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Sterling Computers Corporation

Sterling Azure Cloud £10K

Sterling provides Azure reselling motion that allows customers to access either a root account or admin account as desired by compliance standards. If amount is reached before renewal, customer can renew through G-Cloud to provide additional funds before account removal.

Features

  • IaaS
  • Paas
  • SaaS
  • Serverless

Benefits

  • Elasticity to scale as required
  • Simple enablement for enterprise services
  • Metered on consumption

Pricing

£9,600 to £10,000 a transaction 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 luke.flanagan@sterling.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

9 8 1 2 4 5 1 5 0 5 6 8 4 1 4

Contact

Sterling Computers Corporation Luke Flanagan
Telephone: +447557400401
Email: luke.flanagan@sterling.com

Service scope

Service constraints
Sterling Azure Cloud is limited to only Azure services and does not cover any licensing, or consumption inside or out of Azure services.
System requirements
Ther are no system requirements.

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Yes, at extra cost
Support response times
Sterling provides Azure support through TDS which is priced at £250 per month and 5% of that customers Azure spend
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
No
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
It is available through TDS portal
Web chat accessibility testing
N/A
Onsite support
No
Support levels
Sterling resells TDS Elite support for our Azure customers
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
During the onboarding Sterling supports users by informing them of Azure best practices around Identity Access Management and consumption. This allows customers to have a leg up on Cloud before engaging in consuming products.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
HTML
End-of-contract data extraction
Users are able to extract their data from the cloud via internet, VPN, or direct connect. Egress charges will apply and be consumed via the Sterling Cloud Fund.
End-of-contract process
At the end of the contract Sterling will reach out for renewal, and if agreed will be renewed for another year. If no renewal is achieved the account will be removed from Sterling and be available to the customers until Microsoft reassigns the account to another reseller or maintains direct integration with the customer. Normal G-Cloud pricing is required upon renewal.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Using the web interface
Users can provision, modify, remove and utilize their Azure solutions within their Azure Tenant.
Web interface accessibility standard
None or don’t know
How the web interface is accessible
Through a web portal allowing both login through normal credentials and MFA.
Web interface accessibility testing
N/A
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Azure uses Open API (also known as Swagger). All requests fall under that toolset.
API automation tools
  • Ansible
  • Chef
  • SaltStack
  • Terraform
  • Puppet
API documentation
No
Command line interface
Yes
Command line interface compatibility
  • Linux or Unix
  • Windows
  • MacOS
Using the command line interface
A full list of references can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/

Scaling

Scaling available
Yes
Scaling type
  • Automatic
  • Manual
Independence of resources
Azure Terms of service can be found here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/legal/
Usage notifications
Yes
Usage reporting
  • Email
  • Other
Other usage reporting
Phone Call

Analytics

Infrastructure or application metrics
Yes
Metrics types
  • CPU
  • Disk
  • HTTP request and response status
  • Memory
  • Network
  • Number of active instances
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 Azure

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance
Up to Security Clearance (SC)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
User control over data storage and processing locations
Yes
Datacentre security standards
Supplier-defined controls
Penetration testing frequency
Never
Protecting data at rest
Encryption of all physical media
Data sanitisation process
No
Equipment disposal approach
A third-party destruction service

Backup and recovery

Backup and recovery
Yes
What’s backed up
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/backup
Backup controls
Azure Backup is available through this plan and has its capabilities here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/backup
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
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
SLA's can be found here: https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Service-Level-Agreements-SLA-for-Online-Services?lang=1
Approach to resilience
Available upon request
Outage reporting
A public dashboard: https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status

Identity and authentication

User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google apps)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Users login to their organization with username and password through their federated settings and MFA through their federated settings.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
Other
Description of management access authentication
Sterling does not hold management accounts within the customers organization.
Devices users manage the service through
  • 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 have access to real-time audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
Schellman LLP
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
28/09/2023
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
N/A
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
Yes
CSA STAR accreditation date
17/02/2023
CSA STAR certification level
Level 1: CSA STAR Self-Assessment
What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover
N/A
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
No
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
  • CMMC
  • NIST 800-17
  • ISO 9001
  • ISO 14001

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
No
Security governance certified
No
Security governance approach
CISO
Information security policies and processes
Protecting an institution's critical assets' confidentiality, integrity, and availability is paramount in today's digital landscape. At Sterling, we implement a comprehensive array of physical, technical, and administrative controls to safeguard data and ensure the security of our systems. Our strategies encompass a multifaceted approach addressing various cybersecurity and risk management aspects.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
Configuration and change management processes are user defined.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
User vulnerability management is defined within Azure.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
User protective monitoring is defined within Azure.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
User incident management is defined within Azure.

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
Yes
Who implements virtualisation
Supplier
Virtualisation technologies used
Other
Other virtualisation technology used
Hyper-V
How shared infrastructure is kept separate
N/a

Energy efficiency

Energy-efficient datacentres
Yes
Description of energy efficient datacentres
Azure adhere to the EU Code of Conduct for Energy Efficient datacentres and documentation is available upon request.

Social Value

Social Value

Social Value

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

Fighting climate change

Sterling leverages AWS data centers, and as such, we get the benefit of their state-of-the-art facilities, physical and environmental security. This is detailed in AWS Overview of Security Processes https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/security-identity-compliance/?cards-all.sort-by=item.additionalFields.sortDate&cards-all.sort-order=desc&awsf.reference-architecture=*all&awsf.content-type=*all&awsf.methodology=*all&tma-cards-security.sort-by=item.additionalFields.airDate&tma-cards-security.sort-order=desc Fire Detection and Suppression Automatic fire detection and suppression equipment have been installed to reduce risk. The fire detection system utilizes smoke detection sensors in all data center environments, mechanical and electrical infrastructure spaces, chiller rooms, and generator equipment rooms. These areas are protected by either wet-pipe, double-interlocked pre-action, or gaseous sprinkler systems. Power The data center electrical power systems are designed to be fully redundant and maintainable without impact to operations, 24 hours a day, and seven days a week. Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units provide backup power in the event of an electrical failure for critical and essential loads in the facility. Data centers use generators to provide backup power for the entire facility. Climate and Temperature Climate control is required to maintain a constant operating temperature for servers and other hardware, which prevents overheating and reduces the possibility of service outages. Data centers are conditioned to maintain atmospheric conditions at optimal levels. Personnel and systems monitor and control temperature and humidity at appropriate levels.

Covid-19 recovery

Sterling has a formal Business Continuity Plan designed to continue operating the services in the event of different business disruptions. This includes Druva’s pandemic plan that has been activated in the event of the COVID-19 pandemic. In summary, Sterling has a distributed workforce with personnel located in countries around the world. Druva personnel all have the ability to work remotely. Primary business systems are hosted services and can be accessed anywhere over the internet.

Tackling economic inequality

Sterling actively supports educational establishments, the wider public sector, and local communities through various initiatives. One notable involvement is as an ambassador for the STEM Learning programme, where Sterling collaborates to improve the educational outcomes of young people in STEM education. This partnership aims to foster collaboration and support within the STEM education ecosystem, ensuring that young learners can access quality educational resources and opportunities. Furthermore, Sterling has extended its support to local schools and universities, such as Lancaster and Manchester. This assistance primarily involves participation in learning events hosted by these universities at the Manchester DiSH office, where Sterling is situated. Manchester DiSH has supported over 4000 youngsters with online safety, accredited female lead VCSEs with Cyber essentials, hosted MPs and supported countless businesses with cyber awareness. An example of Sterling’s involvement, is we actively participated in a 'Dragons Den' event organised for local schools, held at the Manchester DiSH office, hosted by Barclays Eagle Labs. During this event, Sterling engaged with young entrepreneurs, listened to their business ideas, provided valuable feedback, and offered guidance and support to their educational business studies. Sterling is also actively helping with Elective Home Education (EHE), where children between the ages of eight and fifteen come into the office to learn subjects such as Robotics, Cyber Security, and Money Management.

Equal opportunity

Sterling is committed to providing free-of-charge skill provision to our Members and Wider Public Sector Contracting Authorities accessing this Framework Agreement. Our aim is to offer a range of workshops, seminars, and online training sessions that are tailored to meet the specific needs of our stakeholders. These sessions will cover a diverse array of topics, including technical skills relevant to our industry and broader soft skills essential for professional development. We will work closely with our partners and stakeholders to identify areas of need and tailor our training offerings accordingly. Sterling proudly hosts a dynamic paid internship program renowned for its enriching experiences. Each summer, interns at Sterling delve into various facets of our operations, honing essential Sales, Accounting, and Operations skills. Moreover, participants enjoy various benefits, including mentorship from seasoned professionals, exposure to real-world projects, and networking opportunities within our vibrant corporate culture. Designed for college students, our internship program is a launching pad for aspiring professionals. It offers invaluable insights and hands-on training that complement academic learning. As a testament to its success, many of our interns seamlessly transition into full-time roles upon graduation, leveraging their internship experience to hit the ground running in their careers. At Sterling, we're committed to nurturing talent and empowering the next generation of leaders. Join us this summer and embark on a journey of growth, learning, and endless possibilities. Sterling currently offers this program globally and will endeavour to extend this opportunity to participants once we are brought on to the framework. This internship program serves as an essential avenue for developing talent and fostering future leaders in our industry.

Pricing

Price
£9,600 to £10,000 a transaction a year
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
No

Service documents

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