Secure cloud hosting

We know there are situations where adopting the UK central government’s ‘Cloud First’ policy is challenging. Some services require bespoke development or need to meet specific security requirements.

We work with a range of UK government departments and friendly foreign governments who need digital services to prioritise security. Our services provide the high level of security you need when the safety of your data is crucial.

We can host Official and Secret data in our private cloud. All data hosted in our private cloud is held in data centres on secure Crown property, and will never leave the UK. All of our staff are security cleared, so you can be confident that your data is safe.

As a government organisation, we are highly experienced working with the public sector. We act as partners, working flexibly to create the bespoke solution you need.

Our support is assured through our accreditations and partnerships. We have:

• a VMWare partnership
• ISO 27001 (information security management)
• ISO 9001 (quality management)
• ISO 20000 (IT service management)
• ISO 22301 (business continuity management)

How hosting works

We work closely with you to provide the best solution. This could include helping you develop your requirements or building a bespoke service. No matter the size of the work, we’ll use our expertise in hosting and cyber security to help you.

Our private cloud allows you to access our established cloud platforms through the internet or PSN (Public Services Network).

We also provide a managed service aligned to the ITIL best practice framework. This can include:

• security patching of the operating system (OS) and applications (with SaaS hosting service option)
• anti-virus, security and operational monitoring of the OS
• a skilled service desk
• tailored secure backup solutions to meet your data retention and restoration needs

We have three private cloud hosting services, which can be adapted as needed.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) (standard/default)

Our IaaS service gives you a secure, stable and flexible platform to host your digital services on. Both scalable and usable for different scenarios, it is particularly well suited for DevOps (combining software development and IT operations).

IaaS gives you the most control, while still having confidence in the security of the platform you’re using.

You’ll have responsibility for the operational management and support of the items you host on our platform, including patching and upgrades to OS and applications.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

As well as providing a secure platform (as in IaaS), we also manage and support your OS. This allows you to develop, test and host applications and digital services without worrying about maintaining the OS.

As part of PaaS we deliver security patches, and are flexible in the scheduling and delivery of patches depending on your needs.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Our SaaS service provides you with the same support as PaaS, with additional application or software support. We support common, off-the-shelf software on which you can configure and develop digital services.

We manage the software, including delivering security patches. An example of the software we currently offer includes Microsoft (SQL, Office 365, SharePoint, Dynamics).

As well as offering private cloud hosting, we also provide secure, efficient public and hybrid cloud hosting.

Virtualisation

As part of our private cloud hosting, we also offer virtual machines and virtual datacentres.

Virtual machines operate as a virtual computer system in an isolated environment. Software called a hypervisor separates the virtual machine from the hardware.

This gives you a lot of flexibility, and makes it easy to add or change processing power, memory, storage, network capacity, operating systems and applications to meet your needs. This means you can tailor the running of your applications and services within a secure environment.

Virtual datacentres similarly replicate a datacentre in a virtual environment. We create an ‘organisation’ for each customer, underneath which any number of virtual datacentres or virtual containers can be added.

This allows you to make separate distinct environments. Components like server names and IP addresses can be re-used between virtual datacentres as application services move through the development lifecycle.

We can also separate your virtual datacentres across physically discrete datacentres, enabling an additional layer of resilience to your services. You can see an overview of the status of your virtual datacentres online.

Security Operations Centre

Our Security Operations Centre (SOC) delivers a cyber-security monitoring service. Aligned with the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Assessment Framework guidance on Security Monitoring, we can monitor cloud, on premise and co-located services.

Our SOC is available as an option as part of the IaaS model, and is automatically delivered under the PaaS and SaaS models.

The SOC provides:

• top-quadrant security incident and event management (SIEM) providing threat analysis for monitored systems
• log collection, storage and monitoring (any type of IP device that can send logs)
• integration with existing customer security tools
• monitoring at Official or Secret level, with data remaining within the government boundary

As part of the service, we can also provide end-to-end security monitoring and incident response.