Johannesburg, 28 Jul 2004
NetShield SA, which recently signed a joint venture agreement with IT systems and communications distributor Comztek, has embarked on an aggressive expansion drive across the country.
A proudly South African research and development house, NetShield SA has introduced revised pricing structures for its range of products, which enhance network connectivity and telecommunications. These products include media converters, transceivers, interface switches, laser communications, multiplexers, modem eliminators and lightning protection units.
Mark Dorfling, NetShield SA business development manager at Comztek, says NetShield understands the dynamics of the local market as a manufacturer and supplier of telecoms and datacoms products to its clients in the government, mining, banking and corporate space.
He points out that while all NetShield products are developed, designed and manufactured in SA, they also conform to international quality standards. They carry a lifetime warranty that covers the product for as long as silicon components are available.
"Our main focus has been to develop, design and provide customised solutions that have evolved into mainline commercial products. We have realised that there is scope for our products in other sectors of the market and have established the NetShield range through a distribution network of resellers," he says.
The most recent project undertaken by NetShield SA was for the development of an advanced bandwidth multiplexer for the second national operator (SNO). The process followed by NetShield SA was to first understand the SNO partners` objectives.
In this case, the client was utilising bandwidth from three different suppliers and needed to be able to remotely configure, monitor and manage user sites due to their pervasive locations.
NetShield has also provided a cellular communications company with a billing multiplexer to remove 64kbps time slots from a bundled E1 structured frame. The multiplexer now forms the core connection onto the billing servers, and includes power supply redundancy in a restricted space.
NetShield has provided another of its customers with a free space optical (FSO) communications system that had to transmit data at 2Mbps, with the possibility of increasing bandwidth to 155Mbps, over a distance of two kilometres.
"One of our industrial customers needed us to encapsulate the company`s datacoms stream in standard IP for transmission over standard Ethernet networks. They also required a single-port on a multi-port device, which would not only alleviate the need for dual networks, but also prove that additional bandwidth is available to add voice capability," he says.
The end result is that the customer has been able to combine its industrial control data-communications, voice and Ethernet networks into one network, thereby reducing the cost of maintenance of three networks to one.
"In this particular instance, the client is only billed for the backup stock as and when it is utilised. Depending on customer requirements, there is also the option of renting NetShield products, which includes full after-sales backup and support," he concludes.
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