Somerford Associates Limited

Cloudian - Object Storage

Cloudian is the most widely deployed object storage system with
the industry’s most advanced S3 compatibility and an extensive
partnership ecosystem.

Cloudian Hyperstore and Splunk SmartStore reduce big data storage costs by 70% while increasing storage scalability. Together they provide an exabyte-scalable storage pool.

Features

• Cloudian can significantly reduce data storage costs
• Cloudian can release capacity within an existing infrastructure
• Cloudian strips complexity from the data centre
• Cloudian addresses an organisation’s demands for global data search
• Cloudian ensures data durability
• Cloudian accommodates new requirements (such as GDPR)
• Cloudian is hyper-scaleable (exabyte)

Benefits

• Cloudian secures 25-50% saving on data storage infrastructure costs
• Cloudian enables data storage compliance reporting
• Cloudian reduces manual interventions associated with tape storage
• Cloudian integrates with a number of other data management platforms
• Cloudian boots interoperability, data durability and operational efficiency
• Cloudian enables you to manage data stored in any place

£140 a terabyte

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

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 12

Service ID

269481332378069

Contact

Penny Harrison
+44 1242 388168
penny.harrison@somerfordassociates.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model:
  • Private cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
• Service constraints: The Cloudian HyperStore has minimum hardware requirements and a minimum amount of nodes to build a fully functioning cluster
• System requirements:
  • HyperStore requires a software license.
  • HyperStore requires x86 hardware with a minimum spec
  • HyperStore requires a minimum of 3 nodes
  • HyperStore requires adequate network speeds

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Support is 24x7x365 via Ticketing and Email or Phone.; ; Cloudian provides 24 x 7 technical support for Severity 1 issues, and 8-5 support for Severity 2/3 from support centers in the United States, Japan, and Europe. These technical support centers are staffed during regular business hours in each geography, so we can accept and actively work on inquiries throughout the day. Cases are managed through our CRM system to ensure a rapid resolution. We also offer a toll-free and tolled hotline available 24 x 7 for Severity 1 issues.; ; Severity 1 cases have a 30 minute response time.
• 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: Web chat is available on the Cloudian website at www.cloudian.com Online chat staffed by help desk technicians sufficiently trained and experienced to identify and resolve most support issues and who will respond to all UC requests for support within fifteen (15) minutes after receiving a request for assistance.
• Web chat accessibility testing: None
• Onsite support: Onsite support
• Support levels: The Cloudian HyperStore is supported by a global support team, with resources available 24x7 every day. A Customer Success Engineer (CSE) subscription can be purchased or a CSE assigned on an as needed basis. Helpdesk Support 24 x 7 x 365 telephone and portal assistance S1: Response within 30 minutes via Support Portal S2: Response within 4 business hours S3: Next business day response (Monday through Friday) Smart Support - Secure managed communications connecting customers’ sites with Cloudian • Provides operational, performance insight and other analytics • Proactive system status notifications Advanced Hardware Replacement (Appliance Only) - Shipment of replacement part(s) in advance of receiving defect part(s) • 24 hour in the US and Europe • 72-96 hour worldwide (based on region) Next-Business-Day Parts Replacement (Appliance Only) Onsite Support Technician Next business day technical support Onsite Spares Option Availability of spare parts or entire kit onsite
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Cloudian professional services (PS) will install, configure and test the proposed solution detailed in this response. As part of that engagement it is desirable for staff to shadow the installation engineer(s) in order to familiarise themselves with the system. As HyperStore is a distributed storage platform, it has various network dependencies such as DNS, Load Balancing and network requirements. As such, Cloudian typically liaise with both network and storage teams during a deployment. In order to deliver a smooth experience and avoid any delays, a kick off call takes place prior to an engineer being sent to site with key stakeholders invited. Clear roles and responsibilities for delivery are defined and a pre installation checklist is provided to the customer and must be completed before any work is undertaken. Cloudian also recommend training for administrators in order to be able to successfully manage the system and understand it’s operation. e would suggest the Cloudian Certifed Administrator (CCA) training program is a live, instructor-led, three-and-a-half-day course aimed at end users and those with a need to administer and maintain a HyperStore cluster. The course has been designed to provide a solid grounding in HyperStore concepts and architecture, and operations.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Cloudian writes no proprietary data to any data stored in the HyperStore. At the end of contract, should you wish to move your data, you can simply Copy or Move it to any S3 compatible storage system
• End-of-contract process: This is covered in sections 1.1 through to 4.0 of the Cloudian EULA

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: No
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: The Cloudian HyperStore solution supports completely automated / self service management and reporting capability via the S3 and Admin APIs. The RESTful Admin API supports monitoring of the object store platform on a hardware basis as well as utilization, QoS, and billing reporting. The Admin API can return results in JSON formatted responses, and can be integrated into existing monitoring and capacity utilization systems in this way. The Admin API also supports user/ group/ bucket management (created/ managed/ deleted) through the API as well as setting specific policies.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• API sandbox or test environment: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The Cloudian front end can be White Labelled to suit the needs of the business. This allows a 'Cloud Front End' to be presented in business branding for users.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: HyperStore supports user & group level QoS settings:; - User settings places upper limits on individual usage metrics.; - Group settings places upper limits on aggregate usage by entire user groups.; HyperStore enforces QoS settings by rejecting S3 requests that would result in a user exceeding the allowed service usage level.; ; QoS controls:; - Storage quota, by number of KBs.; - Storage quota, by number of objects.; - Peak HTTP request rate, in requests per minute. ; - Peak data upload rate, in KBs per minute.; - Peak data download rate, in KBs per minute.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: The Cloudian CMC and Admin API provide extensive support for monitoring and performance of your system. The CMC also supports a mechanism for alerting when system events occur. ; ; System Monitoring:; Dashboard: Check high level status information for each service region, including the region's current storage capacity usage and remaining available capacity, the region's recent S3 transaction performance; ; Capacity Explorer: Check the remaining available storage capacity in each service region, as well as capacity remaining in each data center and on each node; ; Cluster Usage: Check how your storage capacity usage has changed over the past 30 days, per service region
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Cloudian

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2012
• 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
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Supplier-defined controls
• Penetration testing frequency: Never
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: Cloudian is not a service company, and HyperStore is a product, not provided as a service. For these reasons, Cloudian does not have a business continuity plan, or auditing statements for standards such as SSAE16. Cloudian will not store information, nor host a website.
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Any user is able to connect to the HyperStore and Copy or Move data using a number of 3rd party applications or simply Tier the data to any Public Cloud
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data export formats: Any format the data is stored in, no proprietary formatting.
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data import formats: Any format the data is stored in, no proprietary formatting.

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: System Availability is dependent on a number of external factors. Technical elements such as networking, power & cooling will impact availability and are external to the proposed configuration. In addition, non-technical considerations such as environmental, political, economic, social and legal factors also need to be taken into consideration. As such, Cloudian are unable to provide actual availability numbers, only durability numbers can be guaranteed. Distributed EC 7+5 delivers 14 nines of data durability.
• Approach to resilience: Cloudian HyperStore is a true peer to peer, scale out architecture with no single point of failure. With HyperStore, all nodes run all core services across the cluster. Core services include Cassandra, a NoSQL database that is utilised for object metadata, S3, which is used to service S3 requests, the HyperStore service, which is used for data placement on hard drives, as well as the admin API service and web-based management console (known as the Cloudian Management Console or CMC). As additional nodes are added to the cluster, more capacity becomes available and more performance can be delivered. Furthermore, an additional side benefit of increasing the node count is the ability to create additional storage policies that can be more redundant and efficient based on the data type being stored. HyperStore allows administrators to create different protection policies and apply these at the bucket level.; Cloudian HyperStore is based on a concept of RAIN (A Redundant Array of Independent Nodes) rather than a concept of RAID. Each cluster node within the system has no single point of failure. Data can be protected using a number of different protection schemes that offer different levels of durability and efficiency.
• Outage reporting: Yes, HyperStore has reporting features related to system health. There are several aspects to health of the cluster, and they are available via both email alerts, SNMP, and GUI. HyperStore monitors health of the physical infrastructure, the software, and also monitors statistics on latency between nodes and responsiveness.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password
  • Other
• Other user authentication: AWS S3 v2 signature authentication, and AWS S3 v4 signature authentication.; ; Cloudian HyperStore supports LDAP and AD Authentication and is configured at the group level with support for multiple directory servers. HyperFile also offers LDAP and AD authentication for file based workloads.
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: The Cloudian HyperStore solution provides Role Based Access (RBAC) controls for accessing admin and user accounts. HyperStore identifies three roles - Admin, Group admin, and User. The S3 IAM API is implemented in HyperStore, and IAM features can be used to create "sub-accounts" within an existing HyperStore account, and both provide and restrict access to commands, operations, and data. HyperStore maintains audit logs to allow audit of users accessing HyperStore, and their activities during their sessions.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: You control when users can access 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: User-defined
• How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • Sec17a-4
  • FINRA
  • Common Criteria
  • FIPS140-2

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: No
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: Other
• Other security governance standards: Based on the support of the Object Lock API, Cloudian also completed its WORM assessment activity and received its Sec17a-4 and FINRA certification.; ; Cloudian is certificed with FIPS and Common Criteria are internationally accepted standards. FIPS is enforced by NIST. Common Criteria is a global standard accepted by 25 countries
• Information security policies and processes: Cloudian can provide a copy of its Cloudian Security Vulnerability Policy that defines and outlines the process Cloudian uses to identify, resolve, and report on Customer Vulnerability and Exposures (CVEs) that are present. Cloudian continually subjects its products to ongoing CVE testing on a quarterly basis. Cloudian can provide results of CVEs that have been closed as a part of software releases upon request. Further, for release versions prior to the HyperStore 7.2 release, customers can verify CVE results themselves by acquiring and operating its own CVE scanning tool to identify CVEs in the HyperStore environment. With the 7.2 release, the appliance becomes hardened with restricted shell enabled and root access disabled, thus CVE scanning is limited and firmware updates performed by customers are no longer possible.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: N/A
• Vulnerability management type: Undisclosed
• Vulnerability management approach: Cloudian can provide a copy of its Cloudian Security Vulnerability Policy that defines and outlines the process Cloudian uses to identify, resolve, and report on Customer Vulnerability and Exposures (CVEs) that are present. Cloudian continually subjects its products to ongoing CVE testing on a quarterly basis. Cloudian can provide results of CVEs that have been closed as a part of software releases upon request. Further, for release versions prior to the HyperStore 7.2 release, customers can verify CVE results themselves by acquiring and operating its own CVE scanning tool to identify CVEs in the HyperStore environment.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Cloudian can provide a copy of its Cloudian Security Vulnerability Policy that defines and outlines the process Cloudian uses to identify, resolve, and report on Customer Vulnerability and Exposures (CVEs) that are present. Cloudian continually subjects its products to ongoing CVE testing on a quarterly basis. Cloudian can provide results of CVEs that have been closed as a part of software releases upon request. Further, for release versions prior to the HyperStore 7.2 release, customers can verify CVE results themselves by acquiring and operating its own CVE scanning tool to identify CVEs in the HyperStore environment.
• Incident management type: Undisclosed
• Incident management approach: All errors and warnings are detailed in the appropriate log files corresponding to the particular service that had an issue. These alerts are also displayed in the WebGUI (CMC), can be configured to alert the administrator by email and also send an SNMP alert to a network management solution. For deeper analysis of an issue, Cloudian support can review diagnostic logs to determine the underlying cause of the issue.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Pricing

• Price: £140 a terabyte
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Try Cloudian free in your data center for 45 days, and see how easy it is to build your own private cloud.; ; The full-featured free trial of Cloudian® software and install it on any commodity hardware to build and test a public, private, or hybrid cloud solution.
• Link to free trial: https://cloudian.com/free-trial/

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

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.