Low Costs Cloud Storage

Service scope

Service constraints: In the case of cloud-based offer, the solution doesn't have any requirements on the buyer side other than internet connection. With reference to the on-premise service the buyer shall provide space in its data centre/IT environment together with IT connectivity and power supply lines. As for the rest the solution is Zero-Touch i.e. doesn't require manual intervention from the buyer neither for maintenance nor for expansions.
System requirements: Internet connection

Web browser

User support

Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
Support response times: Email and phone service support is available 8 x 5 at no extra costs. 8x7 or 24x7 options available at extra costs
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: Yes, at extra cost
Support levels: The standard (Silver) support is included in the price of the solution and provides email and phone service 9 to 5 (UK time) Monday to Friday and includes:
- 1st, 2nd and 3rd level with quarterly reporting on SLA compliance
- Proactive remote monitoring of system's health
- File System's SW rolling updates
- 10% Net additional storage available as buffer

Additional support services such as 8x7 or 24x7 with on-site support are available at extra costs
Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started: Training is provided both as onsite or online on how to configure the solution to be operated.
Two levels or tranining are available:
- Admin Training program which is targeted to the admin users of the solution as well as those with a need to maintain it. On completion of this program, the participants will be able to:
• Master The SwARM storage structure and components.
• Master The SwARM storage networking and capacity planning and design methods.
• Master The SwARM storage system configuration and management.
• Master The SwARM storage system features principles, key technologies, deployment and configurations.
• Master The SwARM storage system maintenance and troubleshooting

- Advanced Users Training which is targeted to the end users of the solution. On completion of this program, the participants will be able to:
• Understand the main technology benefits of The SwARM storage solution.
• Master The SwARM S3 and APIs connectivity methods.
• Master The SwARM Web interfaces utilities.
• Master The SwARM Clients options connectivity.
Service documentation: Yes
Documentation formats: HTML

PDF
End-of-contract data extraction: The contract and Sales Order will detail all the pricing elements for the delivery and running of the services as and when the agreement ends. The customer may wish to extend for an additional or shorter term, these commercial terms can be accommodated under G-Cloud10 guidelines / restrictions. Upon expiration of the Contract or in cases of withdrawal or cancellation and termination for any reason, the Client has the power to make copies of the Content hosted on the infrastructure in the 14 days following the occurrence of the events mentioned above. Upon expiration of that period, The SwARM | Cynny Space will delete the Content, except in cases when its conservation is required for the fulfillment of legal obligations, regulations or requests from relevant authorities.

The Client can choose its preferred solution to perform the backup/download of the Content stored into The SwARM. However, The SwARM | Cynny Space can support the customer in data migration. In this case a formal SoW will be produced to detail the level of involvement required from The SwARM | Cynny Space to transition data. This is charged on a Time & Materials basis with rates detailed at the start of the Agreement.
End-of-contract process: The Public Cloud Storage solutions pricing includes:
- Object Storage service from any region;
- Pro-active monitoring;
- File System & software rolling updates
- Redundancies to deliver 99,999999999% data durability;
- Access tools (S3 compatible APIs, Virtual Block Storage, development tools)

Using the service

Web browser interface: Yes
Using the web interface: The solution comes with a web-based operation and maintenance interface where it is possible to set, modify and check quotas assigned to each user/user group as well as show the evolution of space usage over time for trend/statistical analysis. Export to csv/xls is also available. Each user has a web web based operation interface which allows to retrieve user accesses and data usage trends. Through dedicated web-applications it is possible to perform System Basic configuration, System Administration and System Health state monitoring.

With reference to the health state system monitoring the solution have a dedicated section of the web interface see picture below where it is possible to check parameters such as:
- Space occupancy
- Bandwidth usage
- Uptime

With regards to the Basic Administration the web interface has several sections which are dedicated to:
- Basic networking configuration, for IPv4 server level services (i.e. S3/SMB/NFS), or configuration services (i.e. User Management).
- User and Groups Management i.e. the configuration of users as well as groups to which they belong to.
- In addition to user and user groups management it is possible to define buckets in the solution and manage their access.
Web interface accessibility standard: None or don’t know
How the web interface is accessible: Interface available as Web UI via standard web browser
Web interface accessibility testing: We use standard Web technologies and security methods to reduce risk, such as HTTPS, SSL and support various access control methods. Vendor specific UI's have been tested and are supported by them.
API: Yes
What users can and can't do using the API: The solution natively supports AWS S3 protocol through the usage of HTTPs RESTFul APIs.

Furthermore, connectors also support NFS/SMB which enables S3 Buckets to be exported, mounted and accessed from NFS/SMB clients. These connectors are gateways and are included in the proposed solution and can run d in the form of a Linux Container or elsewhere in the form of a Virtual Machine or physical server.

Easy-to-use development tools (SDK) are available for further developments or integrations as required. S3 AWS SDK can be used to write any kind of script in a variety of languages; furthermore The SwARM SDK is also available for integrating the S3 AWS SDK with AIM level API.
API automation tools: Ansible

OpenStack
API documentation: Yes
API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)
Command line interface: Yes
Command line interface compatibility: Linux or Unix

Windows

MacOS
Using the command line interface: The solution is based on AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) which is an open source tool that enables to interact with solution's services using commands in the command-line shell. With minimal configuration, it is possible to start using functionality equivalent to that provided by the browser-base User Interface from the command prompt in your favorite terminal program. The CLI provides the following functionalities already described in the Web UI section:
- System Advanced configuration;
- System low level health state inspection;
- System upgrade;

Scaling

Scaling available: Yes
Scaling type: Automatic
Independence of resources: This is guaranteed by the architecture of the solution which is based on a network of hundred micronodes working in a peer-to-peer mode and therefore capable of processing simultaneously thousands of concurrent accesses to the system.
Furthermore, from a data separation standpoint, each user of the system is granted his dedicated space name which can be accessed only through user authentication which is based on a key-pair protocol. Only the public key is passed during the communication. The private key (delivered to user only) is used to cypher each request. user authentication
Usage notifications: Yes
Usage reporting: API

Email

Analytics

Infrastructure or application metrics: Yes
Metrics types: CPU

Disk

Network

Other
Other metrics: Bandwidth usage

Uptime
Reporting types: Real-time dashboards

Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
Organisation whose services are being resold: The SwARM, CSI, Cloud9

Staff security

Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance: None

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
Penetration testing approach: In-house
Protecting data at rest: Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
Data sanitisation process: Yes
Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed

Hardware containing data is completely destroyed
Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Backup and recovery

Backup and recovery: No

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

Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability: The solution is sold according to the following SLA in terms of Uptime: Minimum service goal: 99.95% on a monthly basis.
Definition of downtime: downtime is counted in the periods during which the Client is unable to make use of all the functionalities of the service offered, or that bugs are revealed as described in the next section. Scheduled and communicated maintenance as per the Contract is not counted in the downtime. Duration: the minimum duration of the disruption is considered at least 10 consecutive minutes or intermittent interruptions in the same time window surpassing the 50th percentile (for example, intermittent interruptions totaling of 5 of the 10 minutes).
If the Client encounters any failures or anomalies of the Service with respect to specific levels defined aboveshe must notify The SwARM within the 30 day period from the end of the month that the disruption of service was experienced indicating the details of the disruption encountered. For the purposes of this SLA, The SwARM provides the Client with compensation determined as follows and under the following conditions:
Uptime Between 99,95% and 99%: Credit 10%
Uptime Between 98,9% and 95%: Credit 25%
Uptime Less than 95%: Credit 55%
Approach to resilience: The solution is comprised of a hundred of distributed microsevers, each one has a dedicated HDD working in parallel. Each microserver stores a chunk of data, which is also replicated into other nodes (according to an erasure coding scheme) this ensures the 99,999% uptime since the architecture is not just built as N+1 redundancy but rather N:M redundancy. In addition to this embedded N:M redundancy, the solution deployed in each data centre is equipped with:
- 4 redundant Top of Rack (TOR) switches to guarantee continuous operation, each of them has independent power supplies;
- From each switch, two redundant IT connectivity lanes are available (AKA as red and blue lines) which are directly connected to the respective NICs on each node in The SwARM.
- At least two access hub units responsible for IPv4/IPv6 conversion, each of them equipped with two hot-swappable PSUs, connected to different power supplies.
Furthermore, the solution is deployed inside datacentres which are compliant with UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 27001:2017 and ISO 14001:2015 regulations for cloud services delivery.
Outage reporting: The notifications about planned maintenance outages is reported via email communication. In general each customer has access to the support centre - via email and phone - which provides continual updated on any incidents and the support desk pro-active keep customers informed. This process covers: core platform and network incidents, service and networking incidents. Should a major incident occur, a Root Cause Analysis is completed and delivered to affected users, these details: Problem, Severity & Impact, Timeline of Events, Root Cause, Category, Corrective Action Taken, Preventative Action Taken and Service Improvement Actions to mitigate future risk.Actions to mitigate future risk.

Identity and authentication

User authentication: 2-factor authentication

Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)

Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: All management interfaces are only accessible by named and security vetted individuals via a two factor authenticated session on an IPSEC v2 VPN tunnel. Multiple failed attempts automatically lock the individual user account with automated notification sent. All passwords are timed and must be unique and can't be recycled.
Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
Management access authentication: 2-factor authentication

Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)

Username or password
Devices users manage the service through: Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)

Dedicated device over multiple services or networks

Any device but through a bastion host (a bastion host is a server that provides access to a private network from an external network such as the internet)

Directly from any device which may also be used for normal business (for example web browsing or viewing external email)

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
Access to supplier activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: IQS Standards Audits Division
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 16/07/2018
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: All aspects of our Cloud Services are covered by this certification
ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
CSA STAR certification: No
PCI certification: No
Cyber essentials: Yes
Cyber essentials plus: No
Other security certifications: Yes
Any other security certifications: The Datacentres hosting the equipments are ISO/IEC 27001:2013

The Datacentres hosting the equipments are ISO 14001:2015

The Datacentres hosting the equipments are ISO 9001:2015

We hold ISO 9001 Quality

We hold ISO 22301 (Business Continiuty)

We hold ISO 14001 Environment

We hold ISO 27001

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: We follow ISO 27001 Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) and CSA guidelines as well as best practice for Cyber Security. Our providers are accredited to the appropriate standards, such as ISO 27001, 9001 and 14001.

Operational security

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

Secure development

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

Separation between users

Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: No

Energy efficiency

Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
Description of energy efficient datacentres: Our datacentres adhere to or are certified to ISO 50001 Energy Management and ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standards.

Our Storage solution is designed to use 1/3rd of the standard storage energy consumption

Fighting climate change: Fighting climate change

Cirro takings its role in tackling climate change seriously, way more than most organisation who see it purely as emissions and co2. Our view on climate change covers:
Ecology - what is the ecological impact of our actions and how can they be minimised
Waste - What do we waste and what bi-products or waste materials do we have and how can this be minimised
Emissions - Where can we reduce our emissions and how can they be offset
Covid-19 recovery: Covid-19 recovery

As a Cloud Services business we are set-up to be fully operational and support working from home. We support the health and wellbeing of our staff and through any illness, physical or mental.

Specifically to our Pandemic Planning, we ensure that key staff don’t meet unless necessary, we promote remove and video interaction and discuss plans as events, information and advice is in the public domain.

We have a policy to allow employees to make their own choice on vaccination and office working.
Tackling economic inequality: Tackling economic inequality

Cirro fully supports any individual's opportunity to work, we employ based on the skillset we need and level of experience as well as cultural fit. Nothing else really matters.

We would expect our customers and supplier to hold similar principles to ours
Wellbeing: Wellbeing

Cirro believe they best way to maximise employee output and loyalty is to be supporting and loyal to them. This is also true in supporting them mentally and personally. As Cirro is an SME all Wellbeing issues are dealt with on a case by case basis

Pricing

Price: £0.02 a gigabyte a month
Discount for educational organisations: Yes
Free trial available: Yes
Description of free trial: 30 day free trial, limited to 50GB
Link to free trial: https://cirro-solutions.co.uk/cloud-computing-services/object-storage-s3-nfs-smb-50-less-than-aws-s3/

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

Backup and recovery

Data-in-transit protection

Availability and resilience

Identity and authentication

Audit information for users

Standards and certifications

Security governance

Operational security

Secure development

Separation between users

Energy efficiency

Pricing

Service documents

Cookies on Digital Marketplace

Low Costs Cloud Storage

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

Backup and recovery

Data-in-transit protection

Availability and resilience

Identity and authentication

Audit information for users

Standards and certifications

Security governance

Operational security

Secure development

Separation between users

Energy efficiency

Social Value

Pricing

Service documents