a coordinated response to incidents. ; • Identification – System and security alerts may be harvested, correlated, and analyzed. ; • Containment – The escalation team evaluates the scope and impact of an incident. ; • Eradication – The escalation team eradicates any damage caused by the security breach, identifies root cause for why the security issue occurred. ; • Recovery – During recovery, software or configuration updates are applied to the system and services are returned to a full working capacity.; • Lessons Learned – Each security incident is analyzed to protect against future reoccurrence.

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)

Separation between users

• Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: Yes
• Who implements virtualisation: Supplier
• Virtualisation technologies used: Red Hat Virtualisation
• How shared infrastructure is kept separate: Tenant can be defined as a client or organization that owns and manages a specific instance of that cloud service. Identity platform provided by Microsoft Azure, a tenant is a dedicated instance of Azure Active Directory that your organization receives and owns when it signs up for a Microsoft cloud service. Each Azure AD directory is distinct and separate from other Azure AD directories. The Azure AD architecture isolates customer data and identity information from co-mingling. This means that users and administrators of one Azure AD directory cannot accidentally or maliciously access data in another directory. For more information: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/isolation-choices

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
• Description of energy efficient datacentres: Please see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/sustainability

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/sustainability/operations
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  https://news.microsoft.com/covid-19-response/
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/about/societal-impact/
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/about/societal-impact/
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/about/societal-impact/

Pricing

• Price: £0.10 a unit
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Please see https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/free
• Link to free trial: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/free/

Service documents

• Pricing document

  ODS

• Service definition document

  ODT

• Terms and conditions

  ODT

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 psitq@softcat.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.