eHive

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Sign up
  • What is eHive?
    • Take a Tour
    • Importing Data Into eHive
    • Protect Your Data
    • Comply with Standards
    • Join a Community
    • Do More With Your Data
    • eHive Policies
      • Terms and Conditions
      • Payment and Refund Policy
      • Copyright Claims
    • Technical Specifications
    • Common Questions
  • Pricing
  • News
    • Articles
    • Newsletter
  • About
    • Roadmap
    • Release History
    • Our History
    • Contact Us
  • Help
  • Explore eHive»
You are here: Home / Technical Specifications

Technical Specifications

eHive is a web-based collection cataloguing system developed by Vernon Systems. Go to Take a Tour to see an overview of the features of eHive. The best way to explore the system is to create a free account.

Click here to download eHive Technical Specifications:

eHive Technical Specifications (PDF 221KB)

  • Setting up eHive
  • Integration
  • Support and Upgrades
  • Security and Compliance
  • Backup and Hosting

Setting up eHive


Pricing

eHive accounts purchase a subscription for their usage on eHive either yearly or every 5 years. eHive’s subscription covers use of the software, storage and ongoing development of the product.

You can have 50MB of media storage on eHive for free with a Starter account. Each image or PDF uploaded uses the same amount as it’s file size (e.g. if the original image is 1MB, this uses 1MB of storage on eHive).

Our pricing structure breaks down the cost for each storage level for either a 1 year or 5 year subscription.

Hardware and software requirements

eHive requires a stable internet connection.

We support the latest version of all common internet browsers (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Safari). eHive is tested on older versions, but we recommend you run the latest version of your preferred browser.

Account users

The Starter and Bronze plans include one administrator login. Multiple users can share the same login. Silver plans and above allow you to create multiple logins for different users and specific whether a login has administrator, curator (basic cataloguing functions), or viewer (read-only) access.

If users try to edit a record at the same time, the record will overwrite with each save. This means whoever saves last, makes the change to the record.

Private and public records

We understand how important it is to ensure your privacy. On eHive, you have complete control over which information you share with the public, and what records you publish.

Public users (users that are not logged in) can only view objects, images, and PDFs that have been approved for public access. Public users only have access to core descriptive fields within the object record. We will not disclose any confidential information.

When you save a record, you can decide if a record is public or private. To publish, you tick the Publish to eHive checkbox.
eHive checkbox for Publishing

 

If you don’t want your record to be publicly visible, untick the ‘Publish to eHive’ checkbox when saving the record.

In Account Settings, you can choose if this box is ticked or unticked by default.

Testing

You can create a free account on eHive to test.

Monitoring usage

You can see how much storage your account is currently using under the Settings section > Plan and Usage.
Plan and usage

Integration


Mobile use

eHive uses a responsive web layout that changes the display based on device’s screen dimensions. eHive can be accessed from mobile and tablet devices via any supported web browser.

We do not recommend cataloguing an object record on a mobile phone as the cataloguing screens benefit from a larger screen. Cataloguing an object can be done on a tablet.

API and WordPress

eHive has an API and WordPress plugins for embedding object records and images within a WordPress website. For more information, see http://developers.ehive.com/

Support and upgrades


Support

eHive support is based in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Our support covers any technical issues or bugs. eHive is designed to be used with no training or support requirements. Our help can be found at https://info.ehive.com/help/

Planned outages and upgrades

eHive is designed to work 24/7. Users are notified of planned outages as a banner at the top of the page when they log into eHive. Planned outages are rare.

Upgrades are done as needed, and will not require any installation by the account users.

Security and compliance


Data ownership

You are the owner of all information (text and files) that you have uploaded to eHive. We will not give away or sell your content.

You can export all (or a subset) of your data at any time using eHive’s reporting function. Data can be exported in CSV, XLS, XML or PDF formats

eHive does not store credit card information or personal information.

Vernon Systems has a source code escrow agreement in place. The source code of the eHive software is held by an independent agent. The source code will be released by the agent to the eHive community if Vernon Systems is no longer trading.

Closing an account

You can close your account from under the Settings > Plan and Usage menu. All content must be deleted from the account first, and we can assist you with this step if needed. Your data will still exist in our historic daily backups, but we agree to never use this data in any way.

Online payments

eHive payments are processed through Windcave. Their processes are PCI compliant. We do not access or store credit card information within eHive.

Technical liability insurance

Vernon Systems holds technical liability insurance covering claims up to $NZ15 million. The coverage includes internet liability, media Liability, and loss of information.

GDPR compliance

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) is a regulation by which the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission intend to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU). It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU.

Protection of personal data in New Zealand law

Vernon Systems Limited is a registered New Zealand company. New Zealand has been recognised by the European Commission as having adequate protection for personal data, allowing data to be sent from an EU country to New Zealand without any further safeguards. The European Commission statement can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-transfers-outside-eu/adequacy-protection-personal-data-non-eu-countries_en

Personal data within eHive

eHive currently only stores people’s names. A more detailed person record data entry screen is planned, but users will be able to decide how much personal information they wish to store.

Amazon Web Services GDPR compliance

eHive relies on Amazon Web Services. AWS terms and conditions automatically includes provisions for GDPR compliance: https://d1.awsstatic.com/legal/aws-gdpr/AWS_GDPR_DPA.pdf

Security

Sign In passwords have a minimum length and must include letters and numbers. This means that simple passwords that could be easily determined cannot be used. We do not support single sign-on.

All pages are accessed using encrypted webpages (HTTPS) so that access to private images is secured in the same way as online banking systems. eHive servers are secured so that only standard web access is allowed. This prevents external access to other software and commands on the server.

Passwords are stored in an encrypted format that is not visible even with direct access to the database. Other data is not encrypted, but is protected through other barriers including:

  • Server access uses Amazon Web Services two-factor authentication which relies on physical tokens that generate temporary access codes in combination with usernames/passwords.
  • External root access is disabled
  • Backend and middleware servers are protected through an Amazon security group so that they are only accessible from the frontend servers in our private network
  • Amazon data centres are compliant with ISO 27001:2013 data security standards

In the case of a security breach Vernon Systems will attempt to contact account holders but will not be liable in any way if it is unable to contact everyone.

Backup and hosting

eHive is hosted by Amazon Web Services. Their servers are located in Virginia, United States of America.

Backup ProcessGraphic showing the back up process for eHive

eHive is backed up in multiple places:

  • Amazon Web Services takes a snapshot of eHive every 5 minutes and holds those snapshots for 30 days.
  • All data is stored on multiple hard disks to allow eHive to continue running in case of a hardware failure.
  • Data is backed up to a different city (Auckland, New Zealand) to preserve data during an extreme event, such as a fire at the data centre.
  • The entire content (text and media files) is backed up daily, weekly and monthly.

Amazon Web Services has redundant power systems, generator back up, redundant air conditioning and multiple independent connections to the internet.

Testimonials

New England Regional Art Museum

I’ve worked with the Team at eHive to deliver three online collection projects – across archives, library and art museum collections, both in New Zealand and Australia. The technical support is exemplary and the eHive Team have offered guidance and advice that makes solving any problems easy and maximising project potential possible. I’ve used eHive as both a host website for online collections, and for a fully integrated museum website search experience that has helped diversify our audiences and allow people to respond to collections in a tangible way.

Tanya Robinson - New Zealand & Australia

Mataura Museum

Thanks to eHive we are now a museum without walls. After putting our collection online, web visitors exceed physical visitors by a factor of ten, all without having to set up and maintain our own website. This wider reach has brought a raft of new connections to our small community museum.

David Luoni - New Zealand

Tweed Regional Museum

eHive has allowed the Tweed Regional Museum to easily publish our collection online, making it more accessible than ever before, revolutionising how we work and how far our collection can go. The back end of the system is incredibly easy to use, making it simple for staff with non technical backgrounds to publish the collection online. The team at Vernon have an excellent customer service ethos and help is never far away. We can’t recommend eHive to other small or medium museums enough.

Erika Taylor - Australia

Ashley Parker

Personally I consider eHive to be an absolute triumph. It is easy to use, logical, comprehensive, economic, safe (as in backed up), it has an open data/migration path to get data out and the support is superb. I will absolutely encourage other institutions I come across to change over to it. I did a pretty thorough analysis of the competition out there before selecting eHive and it seemed the best approach of all the choices.

Ashley Parker - Australia

About

eHive is an innovative web-based system that will help you catalogue, organise and share your collection in a simple and secure way. eHive is developed by Vernon Systems.
Vernon Systems Ltd © 2025
  • Contact Us
  • Developers
  • eHive Forum
  • eHive Policies
  • Help
  • News
  • Facebook

Copyright © 2025 · eHive Info on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in