Page 32 - EngineerIT May 2022

CLOUD HOSTING

iOCO Cloud simplifies multi-cloud

solutions with VMware

OCO Cloud, a division of iOCO, the
ICT services arm of the EOH Group,
iis leveraging its VMware Cloud
Provider Partner (VCPP) status to enable
customers to centralise the deployment
of both multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud
environments from its seven global
datacentres. These services are hosted
in interconnectivity partner Teraco Data
Environments’ Africa Cloud Exchange in
Africa.
With the entry of the hyperscaler
cloud providers in South Africa, customers
want service providers that offer a
seamless exchange between their private
clouds and public cloud providers. A Paul Spagnoletti Sumeeth Singh
VCPP partner, iOCO, uses VMware’s cloud
solutions as the infrastructure fabric on A 100% hosted cloud offering providing cloud-as-a-service, iOCO forms the critical
which it hosts its cloud services while link between a client’s private cloud and a public cloud. Its service offerings extend to
providing them subscription-based delivering clients with managed cloud services, enablement and roadmaps. With Teraco
VMware licensing to build their cloud. as its interconnectivity partner, iOCO also draws from the security and performance of the
A large part of its success is attributed interconnectivity provided by the Africa Data Exchange, and the proximity of the onramps to
to iOCO’s partnership with Teraco Data one or multiple clouds.
Environments, currently the local onramp “The way we articulate our role and the benefits we provide is that we partner with
for many hyperscalers’ interoperability cloud providers like iOCO, to offer a connectivity ecosystem via all the networks that land
between private and public at Teraco. Plus, an onramp to every hyperscaler, be it AWS, Microsoft or Oracle,
clouds. this opens opportunities for end-users to optimise their journey to digital
“We started this A 100% transformation, an area our VMware Cloud Provider Partners, like iOCO,
journey a decade ago, are good at capitalising on,” said Di Buijs, Strategic Partnerships,
early in local cloud hosted cloud Teraco Data Environments.
terms, so you do offering providing cloud- According to Spagnoletti, iOCO’s platform has an uptime
not run the risk of 99.99999%. It’s not gone down in ten years, even when it
of just dealing as-a-service, iOCO forms expanded its services to include the VCPP offerings and increased
with another the critical link between its number of customers. He says the environment’s ability to
infrastructure a client’s private cloud auto-scale and auto-provision as customers are added testament
hosting partner,” to the flexibility and agility afforded from the VMware vCloud
said Paul Spagnoletti, and a public cloud. Verified stack.
Business Unit Executive: “VMware is a major part of our hosted cloud platform; they are
Cloud and Security South front and centre of it and a massive part of our technical landscape. Their
Africa. “Our goal has always ongoing investment into their offerings and solutions help us enhance and
been to develop a multi-cloud, multi- continually adapt our services to our customers, frequently without a customer even
tenant environment we manage for clients, realising their cloud is driven by VMware,” said Spagnoletti.
or offer clients self-service capabilities. Sumeeth Singh, Head of Cloud Provider Business Sub-Saharan Africa, VMware, said:
Our partnerships with VMware and Teraco “Through the value it delivers and its ability to offer clients a single pane of glass into multi-
have been critical to the development of cloud and hybrid cloud environments, iOCO demonstrates the importance of partnerships in
our any-cloud-as-a-service solution, which a highly competitive cloud market. It’s any-cloud-as-a-service solutions, and its knowledge
facilitates a customer’s move away from of marrying multiple cloud offerings into a single service place it in an enviable position in
CAPEX models towards an OPEX-based IT the local market. From a VMware perspective, we are excited to be a part of a multi-cloud
solution.” platform for all applications offering simplicity of choice for our partners and customers.“ n

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