Storage as a Service

Summary

Storage as a Service (Private S3) is blueAPACHE's scalable, S3-compatible storage service for high-volume structured and unstructured data, with immutable storage options and a consumption-based commercial model. It was built with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, connects into emPOWER Cloud and the emPOWER Network, and in its published case study holds health records across three data centres with fixed pricing and no ingress or egress charges. The service suits organisations replacing tape or legacy storage arrays, particularly where records must be retained for years and protected from alteration. This page sets out the inclusions, the contractual boundaries in blueAPACHE's General Terms and Conditions v3.6, and the commercial terms to confirm.

Key facts

What is included

The origin page describes scalable S3-compatible storage for organisations managing growing volumes of data, designed for high availability, data protection and governance without legacy storage infrastructure, with capacity that expands as demand grows while blueAPACHE manages the platform and availability.

The pathology provider case study is the detailed published description of the service in operation. blueAPACHE STaaS, built with HPE, is described as cloud-agnostic and removes the need to store and retrieve data from tape. Data is stored with immutability, so records cannot be deleted or changed unless an authorised user is physically present at the registered device. Data is protected in real time across three data centres. Authorised users can access it from anywhere, unlike tape. The service has its own core network fabric providing high-speed, secure connectivity to public and private clouds, supports multi-cloud environments, and offers additional connectivity to emPOWER Cloud and emPOWER Network. Because the connectivity is blueAPACHE's own, there are no egress or ingress charges and pricing is fixed and predictable.

What is not included

The case study and origin page do not state a retention period, a replication schedule, an object-count or capacity ceiling, or a separate uptime figure for the STaaS tier; the 100 per cent storage uptime figure is published for emPOWER Cloud's HPE Primera arrays, not specifically for STaaS. Immutability is an option to be configured per bucket or dataset, not a default the buyer should assume.

Storage is not backup. Placing data in STaaS does not create a blueAPACHE backup obligation unless the Schedule expressly includes backups (clause 3.14); the customer otherwise remains responsible for its own backups (clause 3.15). It is also not disaster recovery, which is emPOWER IT Continuity Services with an agreed Restore Time Objective. Responsibility for the lawfulness and record-keeping compliance of the stored data stays with the customer under clause 17.1, including obligations under taxation law, State Record Acts or Archives Acts; assistance with those obligations is available as a Professional Service.

Who it is for

The case study profile is a private pathology provider with hundreds of clinics that must, by law, keep sampling information and health records for at least 10 years and needed to integrate data from third-party suppliers. More generally the service suits organisations with large archives, long statutory retention, a need for tamper-proof storage, and a preference for fixed monthly cost over unpredictable tape logistics or public-cloud egress fees. The emPOWER Cloud brochure names healthcare, not-for-profit, mining and manufacturing as compliance-intensive sectors blueAPACHE supports.

How it is delivered

Onboarding follows the Transition In Services in clause 8. Data migration from tape or legacy arrays is scoped per engagement; the case study does not quantify the volume migrated or the migration duration. Capacity is consumed through the S3 interface and expands with demand. blueAPACHE manages the underlying platform and availability, and because STaaS runs on shared infrastructure clause 5.1 lets blueAPACHE update software and replace components with similar or superior ones without prior customer consent. Customers must provide 24x7 remote access to relevant components and keep their own software current and licensed (clause 7.1).

Commercial model

The origin page describes a consumption-based model in which capacity expands with business needs. The case study adds that pricing is fixed and predictable, can be locked in over multi-term contracts, and carries no egress or ingress charges. Under clause 12, usage-based fees are invoiced monthly in arrears subject to any Minimum Spend, fixed fees monthly in advance, and usage may be rounded up to the nearest whole unit (the terms give 1.4GB rounded to 2GB as the example). Where pricing is in usage bands, the customer may request a band change, subject to any fee and the Minimum Spend (clause 12.3). No price per terabyte is published.

Support and service levels

Platform support is 24x7 per the emPOWER Cloud brochure, and Managed Services customers receive the unlimited 24/7 help desk. Service Levels are only those stated under the "Service Level" heading in the Service Description, measured by blueAPACHE's tools, and subject to the Reasonable Excuse carve-out; the general terms contain no service credit regime. Monthly performance reports arrive within five Business Days of month end. Scheduled maintenance runs within Schedule windows or on three Business Days' notice.

Related services

Offsite Backup as a Service and Private and Public SaaS Backup can use STaaS as their target tier; Disaster Recovery as a Service restores workloads to an agreed RTO; emPOWER Cloud is the compute platform alongside. emPOWER Core Network and Data Centre Interconnect provides the private path between customer sites and the storage fabric. Advanced Infrastructure Managed Services covers the servers and virtualisation that sit in front of the storage.

Evidence

• Private pathology provider: tape eliminated; immutable health records protected in real time across three data centres; fixed, predictable pricing with no egress or ingress charges; meets the 10-year retention obligation. The source is undated, the client anonymised, and it is presented as an illustrative use case.
• HPE partnership: emPOWER Cloud built on HPE Synergy and HPE Primera; blueAPACHE cited as HPE Service Provider of the Year 2021.

Buying questions

Contract term and renewal. 36 months by default from the Service Commencement Date (clause 2.6). Written Notice by executed Service Order to renew or exit; otherwise a three-month holdover at full list price with Service Levels off (clause 2.9). The case study notes pricing can be locked over multi-term contracts.

Termination. Customer: unremedied breach after 20 Business Days, blueAPACHE insolvency or ceasing business (clause 24.1). blueAPACHE: non-payment after five Business Days, specified breaches after 20 Business Days, insolvency, change of control (clause 24.2). Early Termination Payment under the Schedule and immediate payment of unmet Minimum Service Period or Minimum Spend (clause 25.2). blueAPACHE may also suspend or cancel a Service on end-of-life or upstream supplier grounds under clause 3.26 without a fixed notice period.

Exit. blueAPACHE deletes Customer Data at the end of the Service Period at no cost and the customer must take its own copy first (clause 9.1). For a large archive, agree the exit window, export format and the network path for bulk extraction; the no-egress-charge position stated in the case study applies during the term and should be confirmed for exit.

Data protection and residency. Australian storage and processing per the data sovereignty statement; mutual Privacy Act compliance and 24-hour breach notification; standing overseas transfer consent for Personal Information in clause 18.3; no GDPR-regulated data.

Liability. General cap of three months' fees or $25,000 per claim (clause 19.3). Data-loss liability excluded unless a backup or DR obligation applies and is breached (clause 19.4(a)).

Defining retention and retrieval together

Identify data, applications and retention and deletion rules. Where immutability is part of the design, establish how retention is set and administered. Storage durability, backup and application restoration are different outcomes. Agree retrieval and exit alongside storage, including the format and access a replacement system needs. The pathology example’s retention and commercial terms should not be assumed for every storage customer.

Which document defines the commitment

The published General Terms v3.6 give the Service Order precedence over the General Terms, followed by the Schedules and then the Acceptable Use Policy (clause 2.3). Record the agreed scope, exclusions and negotiated departures in that document set. A brochure or a procurement discussion does not, by itself, define the customer-specific commitment. Keep the versions supplied at signing with the executed order and signed variations. Two offers with the same service name can cover different systems, operating hours or responsibilities.

Confidential information and access

Clause 16 provides mutual confidentiality protection. It covers information marked confidential, information identified orally and confirmed in writing within 30 days, and information that should reasonably be understood to be confidential. Customer Data, Customer Records and Customer Software are included; blueAPACHE’s agreement and fees are also confidential. Permitted disclosures include appropriately bound personnel on a need-to-know basis and specified professional advisers, with other exceptions in the clause. Identify who may receive operational reports, configuration details and commercial information. Access to information to deliver the service is not a general permission to circulate it.

Customer content and take-down requests

Clause 14 distinguishes operating the service from responsibility for the customer’s content. It requires the customer to notify blueAPACHE promptly of relevant take-down notices or directions and comply with them. The terms also reserve rights for blueAPACHE to restrict or remove Customer Data in specified circumstances, including suspected agreement breaches or exposure to harm or liability. These rights are separate from routine availability commitments. Agree who receives regulatory notices and who can authorise operational action, and retain the notice and decision record. The full clause, including its discretion and good-faith wording, is explained in the terms guide.

Responsibility across the delivery chain

The published terms allow blueAPACHE to subcontract all or part of the Service Agreement without customer consent or a notification requirement. Clause 27.5 nevertheless makes blueAPACHE liable for its subcontractors’ acts and omissions to the same extent as for its employees. This differs from a third-party supplier contracted directly by the customer. Identify which arrangement applies to each dependency in the design. Where supplier identity, delivery location or change notification matters, request a documented supplier list and put any agreed notification or approval requirement in the Service Order; the general clause does not supply that visibility automatically.

Continuity when an external event interrupts service

Clause 23 addresses force majeure separately from normal incident management. Performance is suspended to the extent a qualifying event causes delay or failure. The definition includes specified events outside reasonable control; it is not a blanket classification of every outage. If the delay exceeds 20 Business Days, the other party may terminate by written notice. The clause also requires payment for services to termination and the applicable Early Termination Payment. A continuity plan should cover operational recovery and the commercial consequences of prolonged interruption. Confirm the Schedule’s exit calculation rather than assuming an externally caused outage creates a cost-free exit.

Sources and scope

The contractual detail above summarises the published General Terms and Conditions v3.6, using the KB documents on service agreement formation and document precedence; confidentiality; take down notices and customer data; subcontracting and assignment; force majeure. The customer’s Service Order, Schedules and agreed variations determine the specific engagement. See the terms and conditions guide and Service Agreement.

Related

• Cloud pillar hub
• emPOWER Cloud
• Offsite Backup as a Service
• Private and Public SaaS Backup
• Disaster Recovery as a Service
• emPOWER Core Network and Data Centre Interconnect
• Advanced Infrastructure Managed Services
• Case study: blueAPACHE on HPE GreenLake
• Industry: Healthcare and aged care
• Industry: Government and public sector
• Partners
• Service Agreement terms
• Support
• Contact blueAPACHE

Frequently asked questions

What is S3-compatible storage?

Object storage that speaks the Amazon S3 API, so applications, backup tools and archiving systems written for S3 can use it without change. blueAPACHE's service provides this on private infrastructure it manages, rather than on a public cloud.

Is the storage immutable?

Immutable storage is an option. In the pathology case study, health records and sampling data are stored so that they cannot be deleted or changed unless an authorised user is physically at the registered device, which is the control that makes the archive tamper-resistant.

Where is the data held and how is it protected?

In Australian-based data centres under Australian legal jurisdiction, per blueAPACHE's data sovereignty statement. In the case study deployment, data is protected in real time across three data centres.

Are there egress or ingress charges?

The case study states there are none, because blueAPACHE STaaS uses its own core network connectivity, and that pricing is fixed and predictable and can be locked over multi-term contracts. Confirm on the Service Order that the same position applies to bulk extraction at exit.

Who is the technology partner?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The case study describes the STaaS solution as built by blueAPACHE with HPE, and blueAPACHE's emPOWER Cloud runs on HPE Synergy compute and HPE Primera all-flash storage.

Does putting data in STaaS mean it is backed up?

No. Storage and backup are different obligations. blueAPACHE has a backup obligation only where the Schedule expressly includes it; otherwise the customer must keep its own backups and liability for data loss is excluded.

What uptime applies to the storage?

The emPOWER Cloud brochure publishes 100 per cent uptime for storage on the HPE Primera arrays. The STaaS case study and origin page do not state a separate figure, so the contractual Service Level for STaaS is whatever is written under the "Service Level" heading in the Service Description.

How is it priced?

On consumption, with capacity expanding as needed. Usage fees are invoiced monthly in arrears subject to any Minimum Spend, usage may be rounded up to the nearest unit, and usage bands can be adjusted on request. blueAPACHE does not publish a rate card.

Can the storage connect to public clouds?

Yes. The case study describes a core network fabric with high-speed, secure connectivity to public and private clouds and multi-cloud support, plus connectivity to emPOWER Cloud and emPOWER Network.

What is the minimum term and what happens at the end?

36 months by default. At the end of the Service Period blueAPACHE deletes Customer Data at no cost and the customer must have taken its own copy first, so an exit plan for a large archive should be agreed up front.

Who is responsible for the legality of what is stored?

The customer, under clause 17.1, including record-keeping obligations under taxation, State Record and Archives legislation. blueAPACHE can help with those obligations as a chargeable Professional Service.

Source

Drawn from blueAPACHE's published Storage as a Service origin page and the pathology provider Storage-as-a-Service case study; the emPOWER Cloud, vendor partner and emPOWER Network material; the ISO 27001 certification record and data sovereignty and residency statement; and the General Terms and Conditions v3.6 (backup and disaster recovery obligations, information security obligations, liability and indemnity, fees payment and invoicing, service term renewal and minimum service period, termination rights, consequences of termination, service suspension and cancellation, transition-in and disengagement services, shared services and infrastructure control, customer obligations, service delivery and service levels, and data protection and privacy). Retention periods, capacity ceilings, a STaaS-specific uptime figure and pricing are not published and are not inferred here.

Knowledge Base