Software as a Service (SaaS)¶
Wood provides a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution using cloud-based servers in Microsoft Azure. Access is provided via RemoteApp and our web app, IC-Web.
Prerequisites¶
Before using the SaaS solution for NEXUS, ensure that you comply with the requirements described in Software as a Service (SaaS) Deployment.
Features¶
For using SaaS, consider the following features:
Location |
Wood presently operates cloud hubs in UK, USA, SE Asia and Australia. We can stand up services in any Microsoft Azure data centre as required for clients with specific geographic restrictions on data storage. |
Sign-on |
NEXUS has the ability to authenticate users via Active Directory connection. |
Availability |
System availability is historically greater than 99.9%. |
Downtime |
Access to NEXUS via SaaS may be temporarily unavailable for scheduled maintenance or for unscheduled emergency maintenance due to causes beyond Wood’s control. The window for daily automated maintenance of servers is typically out of hours (eg. 0200 to 0400) and will NOT always result in service downtime. This maintenance window allows critical security issues to be addressed promptly after the release of a relevant patch. Any necessary ‘non-routine’ downtime during business hours is scheduled and approved with client contact. |
Response times & latency |
Tasks within NEXUS can take a varying amount of time (from milliseconds to minutes) depending on complexity. Increased network latency can degrade performance. Wood recommends <120ms latency for acceptable performance with RemoteApp and <300ms for IC-Web. |
Backup regime |
Database backups are carried out each business day and retained for 14 calendar days. Additional backups for longer term retention can be held by agreement or transmitted to customer. This may have a small cost impact. |
Disaster Recovery (DR) & Business Continuity (BC) |
There is no client side requirement for DR/BC. The hosted service is resilient to hardware failures through the use of redundant Azure infrastructure and provides coverage in the event that a data centre goes offline. Wood uses MS Azure geo-redundant storage for all database backups. The DR/BC Plan calls for automated deployment of new cloud server infrastructure and restoration of the most recent database backup. Restore Point Objective is a maximum of 24 hours. Restore Time Objective is a maximum of 48 hours. |
Privacy & Confidentiality |
Data is stored securely in MSSQL Server and access is only granted to authenticated users. |
Security |
Access to data within NEXUS is controlled by in-built functional security. Logged in users are authenticated by SSO (where configured, or username/password authentication where not). Each user is assigned security permissions. Security permissions can be defined at group level or user level. Security for the overall service relies on Microsoft Azure, which meets a broad set of international and industry-specific compliance standards. |
Utility Applications |
To allow viewing of files stored in the library, the SaaS environment includes access to the following applications: Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint. |
Scalability |
The SaaS service can be scaled both horizontally and vertically for expansion of scope and increased number of users. |
Administration Services provided under SaaS¶
Because we have the ability to more closely manage cloud instances of NEXUS IC than we do for instances deployed on client’s own infrastructure, we are able to offer these additional administration features:
Import and export jobs are offloaded to a separate server, allowing users to exit NEXUS while jobs continue to execute
REST API requests which generate and download reports are only available for SaaS clients
Database maintenance
Infrastructure optimization
Database configuration management across regions
Wood users supporting your database will not consume a NEXUS license
Software update service, including early access to Beta releases
Subscriber database creation and database synchronisation management services
SaaS Architecture - NEXUS¶
The following image shows the high-level architecture of SaaS:
