BCX has announced the launch of its Virtustream capability out of its Tier IV data centres in South Africa. The partnership with Virtustream, a Dell Technologies business, enables BCX to host business critical workloads in the cloud and will be available to enterprise and public sector customers in the second half of 2017.
“Virtustream is going to be a complete game changer in cloud in South Africa,” says Jacques Loubser, Chief of Infrastructure Solutions at BCX. “It will address all the shortcomings of the current commodity cloud offerings for enterprises and public sector entities in the country, offering reliability, security, compliance and performance of a dedicated private cloud, combined with the flexibility, scalability and economic benefits of a public multi-tenant cloud.”
Through the organisation’s innovative, patented micro-VM (µVM)— resource management technology, Virtustream can provide enterprises with a utility-based cloud solution that allows them to enjoy true consumption-based billing.
“Our enterprise and public sector customers have been asking for a locally available business critical cloud and that is exactly what we can now offer them. They want 24/7 support from a local provider, backed by an international vendor and underpinned by a reputable brand,” he says. “Seeing that the Virtustream solution will run out of BCX’s Tier IV data centres, it will reduce latency and overcome the issue of data sovereignty as data is hosted locally. The solution also includes real-time risk compliance and security reporting which creates a solid risk profile of the organisation.”
The solution allows enterprises and public sector entities to spin down micro-VMs and shut down complete landscapes when they are not in use, resulting in tremendous cost savings. BCX also has the tools to show potential customers what they could save by migrating to the Virtustream solution.
“Modern business has become synonymous with cloud platform technology, so our cloud offerings must stand apart through quality, reliability and support,” says Doug Woolley, GM of Dell EMC South Africa. “BCX has always provided all of that and more, strengthening one of our most important partnerships. This is very important in the local market, which has started to adopt cloud solutions in big strides. As an experienced and trusted solution provider across the enterprise vertical, BCX are well positioned to lead the South African cloud story and it’s fantastic that they chose Virtustream for that same journey.”
“Our partnership with BCX to extend their cloud solutions into mission-critical applications will revolutionise the market in South Africa,” said Steve Midgley, vice president, Virtustream. “Virtustream’s platform is the preferred solution for enterprise cloud services delivering mission-critical applications for customers throughout the world, and this coupled with the proven capabilities and market presence provided by BCX, will create unprecedented opportunities for enterprises in South Africa to embrace the benefits of cloud.”
“Finally, South African enterprises operating in-country and into the rest of the continent will have the capability available to them to run business critical workloads in an enterprise-class cloud with local hosting, and security and reporting measures that can set them apart from their competitors,” says Loubser. “As part of the Telkom Group, our network infrastructure and data centres enables us to deliver end-to-end digital solutions for large and medium enterprises in the public and private sectors. Couple this with the Virtustream solution and we can empower our clients to tackle the challenges of digitalisation head-on, ensuring they are relevant businesses tomorrow.”