by Chris Blake
Introduction
SimForm is the cloud-based solution for front-end temperature simulation of plastic injection molds. Molders and mold designers use SimForm to predict cooling cycle time, quantify hot spots on the plastic part, and optimize the cooling design of their molds. We built SimForm natively in the cloud to make your experience as simple as possible.
Cloud-based software, also known as software-as-a-service (SaaS), is convenient for the following reasons:
- Minimal IT infrastructure costs: No more waiting for IT approval of installations and updates. We ensure that the software is running on the latest hardware with the latest features.
- Favorable cost model: No more software maintenance costs or limited license pool.
- High-performance computing: In the cloud, we leverage high-end computer hardware to get you results faster and at a reasonable price-point.
- Access anytime, anywhere: You can access the software from anywhere you have a web-browser connected to the internet.
With this convenience comes certain concerns about the cloud, particularly around the security of your business data: CAD models, simulation results, and project meta-data. In this post, we discuss three ways that SimForm uses the modern cloud to ensure your data is secure.
Secure Connections
SimForm is a secure web application that ensures confidentiality by encrypting all data transmitted to and from the app during transit.
SimForm uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), like the majority of websites and apps today, to secure the communication between your browser and our servers. You’ll recognize this by the “lock” symbol in your browser’s address bar. This is the same mechanism used by online banking websites to protect your sensitive information.
The HTTPS protocol is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS) to prevent eavesdroppers from accessing or modifying your data while it’s being transferred. Your browser trusts the connection with the SimForm app because it issues a valid certificate. HTTPS provides a secure connection over an unsecured network like the open internet.
For more information, see What is HTTPS? HTTP vs HTTPS Meaning and How it Works.
Data Encryption in the Cloud
The SimForm web application is hosted by Microsoft Azure – the same infrastructure used by Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and Office 365. SimForm benefits from the inherent security features of that platform. All of the business data you provide to the application – including CAD models, project meta-data, job parameters, and results – resides in Azure (blob) storage. By default, all storage is encrypted using 256-bit AES encryption, one of the strongest block ciphers available. This ensures that even if an attacker gains physical access to the servers in the cloud, they won’t be able read your data. In the case of SimForm, we’ve delegated the responsibility of encryption to Azure to protect your confidentiality.
To learn more about Microsoft Azure’s practices, see Azure Storage encryption for data at rest
Password Protection
To access your SimForm account, you log in with your email and password. SimForm implements role-based access control to ensure that all of your data is segregated from every other user’s. No one can access your projects, jobs, and results without your password, thus ensuring your mold designs remain confidential.
Even if you migrate your individual account to a company account, you can share your projects with other company users only if you provide explicit permission. Your data can only be accessed via the SimForm application, meaning no user is allowed to access your files directly.
Other Precautions
If you are concerned about how we handle your payment information, be assured that SimForm never sees or accesses your credit card information. Instead, we use a trusted third-party service provider called Stripe to process your transactions. Stripe is PCI compliant, meaning it adheres to the global security standard to store, process, or transmit cardholder data and/or sensitive authentication data. Your transactions are therefore kept secure and confidential. For more information, see how Stripe helps organizations achieve and maintain PCI compliance
In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we only collect the personal data necessary to provide you with the best SimForm experience possible. This data is stored securely within an Azure Active Directory tenant.
Finally, our company, Maya HTT, has been around for 40 years. We’ve worked directly with over 500 customers, including in the medical, aerospace and defense fields. We know how important confidentiality is for your business. As specified in SimForm’s Terms of Service, we will only ever access your data for the purposes of providing you with great customer support and improving the product.
Conclusion
Cloud security has come a long way over the past decade. With more software being offered “as-a-service” and industry-wide best practices well established, you can trust that your mold design data is secure. SimForm takes security seriously, implementing robust measures such as role-based access control and encryption to protect your confidential data.