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Tier IV certification is Telkom Business' latest recognition


Johannesburg, 13 Nov 2013

Telkom Business today announced that it has once again received international recognition for its data centre operations, this time in the form of the Uptime Tier IV design certification. This is for the group's Belville data centre, in the Western Cape.

Says Reubin Layman, executive: data centre services operations at Telkom Business: "Not only are we one of three South African companies to have received this accolade, but we are the only one to have two certified data centres from the Uptime Institute, in Cape Town and in Johannesburg."

The Uptime Institute's classification system is a standard that is recognised worldwide. Through this system, members of the data centre industry can benchmark their operations, comparing key components like functionality, capacity and site infrastructure design.

To reach Tier IV certification, the highest and most stringent level, Telkom Business' data centre operations had to meet all the design requirements for fault tolerance and reliability. According to Layman, this makes the Belville 2 data centre the most reliable and safest option for companies that require hosting space for business-critical systems and infrastructure. "Financial service providers, for example, where service downtime would have an economic impact to their bottom line."

Fault-tolerant infrastructure encompasses every system or component that support IT operations. For example, the failure of a single switch-module will affect every sub-component and equipment component receiving service from that particular switch-module. A Tier IV designed facility will be able to withstand this level of interruption without affecting service delivery. "The end-to-end system is set up in such a way that it automatically self-heals to minimise the impact on the site so that normal functionality is not interrupted."

Other key elements that lead to Tier IV design qualification include:

* Ensuring there is enough capacity to maintain the site when redundant components or distribution paths have been removed from service.
* The site is not susceptible to a single unplanned event or planned work activities.
* All computer hardware must have dual power inputs.

In addition to Tier IV design principles, Belville 2 is equipped with effective air management, virtualisation and free-air cooling, contributing to the facility's ecological footprint. It is also ideally situated for international connectivity via the undersea optical fibre cable systems that land at Melkbosstrand.

Combined, all these components make Telkom, through its business arm, the best suited South African telco to offer these key features to any partnership:

* Scalability
* Agility
* Mobility
* Security
* Reliability

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Telkom

Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa and on the African continent. It had consolidated operating revenue of R32.5 billion and profit after tax of R501 million for the year ended 31 March 2013, excluding a once-off impairment charge. Total assets amounted to R41.6 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R17.9 billion as of 31 March 2013. The group generated free cash flow of R2.1 billion for the year ended 31 March 2013.

As of 31 March 2013, it had approximately 3.8 million telephone access lines in service and 73 400 ports connected via MSAN access. It offers business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:

* fixed-line retail voice services using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of subscription-based value-added voice services and calling plans;
* fixed-line customer premises equipment rental and sales services both voice and data needs and these include PABX, computers, routers, modems, telephone handsets and other ancillary equipment;
* interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
* fixed-line data services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and Internet access and related information technology services;
* data centre operations include e-commerce, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
* W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next-generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
* mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through its mobile brand called Telkom Mobile; and
* other services including directory services, through Trudon, wireless data services, through Swiftnet and Internet services outside South Africa, through the iWayAfrica Group.

Convergence is one of its key strategic initiatives in building a sustainable future for Telkom. It will lead the provision of converged services in South Africa in support of its mission statement: Seamlessly connecting people to a better life.

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