General Measures

The data will be stored on a 'HEALTH Cloud’ infrastructure, which is compliant with NHS Digital requirements for hosting environments and is connected to the HSCN network.

The assured infrastructure provides connectivity to the Internet and HSCN, each via a separate DMZ and Secure Gateway, but that shares the common internal application and data between the two external User communities. In computer security, a DMZ Network (sometimes referred to as a “demilitarised zone”) functions as a subnetwork containing an organisation's exposed, outward-facing services. It acts as the exposed point to an untrusted network, commonly the Internet. The goal of a DMZ is to add an extra layer of security to an organisation's local area network. A protected and monitored network node that faces outside the internal network can access what is exposed in the DMZ, while the rest of the organisation's network is safe behind a firewall.

The security of the architecture is based on the CESG Walled Garden Pattern, and is a well-established design that has been deployed, tested and accredited over a number of years. The Secure Gateways provide a virtual separation between the two external networks, ensuring that there is no ‘pathway’ between them and providing access, authentication and authorisation controls to the applications and data hosted within the system.

The systems are hosted entirely within the UK within a dedicated Public Sector Data Centre that is owned and operated by UKFast. All staff with access to the Data Centre room, and Administrative access to the Public Sector infrastructure are SC Cleared by the UK Vetting Service.

The private HEALTH Cloud is composed of two DMZs, one facing the HSCN, the other being for Internet access, the Secure Gateways in each DMZ that authenticate and authorise users before providing Reverse Proxy services to the hosted applications.