REDCENTRIC
USER NEEDS
APPROVAL
MAINTAIN A DETAILED, ACCOUNTABLE AUDIT TRAIL THROUGHOUT
LIST
SHORT-LIST DISCUSSION PURCHASE
HOW TO BUY G-CLOUD SERVICES
Define needs and wants and
be clear on how they translate
into functions and tools
Refine your long-list to generate
a short-list
Get approval for your project
Award without a tender or
progress to ITT or RFI
Build a long-list of suppliers
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
WHAT IS G-CLOUD?
The G-Cloud Framework Agreement allows all public sector organisations to purchase Cloud services from a wide range of approved suppliers, including many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Framework Agreement complies with the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), removing the need for OJEUs to be issued and thereby accelerating and simplifying the procurement process.
WHAT IS THE CLOUDSTORE?
The CloudStore is an online catalogue of ICT services available for purchase, developed within the G-Cloud strategy. It lists the services, their main features and pricing; it also offers advanced search criteria designed to narrow down the most relevant options; and it sets out supplier terms and conditions.
WHAT SOLUTIONS & SERVICES
ARE AVAILABLE VIA THE
CLOUDSTORE?
There are over 13,000 services currently available within the CloudStore, broken down into four categories or ‘Lots’.
LOT 1:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): ‘where the consumer does not manage or control the underlying Cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, and deployed applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g. hosted firewalls).’
LOT 2:
Platform as a Service (PaaS): ‘where the consumer does not manage or control the underlying Cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment.’
Example services: operating systems and applications
LOT 3:
Software as a Service (SaaS): ‘where the consumer does not manage or control the underlying Cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.’
Example services: line of business software sold on a per seat basis
LOT 4:
Specialist Cloud Services (SCS): ‘a wide range of advisory and peripheral services.’
Example services: business analysis, design & development, user management
WHEN SHOULD G-CLOUD AND
THE CLOUDSTORE BE USED?
If a buyer has a project whose requirements can be fully met by commoditised Cloud services, then the CloudStore should be seen as the default procurement mechanism. It helps avoid tie-ins to long contracts and those custom-built solutions which can take a long time to develop and are expensive to manage, change and upgrade. The rapid deployment nature of Cloud services should appeal to those who need solutions up and running quickly and the essential up-scaling/down-scaling and off/on capability within Cloud will appeal to those needing a trial or proof of concept, or where a project may flex or shrink over a period of time. That Cloud principle is there again – you only pay for what you need, making it a cost-effective option for even the most agile organisation.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES
OF USING G-CLOUD AND THE
CLOUDSTORE?
Buying through G-Cloud and the CloudStore has many advantages, the most obvious being that it is quicker and easier to choose a service provider, removing as it does the laborious process of issuing OJEUs while still ensuring compliance with procurement regulations. The readily available list of approved suppliers, the commoditised nature of the services and the transparent pricing also combine to strip cost out of the process as well as make the deliverables cheaper; and by opening CloudStore up to many more companies, especially SMEs, there is a consequential uplift in choice, innovation and competitiveness. By harnessing the fundamental pay as you use principle of Cloud computing, buyers are guaranteed to only pay for what they actually need, eliminating the waste associated with over provisioning.
WHAT ELSE DO I NEED
TO KNOW?
It is important to appreciate that what characterises services in the CloudStore is that they have been designed – and priced – as a standard commodity. Under procurement regulations, G-Cloud suppliers cannot modify their CloudStore services to meet specific requirements; bespoke rework has cost implications and risks undermining the good value inherent within commoditised ICT. For CloudStore to work, you need to be sure from the outset that the functionality you need is indeed available ‘out of the box’.
BENEFITS AT A GLANCE
• Access to over 13,000 Cloud-based
services
• Access to over 700 suppliers
• Scalable and elastic services
• Assured, standardised solutions
• Rapid, agile deployment
• Reduced operational costs and
total cost of ownership
• No stranded investments
• Fully EU compliant
• Access to the most competitive prices
• Aggregates spend to drive best value
• Transparent and commoditised pricing
• Pre-agreed terms and conditions
• Access to innovation
Enter as relevant a search term as possible to return your initial long-list. Too broad and you’ll risk an unmanageably long-list, too specific and you may inadvertently rule out capable suppliers.
Depending on the nature of your search, you may generate a long-list that needs further filtering to identify the most suitable suppliers.
Use the filter options on the left to narrow down qualifying suppliers. The more relevant filters applied, the better quality short-list you’ll generate.
After filtering, the initial long-list of 2903 results is reduced to just five qualifying suppliers. These can then be easily compared and individually evaluated, before either direct awards are made or MEAT (Most Economically Advantageous Tender) criteria applied.
The inclusion of any supplier and its services in the CloudStore is indicative only of that
supplier’s ability to meet the functional and pricing requirements demanded by the
G-Cloud framework.
FROM SHORT-LIST TO SELECTION
So while the G-Cloud and CloudStore greatly facilitate and accelerate procurement, it can’t shortcut the final ‘from short-list to selection’ process in all instances. For very simple projects, awarding on price would be the norm. But for more complex matters, buyers will want to make a thorough and informed choice – this may be satisfied through a functional and price comparison; or it may be necessary to issue a Request for Information (RFI) or Invitation to Tender (ITT). This would be followed up by conventional assessment techniques such as interview, references, a site visit and/or pilots or trial periods.
And therein lies a buyer’s opportunity to determine the best fit if applying agreed MEAT criteria. Suppliers differ – inclusion within the framework does not imply every supplier operates to the same high level or delivers to the same high standard. There is still room for procurement professionals to make informed judgements based on interactions with their short-listed candidates.
ALWAYS ASSESS POTENTIAL PROVIDERS
While basic assurances are carried out eg. checking that a supplier who claims ISO 27001 is indeed so accredited, there is no qualitative assessment made.
SOME SUGGESTED
SUCCESS CRITERIA
CAPABILITY
Can your supplier demonstrate:
A proven track record of
delivering assured environments?
Significant experience of
contract clauses?
A high level of expertise
and resource on tap: 24/7
ACCOUNTABILITY
Is your supplier in a position to:
Take complete and immediate
ownership of a problem?
Rely on its own network and
data centre estate?
Apply its own rigorous SLAs
to contracted services?
RESILIENCE
Can your supplier prove:
End-to-end control of network,
data centres, applications
& support?
Consistent 99.99% uptime
performance?
Sustained investment across
infrastructure?
SUPPORT
Can your supplier offer:
A fully manned UK 24/7/365
operations centre?
UK-based engineering teams
specialising in network,
data & voice?
Proactive monitoring & system
polling to pre-empt issues?
SECURITY
Can your supplier show:
A consistent commitment to security
best practice?
Adherence to the requisite government
assurance / impact levels?
Long-term achievement of ISO
standard accreditations?
REDCENTRIC AT A GLANCE
• A proven track record of delivering
Cloud solutions
• Two decades’ experience of serving
public sector
• A multi-million pound privately owned
and managed infrastructure
• Five data centres, a UK-wide MPLS
network and metropolitan networks
• Total ownership of network, data
centres, support operation and
application & platform layers
• Utilising Tier 1 carriers within our own
data centre environment
• Achieving 99.99% uptime backed
by SLA
• 80% of our 450 staff are customer-
facing with specialist teams across
data, voice and networks
• ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified
• Authorised to process
HM Government data protectively
marked ‘Confidential’
• Accredited to connect to and supply
services over Janet
• NHS Health (and Health & Social Care
Information Centre) accredited N3 ISP
(Network Access Agreement 0740)
• Authorised to transmit, process and
store Person Identifiable Data (PID)
• HSCIC IGSoC-compliant commercial
third party (Reference: YGMAP)
• HSCIC accredited and compliant data
centre hosting facilities, including for
Clinical Systems environments
(Reference: YGMAP)
• HSCIC approved N3 Application
Provider (YGMAY)
• HSCIC-accredited N3 Service Provider
(Network Access Agreement Number:
0740)
A WORD ON INFORMATION ASSURANCE
• Redcentric’s data centre services
and supporting operations have been
approved up to and including
‘Confidential’ standard.
• Advent-IM are our chosen CESG
Government approved assurance
partners for BIL & Government
protected assets and services
• Redcentric is progressing ‘PSN’
certification for all appropriate services.
All services will be certified using the
relevant and appropriate Government
security classifications to meet
customer requirements.
INBOUND
SERVICES
SECURE
REMOTE ACCESS
REDCENTRIC
SERVICES
MANAGED WI-FI
IAAS
N3 GATEWAY
N3 REMOTE
ACCESS
RECORDING
CALL
COLLABORATION
COMMS
MDM
DBAAS
• Allows IT to react faster and support business agility through faster delivery of IT solutions
• Delivers expert infrastructure support from Redcentric’s server, storage & network teams
• Allows IT to increase business value by focusing on the applications providing services to the business
• Allows IT to manage costs, whilst replacing capital with operational expenditure • Can be deployed from shared or customer
dedicated platforms
INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE
Redcentric’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) enables customers to provision server, storage and network infrastructure through a simple unified platform. The service:
Redcentric’s IaaS allows customers to gracefully migrate from traditional physical infrastructure into the Cloud without requiring complete re-architecture or rebuild of applications. It is suited to customers that need to supplement on-premise infrastructure capacity or meet short-term project requirements, and is already used by Redcentric’s customers to deliver Tier 1 applications.
The service provides the assurance of UK hosted and managed infrastructure delivered from Redcentric’s ISO 27001 accredited data centres. The underlying platforms are managed to a published service level availability by Redcentric covering; performance, capacity, patching, installation and upgrades.
Customers can quickly deploy and manage infrastructure through a self-service online portal, with the flexibility to meet scale-up and scale-out requirements. Customers can provision infrastructure from pre-built Windows and Linux templates, utilise their own templates or import virtual machines. The customer controls the CPU, RAM, storage, network and Operating System that makes up the infrastructure. Full remote administrative access is provided to servers to add and update applications running on them.
The service is delivered from the heart of Redcentric’s network, allowing customers to provision servers within their WAN or publish to public networks, such as the Internet, or the N3 and Janet networks.
• CPU – allocated 1 to 16 CPU cores to each server
• RAM – allocate memory in 1GB increments up to 256GB to each server
• Storage – allocate disk storage in 1GB increments from a storage tier relevant to the application workload
• Network – attach the server to the network The service enables the customer to provision and allocate resource with the following specification:
Redcentric provides a database service from which customers can provision test and development databases to meet short and long-term project requirements. By providing on-demand access to database services in a self-service, elastically scalable and metered manner, test and development database as a service
offers compelling advantages in cost, quality of service and agility.
Redcentric provides the service from Oracle engineered systems hosted and managed by Redcentric within its UK data centres. From this platform the customer is able to provision test and development databases through a self-service portal to be used for short to long-term project requirements.
Each test and development database is consumed in Database Units (DBU) with each DBU providing:
• ½ processing core (¼ compute and ¼ storage)
• 4GB RAM • 400GB storage
• 5Mbps Internet access bandwidth The database can be provisioned with the following options:
• Partitioning • Compression • Security/Encryption
Redcentric’s Cloud Platform (also known as Platform as a Service or PaaS) provides a shared and elastically scalable platform for consolidation of existing and new databases. Private Database Clouds (also known as Database as a Service or DBaaS) are a proven model for the delivery of database services, enabling the customer to consolidate servers, storage, and database workloads onto a shared hardware and software infrastructure. By providing on-demand access to database services in a self-service, elastically scalable and metered manner, private database Clouds offer compelling advantages in cost, quality of service, and agility.
Redcentric provides the service from Oracle Engineered Systems hosted and managed by Redcentric within its UK data centres. From this platform the customer is able to provision Oracle Databases and virtual compute through a self-service portal to be used for production or disaster recovery workloads.
The use of Oracle Engineered Systems provides an optimised, scalable and highly available platform to deliver Oracle Databases. The Oracle Exadata Database Machine is engineered to be the highest performance and most available platform for running the Oracle Database. Built using industry-standard hardware from Sun Microsystems, and intelligent database and storage software from Oracle, the Exadata Database Machine delivers extreme performance for all types of database workloads including Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), Data Warehousing (DW) and consolidation of mixed workloads.
Redcentric can provide the Oracle Engineered Systems as part of the service activation, or this can be provided by the customer. The service is scalable to encompass utilisation of Oracle Engineered System such as:
• Oracle Exadata Database Machine • Oracle SuperCluster
• Oracle Database Appliance
Redcentric’s N3 Gateway Services, including N3 Pharmacy and N3 Open, enables customers to take advantage of new and emerging technology applications offered by the National Health Service and its suppliers to help reduce overhead expenditures, facilitate data exchange and enhance the customer experience. The services offer secure and reliable connections at a variety of speeds and technologies to deliver N3 connectivity to customers with different communication profile requirements.
N3 Gateway Services are deployed over Redcentric’s privately owned and managed network, which provides private, secure, IP connectivity between operational locations, the N3 SPINE, suppliers and ‘extranets’. It also opens up ‘single circuit’ access to Redcentric’s portfolio of services, with the option, for example, of prioritised bandwidth for converged IP telephony services.
N3 GATEWAY SERVICES
N3 NETWORK
SERVICES
USERS
MANAGED
SERVICES
N3
3G BACKUP
REMOTE
ACCESS
DATA CENTRE HOSTING DATA MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES HOSTED IP TELEPHONY CALLS & LINES UNIFIED COMMSRedcentric’s N3 Secure Remote Access Service is HSCIC / NHS approved and offers a robust, flexible and secure way for healthcare professionals to access technology applications offered by the National Health Service (NHS) whilst away from their usual work location.
It is fast to provision and straightforward to manage, via an intuitive administration console. A small piece of software is deployed on the end-user’s laptop (or similar). With suitable Internet access (possibly WiFi or a 3G mobile connection), and when initiated by the user, the software builds a secure ‘tunnel’ across the Internet to Redcentric’s remote access platform. The end user identifies themselves to the platform using a supplied hardware key-fob token (or software version that can
be run on many smartphones). This user authentication is dependent on two factors; something the user knows and something the user has. When prompted for authentication, the user inputs a pin-code they have memorised plus the output from the token. This robust, secure authentication, in conjunction with the encryption applied to the data tunnel, provides the security to meet NHS mandated requirements.
In association with Brainloop, the market-leading provider of secure collaboration and dataroom services, Redcentric can provide confidential documents and information solutions to government organisations. This service solves issues in the three following business areas:
• Protecting confidential documents
• Providing efficient collaboration inside and outside the company • Meeting compliance requirements.
Brainloop’s Dataroom service provides a tailored solution that enables users to share highly sensitive documents with external business partners in a Secure and traceable way. Brainloop’s solution delivers security throughout the enterprise and beyond, maintaining security categories and traceability rules in all circumstances. Core features and functions comprise secure end-to-end protection for confidential documents, such as two-factor authentication, encrypted emails, and Rights Management technologies; collaboration with external parties, leveraging tools such as Dataroom Calendar, Tasks and Milestones, and Secure Document Viewer; mobile device integration, extending application to smartphones and tablets; and an administration and configuration suite.
Redcentric’s Mobile Device Management (MDM) service is powered by BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) 10 providing an enterprise-class solution, which offers the controls and management of End User Devices (EUD) for organisations that have complex security requirements. The BES supports the management of BlackBerry 10, Apple iOS and Android smartphones and tablets and can control the applications and security policies on the EUD.
The MDM service is a fully hosted solution providing a robust and simple approach to provisioning and managing EUDs within the organisation securely. The service is provided with a high availability option allowing the servers and services to fail over to a geographically separate UK-based Redcentric data centre. The service offers a dedicated BlackBerry instance tailored to individual customer requirements; the service transition is performed by Redcentric to de-risk user movement from legacy environments. The utility charging model allows for the scaling up of users and storage at a fixed cost, subject to a minimum commitment. An online portal is provided for administration and policy management.
SECURE COLLABORATION
Redcentric’s hosted enterprise voice solution is ideal for
organisations needing to update their existing telephony system but who are also looking to control equipment, training and operational costs.
Redcentric’s service delivers a fully managed, carrier-grade IP telephony system with an extensive and innovative range of enterprise level user features, with 24-hour technical support. There is the option to integrate with on-site telephone systems via SIP trunks, as part of an integrated Cloud migration strategy, or as a long-term solution; project managed migrations from an existing PBX environment on a per-user basis can also maximise existing investment and avoid the need for a large, simultaneous upgrade.
Redcentric’s IP telephony service is offered with a powerful but easy to use service management web portal for the system administrator; and it can be integrated with Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer so that users can easily modify their own settings without needing to involve IT for simple day-to-day changes. It also allows for free calls between all connected staff whilst encouraging improved productivity for mobile users by providing them with full access to all voice functionality regardless of where they are working.
Hosted call recording is Redcentric’s hosted, managed enterprise call recording solution for organisations using Redcentric’s hosted IP telephony or SIP trunk services.
Hosted call recording provides:
• Central recording of calls made or received using our IP telephony service or SIP trunk service
• Secure and encrypted storage of recorded calls with a simple monthly charge for the total stored
• A range of retention policies available for storage of calls for predetermined time periods
• A secure, hierarchical web portal providing access to stored recordings and service management
• The ability to pause and resume calls to facilitate PCI compliance, either manually by the user or automatically via an API
COMMUNICATIONS AS
Redcentric’s Inbound Service is a Number Translation Service (NTS) offering that can be utilised by customers to create a national presence, and as a single inbound point of contact for existing and potential customers. Redcentric can provide: Local Presence (01/02), Freephone (0800/0808), National Rate (0844, 0845, 0870, 0871, 03XX) or Premium Rate Numbers (09XX). Some of these services can provide a customer with additional revenue (‘revenue share’), rather than the customer having to pay for the calls routed to their number.
Calls to Non-Geographic Numbers (NGNs) are usually
terminated on UK Geographic Numbers (GNs). However, it’s also possible for calls to be terminated on International or Mobile Operator numbers. (This excludes 09 numbers). Redcentric also provides a geographic to geographic number translation service. The service is delivered from two resilient carrier VoIP platforms hosted in geographically separate data centres. These platforms are designed and engineered to continue to deliver service even in the event of a major incident at either data centre. All customer configurations are held in highly available memory resident databases in both the primary and secondary servers in normal operation.
The Redcentric Managed Wi-Fi service is designed to provide wireless infrastructure for enterprises on a managed basis. The solution delivers a fully featured wireless estate with on-going management, provision and support to customers based on defined SLAs. Utilising Aruba wireless technology, the service consists of a standard wireless solution that delivers enterprise features provisioned through Redcentric’s Cloud service, and is monitored and managed from within Redcentric’s Network Operating Centres (NOCs). The standard wireless service can be further enhanced with additional services such as mobility integration /on-boarding, BYOD support, and Active Directory integration. Redcentric Managed Wireless has the flexibility to be consumed as a service, per access point per month, with additional per user feature licensing for enhanced features.
Redcentric’s Secure Remote Access Service offers a robust, flexible and secure way for professionals to access central applications offered by their organisation whilst away from their usual work location.
It is fast to provision and straightforward to manage, via an intuitive administration console. A small piece of software is deployed on the end-user’s laptop (or similar). With suitable Internet access (possibly WiFi or a 3G mobile connection), and when initiated by the user, the software builds a secure ‘tunnel’ across the Internet to Redcentric’s remote access platform. The end user identifies themselves to the platform using a supplied hardware key-fob token (or software version that can be run on many smartphones). This user authentication is dependent on two factors; something the user knows and something the user has. When prompted for authentication, the user inputs a pin-code they have memorised plus the output from the token. This robust, secure authentication, in conjunction with the encryption applied to the data tunnel, provides a rigorous and reliable mechanism for assured remote access.
HARROGATE (HEAD OFFICE)
Central House Beckwith Knowle Harrogate HG3 1UGTHEALE
2 Commerce Park Brunel Road Theale, Reading Berkshire RG7 4ABLONDON
John Stow House 18 Bevis Marks London EC3A 7JB
INDIA
405-408 & 410-412
Block II, 4th Floor, White House Kundan Bagh, Begumpet Hyderabad 500016
08000 501 700
[email protected]
www.redcentricplc.com
CAMBRIDGE
Newton HouseCambridge Business Park Cowley Road Cambridge CB4 0WZ