Storage Made Easy

Enterprise File Fabric

The Storage Made Easy File Fabric enables organisations to safely and securely embrace cloud storage for data. Data on premises or cloud can be viewed on a single screen, securely shared, accessed from desktop, web or mobile additional features include GDPR compliance and high speed file transfer.

Features

  • Secure MultiCloud Data Management
  • Facilitates secure audited remote working
  • Enables secure end user access to S3 compatible storage
  • MultiCloud content search across data sources
  • Real-time PHI / PII Sensitive data discovery
  • Real-time Ransomeware protection
  • Accelerate file transfers for end users
  • Ultra secure password protected, time expired file sharing for data
  • Protocol access gateway to existing data SFTP, FTPS, WebDav, S3
  • Desktop Cloud Drives for existing company data sources

Benefits

  • Secure access to Amazon S3 & compatible storage
  • Continuous Ransomeware protection for company data
  • Web scale access for existing Windows Filers
  • Remote Web, desktop, mobile access to SMB shares
  • Enable end users to securely access Amazon S3 object data
  • Collaborate across existing data sources easily and securely
  • Audited access facilitates GDPR compliance even if workers are remote
  • High speed file transfer increases end user productivity
  • Integrated with MS Office Outlook Mac Libre Office
  • Content search of existing data increases company efficiency

Pricing

£10 a user a month

  • Education pricing available
  • Free trial available

Service documents

Framework

G-Cloud 12

Service ID

5 4 1 9 3 1 4 2 8 6 5 9 8 6 6

Contact

Storage Made Easy Kim Syrett
Telephone: 0208 643 2885
Email: Kim@storagemadeeasy.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
What software services is the service an extension to
The File Fabric connects to over 60 different independent storage platforms on cloud and on premises, many of these storage services are available through G-Cloud and include AWS, GCP & MS Azure. The File fabric adds a layer of security, collaboration, performance and remote access and integrates different software services
Cloud deployment model
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
Service constraints
Planned maintenance does occur but a service windows is agreed in advance with customers.
System requirements
  • 4G+ RAM (more RAM is always better)
  • 4+ Cores (depending on the number of users)
  • 100 GB Hard Disk space
  • Requires a Hypervisor all major brands supported

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
4 hour response Monday to Friday 9 - 5
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
Standard Support 09:00 - 17:00 (UK) - Support Portal and Email Telephone,

24/7, SLA's by request for Dedicated Service
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
New customers are assigned a Technical Account Manager who will provide advise and be the first point of contact for the first 60 days.

The Storage Made Easy technical team set up the product, liaising with the TAM who in turn liaises directly with the customer .

Online training and user documentation are available both prior and post installation.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
HTML
End-of-contract data extraction
Typically we do not store client data simply meta data about the files stored this will be deleted when the appliance is deleted. The File Fabric supports multi cloud and facilitates easy data migration so users are easily able to migrate their data to the platform of their choice this would pertain even if we had provided the storage platform. Standard protocols are provided (FTP, SFTP, WebDav) to export data as required.
End-of-contract process
Storage Made Easy enable a service instance, with described software clients, for the number of users procured in combination with on-demand data storage.

Prior to the end of the contract a user may choose to export their data using the Storage Made Easy protocol adaptors that support FTP/SFTP/WebDav. At the end of the contract the licence key would expire and the appliance would cease to function there is no charge. Our solution maintains the integrity of data so users are not locked in.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari 9+
  • Opera
Application to install
Yes
Compatible operating systems
  • Android
  • IOS
  • Linux or Unix
  • MacOS
  • Windows
  • Windows Phone
  • Other
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
None
Service interface
No
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Users can use the Storage Made Easy secure REST API to interact with the service. The REST API is documented and users can interact with the API based on the permissions they have been given or inherited. Certain API calls require Admin permissions.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
HTML
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
The look and feel of browser, desktop and mobile interfaces can be customised to match users branding. This can be performed to a high level of sophistication. The File Fabric support style sheets and different languages.

For mobile apps Storage Made Easy is required to submit applications to vendor App Stores and an additional charge may be required.

Scaling

Independence of resources
At an infrastructure level, In order to guarantee that users are not affected by the demands from other users, resource reservations and shares such as internet bandwidth shaping are used. In addition, the capacity planning team ensure that usage in terms of all resources are constantly monitored and increased accordingly relating to user demand.
Analytics

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
File Stored
Bandwidth usage
Audit event Logs
GEO Location data
File location data
Reporting types
API access
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Other security clearance
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
At least every 6 months
Penetration testing approach
In-house
Protecting data at rest
Other
Other data at rest protection approach
Physical access control, complies with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402

Storage Made Easy can also be configured to implement strong encryption over and above what is encrypted at rest by the underlying storage.

The SME software implements strong AES-256 encryption using the Rijndael cipher, with Cipher Block Chaining (CBC).
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
Using any of the provider protocol mechanisms, FPT/SFTP or WebDav.

Data can be simply dragged and dropped from one location to another, files can be securely moved by e-mail, we stress though the File Fabric makes no changes to data and data remains on the location of the users choice.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • Files are exported in the same formats they were added.
  • Audit log files can be exported in .csv /excel format.
  • ODF files are available if added in this format
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
Other data import formats
All file formats are supported and displayed 'as is'

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

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Storage Made Easy will make commercially reasonable efforts to make the File Fabric solution available with a Monthly Uptime Percentage (defined below) of at least 99.9%, excluding emergency and notified service windows.

Service Credits will be issued, where the fault is not within the customers control as follows:

Less than 99.95% but equal to or greater than 99.0% - 3% of monthly spend

Less than 99.0% but equal or greater than 95% - 5% of monthly spend

less than 95.0% - 10% of monthly spend
Approach to resilience
This is available on request.
Outage reporting
A Public DashBoard

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Customers must raise a support request vial email or the support portal. User emails must belong to the customer domain and are validated as part of the support engagement process. Where there is doubt the SME support personnel will validate with a named customer technical contact.

Management interfaces are only available on the hosted service and only to nominated personnel and can be further protected by 2 factor authentication.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
Username or password

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 have access to real-time audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
Between 1 month and 6 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
No
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Other security certifications
No

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
No
Security governance approach
No single developer ‘owns’ a particular component or code, which is deliberate to ensure that code and components are peer reviewed.

We penetration test our software daily and received daily reports.

Any Security Issues, when identified, are triaged immediately and priority given is dependent on the threat level and impact assessment. If the threat level is deemed high then resolutions are prioritised immediately and where necessary customers informed.

Storage Made Easy is currently undertaking ISO-27001 accreditation.
Information security policies and processes
At an infrastructure level Storage Made Easy works with UKCloud which has been independently assessed and certified against ISO20000, ISO27001 and ISO27018 by LRQA, a UKAS accredited audit body.

Storage Made Easy has a number of governance frameworks in place. These control the way in which Storage Made Easy operates and how cloud software and services are delivered to its customers.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
SME uses a third party application to track service and component changes. The change management workflow for JIRA has been designed based on ITIL recommendations. It follows a standardized process to deal with change requests, which in turn reduces follow up incidents and minimizes negative business impact.

The change review process encompasses:

• Web vulnerabilities
• Input/data validation / sanitisation
• Authentication / Authorization data flows
• Exception management
• Variable Analysis
• Unsafe and unmanaged code check
• Configuration check
• Threading analysis
• API validation / Undocumented public interfaces
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Potential threats are assessed through regular vulnerability testing, industry informed threat notifications, and through heuristic analysis of inbound data access patterns.

Storage Made Easy also hosts and runs a consumer service with a similar code base which is penetration tested daily, the results of which are also encompassed when understanding and dealing with threat assessments.

Patches are deployed as quickly as required, within an emergency service window if needed.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
The Storage Made Easy software keeps track of inbound requests and if these requests breach certain heuristic rules the software can automatically block such threats and inform administrators.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Any Security Issues, when identified, are triaged immediately and priority given is dependent on the threat level and impact assessment.

If the threat level is deemed high then resolutions are prioritised immediately and where necessary customers immediately informed via an incident report.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Pricing

Price
£10 a user a month
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
Trial option available for 30 days includes testing of the functionality of the software and its features, includes support.

Service documents