Page 12 - EngineerIt July 2021

ICT CLOUD

Five nines, two industry leaders,

one hybrid success story

Achieving the high availability, minimal downtime and absolute
data integrity that comes with hybrid cloud ingenuity.

odernised infrastructure” - These two words are and running, and
weighted with far more than just the idea that legacy then activate the
“Mtechnology and systems are replaced by the shiny required access for
and the new. our teams,” says
For Principa, modernised infrastructure was the terminology Rossouw. “In spite Johan De Villiers, CEO Jaco Rossouw CEO at
Principa
at First Technology
that defined their smart move to a hybrid cloud environment that of a severe national
allowed the company to fully align internal systems with strategic lockdown, the racks were ready, the data integrity assured, and
objectives and overcome lingering system performance and the system running to our very high standards of five nines –
infrastructure challenges. 99,99999 availability. The move gave us the improved latency,
“Principa wanted technology that would allow them to connectivity and heft we needed to tap into a fully realised and
free up capacity and focus outwards, on strategic initiatives, capable hybrid cloud environment.”
rather than having to focus inwards on addressing operational From the massive move of equipment to the finest detail in
challenges,” says Johan De Villiers, CEO at First Technology. delivery, First Technology ensured that the infrastructure was
“They wanted their data and analytics tool kits to be compliant properly integrated into a hybrid cloud environment. The company
and capable, providing them with the insights they needed to now has dedicated server racks in a FirstNet cloud environment,
run innovation, not run around patching operational problems with the guaranteed five nines of uptime availability and has
within their internal environment.” fundamentally shifted the complexities of system maintenance
Principa had been juggling numerous challenges with regards and IT downtime.
to system efficiency and scalability, delivering less than optimal In addition, the problems of connectivity, power, cooling, and
support to product innovation and growth. The company serves both physical and cyber security had to be addressed. “Security is
multiple clients in over more than 20 countries and has delivered one of the critical aspects of this move,” says Rossouw. “Our data
more than 2, 000 analytical projects to date. and solutions have to be hosted in a highly secure environment
Building software solutions, predictive models, wrangling so this move allowed us to invest into robust security designed to
client data, refining complexities – the company was focused mitigate serious risks such as data or security breaches.”
on providing exceptionally high-end data driven solutions and The solution delivers to all of Principa’s comprehensive
services to its customer base, while navigating ongoing IT Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service
operational constraints. requirements, minimising the need for additional support and
“Our infrastructure partner was holding us back and consuming ensuring that there is a reduced risk of poor service delivery. With
valuable time and focus from our IT department” says Rossouw. one service provider and a single point of service, the Principa
“We had to shift the focus away from problem solving and business hybrid cloud solution is tightly managed within rigorous confines. It
as usual (BAU) support towards business strategy, proactive also opens the door to further expand services, customer solutions
investment and streamlined IT infrastructure. We had already and capabilities as the IT team can now focus on critical strategic
partnered with First Technology in modernising our hardware so it initiatives rather than on day-to-day operational support.
made sense to partner with them in modernising our data centre “We specialise in data-driven solutions, and we had to
infrastructure, streamlining our business operations and leveraging position our technology to align with our solution delivery,”
the capabilities of a hybrid cloud environment.” concludes Rossouw. “We are absolutely compliant with regulations
such as POPIA and GDPR, amongst others, and we provide
Beating the pandemic comprehensive protection for the data we work with. We can
The first step was to move the Principa core servers hosted in engage with our remote workforce, a diverse client base and
an on-premise data centre in Johannesburg to Cape Town in the ongoing market demands, on demand. And we can adapt our
middle of a global pandemic. This involved shifting vast racks down proficiencies to meet evolving business strategies as and when
a long road at a time when transport systems were locked down required, scaling our hybrid cloud investment to suit what we need.
and difficult to navigate. Needless to say, it was an achievement It’s the best of both worlds.”
seamlessly managed by the First Technology team, and the data The partnership between the two market leaders, Principa and
infrastructure was efficiently re-located, connected and integrated. First Technology, took Principa’s ageing infrastructure into the cloud,
“It took the team less than 24 hours to move the equipment enabled comprehensive digital transformation, reduced expenditure
from Johannesburg to Cape Town, get all the connectivity up and increased innovation. All in one swift, hybrid move. n

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