Qubic Group plc

Compute & Application Hosting

Think Nexus Computing is a comprehensive range of services that encompasses Cloud Computing including Qubic, Public, Private or Hybrid Cloud solutions as well as on-premises computing, along with the associated infrastructure and support. Qubic’s solution is built around Qubic's Cloud Nexus directly delivering Cloud Computing or acting as an aggregator.

Features

• Private, Public and Hybrid Cloud Aggregators
• On premise hybrid computing (HP Greenlakes)
• Self Service
• Managed Service
• Single Monthly Bill
• Scalability and Flexibility
• Application Agnostic
• High availability and resilient
• Fast provisioning

Benefits

• Fast, single connection to multi environments via Qubic Cloud Nexus
• Benefits of OpEx model with on premise capability
• Allows organisations with own resources to capitalise lower cost model
• A complete managed service over multi-Cloud Provider and/or Hybrid environment
• Reduces cost of transaction
• Ability to scale system to address peaks and reduce costs
• Organisation can go 100% cloud if required
• Loss of organisations location does not impact ongoing operational capabilities
• Makes organisation far more agile

£0.11 to £0.51 a virtual machine an hour

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Framework

G-Cloud 12

Service ID

333491138471441

Contact

Charlie Riddle
02086017000
Charlie.Riddle@qubicgroup.com

Service scope

• Service constraints: Planned Maintenance with Prior Notice
• System requirements:
  • Operating system to be either Windows or Linux
  • Windows 2016 or 2019 license to be supplied by Qubic
  • Windows 2016 or 2019 license supplied by customer

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support response times: Ticket response times depend on the severity of the incident being reported. ; Priority 0 - Major issues relating to severe system outages are responded to 1 hour and aimed resolution within 2 hours. ; Priority 1 - Critical issues relating to severe system degradation responded to 2 hours and aimed resolution within 4 hours.; Priority 2 - Medium issues impacting an individual or single user preventing base functionality responded within 3 hours and aimed resolution within 6 hours ; Priority 3 - Low issues impacting a single user responded within 4 hours and aimed resolution within 8 hours. ; Further available at www.qubicgroup.com
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 A
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Round the Clock (24/7) includes:-; NOC Monitoring (24/7); NOC fix, helpdesk support, remote server support, On-site server support; Available at additional costs:-; Monthly patches and updates, Antivirus, anti-spam monitoring and fix, system changes, user modifications, admin tasks; Hardware warranties and software license management; Prices start £200 per on prem or physical server/£150 per virtual machine; ; Working Hours (9 - 5) includes:- ; NOC Monitoring (24/7); NOC fix, helpdesk support, remote server support, On-site server support; Available at additional costs:-; Monthly patches and updates, Antivirus, anti-spam monitoring and fix, system changes, user modifications, admin tasks; Hardware warranties and software license management; Prices start £125 per on prem or physical server/£75 per virtual machine; ; Extended Hours Support (8 - 8) includes:-; NOC Monitoring (24/7); NOC fix, helpdesk support, remote server support, On-site server support; Available at additional costs:-; Monthly patches and updates, Antivirus, anti-spam monitoring and fix, system changes, user modifications, admin tasks; Hardware warranties and software license management; Prices start £125 per on prem or physical server/£75 per virtual machine; ; Desktop support available from ; 24/7 Full support £30 per user; Extended Hours (8 - 8) support £25 per user; Working Hours (9 - 5) support £18 per user
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: As part of the migration to Qubic Group a dedicated Project Manager is assigned who will work closely with the customer to design the migration plan. ; ; This plan will include:-; Installation of new hardware ; Provisioning of new hardware/virtual machines; Any onsite training requirements for users; Rollout of support services including information on how to contact Qubic's support teams; Decommissioning of old hardware including removal from site; Cancellation and closing down of any legacy contracts with former suppliers ; As well as a project manager each customer will be assigned an Account Manager to hand hold their relationship with Qubic during the lifespan of the relationship
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: As part of the exit of a customer from Qubic Group our Cancellation team will validate and confirm the process of the data migration away from Qubic Group. ; ; Data can be extracted and sent to a customer as per customers requirements and will always be encrypted for security. ; ; The original data with Qubic Group can continue to be stored until the customer confirms that the data can be deleted, subject to commercial storage considerations being clarified.
• End-of-contract process: At the point of cancellation of a contract all services included in the contract will continue until the contract end date/point of exit. ; ; As part of the cancellation process it will be clarified what actions are required in relation to:-; ; Returning of any data stored;; Returning of any hardware stored in the Qubic Group datacentres;; Cancellation of any 3rd party contracts in relation of the services provided. ; ; Additional costs will be incurred if any (but not exclusively limited too) of the above actions require engineers or resources to perform additional tasks not included in the original contract. ; ; Costs will also be incurred if any 3rd party agreements which are to be cancelled or terminated but have not reached the end of the contract and as such incurr a cancellation fee or charge.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: Service order portal currently being developed
• Web interface accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 A
• Web interface accessibility testing: Service order portal currently being developed
• API: No
• Command line interface: Yes
• Command line interface compatibility:
  • Linux or Unix
  • Windows
• Using the command line interface: Command line interface can be used with Linux/shell/bash scripts and windows based servers command line and powershell. these allow you (depending on permissions) provision new servers and instances and manage server service and resources. Users can make changes by opening command prompt or powershell or access to the linux instance. Limitations are dependent on permissions.

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type: Manual
• Independence of resources: We guarantee users are not affected by the demand of other users on the service. This is configured by use of instance/environment restrictions to ensure resources do not exceed the recommended levels. Qubic monitors the usage levels and expands the core environment as required.
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting: Email

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 features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: AWS, Microsoft Azure, Citrix, Microsoft Office,

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2012
• 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
• 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: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
  • Hardware containing data is completely destroyed
• 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:
  • Data Files
  • Operating systems
  • Virtual Machines
  • Databases
  • Physical Machines
  • Configuration
  • Bare metal
  • System state
  • Images
  • Resilient fail overs
• Backup controls: A backup policy and process document is established during migration which sets out all the parameters of the backups to be taken including; data to be backup; backup process ie full, incremental etc; time of backups; snapshots policy; data retention policy; restore policy ; restore testing including establishing a regular backup restore test
• 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
  • Users contact the support team

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: Point to Point private WAN network extension
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Qubic Group SLA is that the service is available 99.999% as measured over the calendar month with the exception of:- ; • any planned and notified maintenance;; • any period of force majeure;; • any act or omission of the customer either directly or indirectly causes the service interruption.; In the event of service interruption the customer can claim from Qubic Group service credits which are calculated as per the terms of conditions available from Qubic Group. ; Services credits must be claimed within 28 days of the period of outage.
• Approach to resilience: The Qubic Group datacentres are N+1 and Tier 3 datacentres with all operations designed to be resilient. ; ; Further information is available on request.
• Outage reporting: In the highly unlikely event of outage impacting services to Qubic Groups customers the communication to customers is managed centrally from the ticket/service desk system. ; ; All communication will be logged into the system with regular updates. Those customers impacted receive the necessary updates via email and the customer facing portal if they have access to it. ; ; Any customer logging a service ticket in the event of an outage will also receive updates on their ticket as well as the main central ticket. ; ; Account managers will also be on hand to call customers and discuss the outage.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • 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: All users are assigned access based on users defined roles with only the relevant access for their role being provided. ; ; A full audit trail is available of all logons and actions undertaken to provide a full history of user access and management. ; ; Access management reviews are conducted on a regular basis to ensure correct levels of access are maintained by users per role.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Devices users manage the service through:
  • Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)
  • Dedicated device on a government network (for example PSN)
  • 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)

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: 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: QMS International
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 25/11/2014
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/a
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • Cyber Essentials
  • IASME Governance
  • CiSP
  • ISO9001:2015

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: Qubic Group is ISO9001 and 27001 accredited. ; Within the Qubic Group we have a strictly adhered to Information Security Management System (ISMS) Policy and Procedure. ; The ISMS Policy and Procedure is reviewed and set by the The Information Management Forum within Qubic Group. This forum is made up of:-; ISMS Manager who oversees the forum. ; The remainder of the forum is made up of Qubic Managing Directors, Operations Manager, Service Manager, and Senior Data Engineer.; The forum is responsible for Policy and Procedure reviews, documentation, training awareness and induction, incident management and ISMS audits. ; The Policy and Procedure is located on the company shared drive for all staff to access. ; All new joiners are required to read and sign off the policy and procedure as part of their induction process. ; All existing other staff sign off the policy and procedure annually.

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: IT change management is a controlled process and any required internal changes to the computing environment are registered by raising a Case Record in the CRM system. ; The nature of the change, rationale and any security implications are recorded. Changes to customer networks are similarly requested and logged in the CRM system.; All concerned parties are informed of the status of the request as changes progressed and implemented.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Technical vulnerabilities identified as a result of the implementation of the ISMS are reviewed and addressed as detailed in this Manual. ; Patches required to address vulnerabilities in systems are white line tested by a third party provider before being authorised for deployment.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Qubic Group use proactive monitoring tools to continuously monitor the status of the environments and infrastructures that are delivered to customers. ; ; The monitoring tool will issue an alarm if one of the set parameters is breached or the status of the service falls into a defined category. The alarm will be picked by the Qubic Group Network Operations Centre (NOC) and the issue will then be investigated and resolved. ; ; All alarms are initially investigated as a P0 Critical incident.
• 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: Where a Incident is reported, a ticket is raised and allocated to a Qubic engineer who will ascertain the severity of the issue by contacting the customer and working with them to diagnose the incident.; All incidents will be logged within the Qubic ticketing system.; Where a workaround has been implemented and rectification works are required to fully complete the incident Qubic will engage the ‘Problem Management team’ made up of Senior Directors, Management, and Technical Staff who would jointly agree the plan of action to rectify. ; A Major Incident Report (MIR) is completed and shared with the customer.

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: Other
• Other virtualisation technology used: VmWare and HyperV
• How shared infrastructure is kept separate: Within our shared physical IaaS/PaaS platform - Qubic segregates clients’ systems and data by assigning each client IaaS their own VLAN and segregated virtual firewall (vFirewall) technology. ; If required, we can also provide dedicated PaaS platforms to clients and again these are segregated via VLANS and vFirewalls technology. All client networks are either physically or virtually segregated from each other.

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
• Description of energy efficient datacentres: Our London Data Centre is a participant of the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centres’ Energy Efficiency ; ; The Code of Conduct has an equipment and system-level scope, focusing on two primary areas – the IT load (IT capacity available for the power consumed) and facilities load (equipment and systems that support the IT load, such as cooling systems, PDUs, and UPS).; ; Our Kent based Data Centre operates a revolutionary evaporation cooling system, completely negating the need for mechanical cooling, providing a positive impact for both the company's efficiency and the wider environment.; ; For 100% of the year, the data centre utilises fresh air cooling, brought in from outside and filtered to clean room standards to eliminate contamination, passing into the data centre via a bank of multiple fans. ; ; A reverse osmosis plant purifies water which the system then uses to produce a very fine mist. Within a large chamber, this moisture is used to raise the humidity of the slow moving air which passes through, decreasing its temperature. The evaporation system also acts as a room humidifier, and is supported by dual water mains, ensuring that it is resilient against mains failure. This approach is 2N resilient.

Pricing

• Price: £0.11 to £0.51 a virtual machine an hour
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Qubic Group is able to offer a Free Proof of Concept AWS environment for a 1 month period to demonstrate the power and resources available in AWS as well as the pricing policy and structure to demonstrate where cost savings can be delivered; ; Depending on requirements ; ; Engineer resources are chargable

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF