Email and Collaboration as a Service

Email and Collaboration as a Service provides a range of productivity tools, including email, calendaring and tasks, which help an organisation’s end users to work in a secure, efficient and effective way.

UKCloud manages the underlying infrastructure and application, ensuring the integrity of the email solution and mailbox availability. The customer is responsible for customising and managing the solution in terms of users, devices and client applications.

The service is charged per mailbox per month (or part thereof) which includes 1GB of mailbox storage. There is a charge of £1 per 1GB of additional storage per mailbox per month. Charges vary depending on the number of mailboxes and whether the service is hosted in the OFFICIAL Assured or Elevated platform. Once your mailbox usage moves to the next pricing tier, all Mailboxes for that account will be charged at that tier.

Yes, we appreciate you might have various concerns about the suitability of our service to run your specific workloads. As we’re confident that our service will exceed your expectations, we offer a 30-day free trial so that you can test and evaluate our service without commitment. Your trial provides you with a live environment on the UKCloud platform to test our services and verify whether they are suited to your needs.

Before your trial, a Cloud Architect will engage with you to identify the goals you’re working towards, to help ensure that your trial meets those goals.

Throughout the trial period, a Customer Success Manager (CSM) will provide support for any issues you may encounter or questions you may have.

At the end of your free trial, you can seamlessly move to a billed service, leveraging any of the work you’ve already completed in the live trial environment.

Please note, this is for up to 500 users in a single organisation on request.

You can request a trial via the UKCloud website (www.ukcloud.com/free-trial-sign-up) and accept the trial terms and conditions. Your environment will then be set up and you will receive trial credits to the equivalent of £500.

The service is delivered from two secure UK data centres by UKCloud.

As the solution is delivered from UK data centres by a UK company, your data doesn’t leave the UK when at rest. In addition, the solution provides encrypted client connectivity using FIPS 140‑2 and S/MIME for digital signatures and email encryption. There are also tools to configure administration rights, create audit trails and set access controls for application and data sharing.

UKCloud manages and supports the platform in the UK. Depending on the mail client you choose, it may be supported by the third-party provider and not covered under our SLA. Wherever possible, UKCloud will also work with Zimbra to help resolve any compatibility issues.

Yes, Email and Collaboration as a Service is available on both the Assured and Elevated OFFICIAL platforms.

There is support for a wide variety of web browsers and clients. The list below is for guidance only. Visit the following page for further information: https://files.zimbra.com/website/docs/Zimbra%20Collaboration%20Product%20Overview.pdf

• Advanced web client (Ajax) — Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome
• Standard web client (HTML) — Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome
• Desktop clients — Zimbra Desktop, Microsoft Outlook 2003–2013, Apple iSync; any POP or IMAP-supported client
• Mobile access — iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows smartphones and tablets

In addition, the solution includes Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) synchronisation to Microsoft Outlook 2013/2010/2007/2003 with full delegate, offline access and support for S/MIME

Yes. The solution includes a migration wizard to help you migrate from an existing solution to Email and Collaboration as a Service.

We can help facilitate a bulk migration to the platform using local data import. This is priced on a time-and-materials basis from the UKCloud SFIA rate card.

We can also recommend partners who specialise in this service.

Yes, you can use any domain name that you have registered and that is hosted by a DNS provider and is authorised to be used on the required network connection.

Unfortunately, UKCloud is not a DNS host provider. However, there are a number of established providers in the UK. Please contact UKCloud if you need assistance in this area.

No, none of the data held within your organisation’s Email and Collaboration as a Service is visible to any other organisation or user.

Yes, there is a minimum charge of 25 mailboxes per month required to set up Email and Collaboration as a Service.

Yes, mail hygiene is provided via Cisco IronPort® for internet-facing solutions, providing protection against spam and malware. In addition, there is a centralised mail scanning solution within the PSN; combined with the fact that as a restricted network, spam is much less of an issue than with internet connections.

Yes, an archive option is available at an additional cost per GB per month. Pricing is available in the Digital Marketplace, or via your partner or UKCloud account director.

Yes, the service is deployed across multiple sites to provide service continuity in the event of a localised disaster. In addition, the service is backed up daily.

Yes, as standard, the service offers a dumpster folder which retains items (such as messages and appointments) that have been deleted by the user from the mailbox and trash folder for 30 days. The item to be recovered during this period.

Briefcase is a document storing and sharing function that allows users to upload files to the mail store, so that they can access those files from anywhere via the Email and Collaboration as a Service mail client.

Within five days of accepting your order, we’ll create your primary administrator account and send you a welcome pack, which includes the URL for the UKCloud Portal, mailbox services and associated authentication details.

Your administrator can then set policies, create additional user accounts and allocate roles and privileges for users within their project or organisation. Each user can then log on and begin using the service.

Set up of client-based software or mobile devices may be required, depending on your chosen access methods.

The length of time for the solution to be fully operational depends on the amount of work you require once you’ve received the welcome pack.

As far as possible, planned maintenance of UKCloud’s infrastructure takes place between the hours of 00:00 and 06:00 (UK local time) Monday to Sunday, or between the hours of 08:00 and 12:00 (UK local time) on a Saturday or Sunday. We provide customers with at least 14 days advance notice of planned maintenance.

As far as possible, emergency maintenance of UKCloud’s infrastructure takes place between the hours of 00:00 and 06:00 (UK local time) Monday to Sunday, or between the hours of 08:00 and 12:00 (UK local time) on Saturday or Sunday, unless there is an identified and demonstrable immediate risk to a customer’s environment. Whenever possible, we provide customers with at least six hours’ advance notice of emergency maintenance.

Yes. The service is paid for monthly in arrears, and there is no termination charge for cancelling it. Please note that it is your responsibility to extract all of your data prior to the service being terminated, after which we will erase all data.

Billing for the service is:

• Via purchase order
• At point of order for up-front fees
• Annually in advance for pre-payment fees
• Monthly in arrears for monthly fees

Payment can be made by direct bank transfer (BACS/CHAPS).

You can access usage and billing information at any time via the secure UKCloud Portal. Details of this portal will be included as part of the welcome pack.

Your Cloud Architect or CSM will contact you when your trial is due to end, either because you have used up all of your credits or because you have reached 30 days (whichever is sooner).

At the end of your trial, you can transition to production or cease the trial.

Yes, you can connect via PSN Assured, PSN Protected, JANET and N3; via legacy GCF networks including PNN; or by HybridConnect using your own dedicated circuits such as CPS-encrypted tunnels, leased lines or MPLS.

UKCloud’s existing PGA still applies to the infrastructure underpinning our services, but since the move to the Government Security Classification Policy (GSCP), we are no longer able to seek PGA for our services.

We are now required to self-assess our services, with customers then responsible for assessing and selecting the most appropriate cloud services which meet their individual security requirements.

We provide confidence that the service still meets the highest level of information assurance, which is why we continue to conduct independent testing and validation of our platform, and have the findings made available to our customers and partners, enabling their SIROs to make an informed decision about self-asserting any service they choose to consume.

Email and Collaboration as a Service is suitable for all data classified at OFFICIAL, including OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE, under the Government Security Classification Policy (GSCP), and for legacy IL0–IL4 solutions.

No, it will go via the PSN gateways controlled by Vodafone.

Yes, you’ll need to register your email address with Vodafone to traverse the gateway.

Yes, this can be created for you on request. You’ll need to raise a Service Request in the ‘My Calls’ section of the UKCloud Portal.