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Datacentrix partners with Symantec for Symantec.cloud hosted messaging solution


Johannesburg, 11 Apr 2011

E-mail and electronic communications have evolved into the de facto standard for business communications. These applications have risen to mission-critical levels within all companies - regardless of the industry within which they operate - and, as a result, have increased in size and complexity.

Contemporary developments in unified communications technologies have further complicated the business communications environment.

Given their pervasive usage and reach within the organisation, the costs associated with these systems and the infrastructure, resources and personnel required to keep the communications service up and available have skyrocketed. Compounding these issues are the growing volumes of legislation surrounding the retention and maintenance of business records.

This is according to John Dewar, business unit manager: Storage Solutions at Datacentrix, a black empowered provider of high performing and secure ICT solutions and Symantec Silver Partner, who explains that, with enterprise data volumes growing exponentially in a world of decreasing or flat IT infrastructure budgets, cloud solutions offer businesses a unique value proposition by substituting in house systems and resources with documented service level agreements (SLAs).

“The business merely has to monitor and manage the service provider's compliance against the agreed service level objectives, allowing finances and resources to be dedicated to core business operations,” he explains. “The Symantec.cloud e-mail archiving service offers just such a solution for e-mail anti-virus, anti-spam and archiving services.”

Production electronic messaging applications, such as Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino, are designed for the efficient transfer of messages throughout a user community. However, modern usage patterns and message volumes have stretched these applications to their limits with regards to the handling of malware and malicious code as well as the volume of data the application is required to store and manage.

“Datacentrix and Symantec believe that production message stores should be kept to an absolute minimum, thereby reducing the infrastructure and resources required to support the messaging service,” states Dewar.

“This is achieved through the integration of an active archiving solution, through which administrative personnel can specify message retention periods and seamlessly migrate message content from the production system into the archive. When this solution is combined with a cloud-based delivery mechanism, the result is a hosted e-mail archiving solution that increases e-mail application uptime and reduces costs, while promoting ease of management and regulatory compliance.”

The Symantec.cloud e-mail archiving service is based on technology and services attained through Symantec's recent acquisition of MessageLabs. Hosted locally in South Africa, this service combines an anti-virus/anti-spam money back guarantee as well as unlimited storage for a hosted e-mail archiving service. Licensed on a per seat basis, the Symantec.cloud MessageLabs e-mail archiving service provides a cost effective secure e-mail archiving solution across the industry's broadest range of electronic messaging solutions, including Microsoft Exchange 2003, 2007 & 2010, IBM Lotus Domino 6.x - 8.x and Novell GroupWise.

Datacentrix

Datacentrix is a South Africa-based black empowered company that provides full high performing and secure ICT (information and communication technology) solutions to the country's corporate and public services sectors. Its comprehensive offering ranges from the core areas of infrastructure and business solutions to outsourcing and other related IT services, positioning it as a strategic long-term partner of choice to customers. The company listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in 1998 and operates from regional branch offices in Samrand, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban. For more information, please visit www.datacentrix.co.za.

Editorial contacts

Stephanie Reynolds
Datacentrix Holdings
087 741 8711
sreynolds@datacentrix.co.za