JSE-listed Billcad has chosen StorageTek`s 9740 DLT tape storage system, supplied by CMS, for its mission-critical storage requirements, and has installed Veritas Software, also from CMS, to manage the backup process automatically.
The StorageTek tape library will be used as the central storage facility for outsourcing clients who use Billcad`s online business environment in their business-to-business transactions.
Billcad supplies fully integrated, Internet-based, business transactional applications for vertical industries. These include telemedicine, security, tourism, micro-lending and insurance.
"Our clients are business communities whose members conduct several business dealings with each other at a high frequency, capitalising on a fully integrated transactional environment," says Billcad MD Jaco De La Rouviere. De La Rouviere says thin-client applications with 3 000 users or more are normally difficult to deliver across the Internet. "Billcad offers one of the most advanced thin-client Internet-enabled software solutions in the world, because we have solved the generic problems related to thin-client delivery mechanisms. Our solutions are fully scalable, enabling any number of users to access the system simultaneously."
To deliver a solution, Billcad analyses the business requirements and workflow of a specific vertical market and then creates a business-to-business model that enables Internet transactions, replacing any back-office accounting software being used for electronic data interchange. Due to the nature of the business-to-business environment, Billcad offers an outsourcing service through its subsidiary, SABEX (the South African Business Exchange). The StorageTek is being used particularly for back-up and storage for these clients.
"This cuts clients` total cost of ownership costs and eases their backup responsibility," says De La Rouviere. "It transfers that responsibility to our shoulders so we demand a highly reliable storage solution to protect their data."
De La Rouviere maintains Billcad`s solutions are up to 60% more efficient than any existing process a potential client or vertical might have in place. "It is particularly beneficial for highly dispersed environments, because users can access the accounting system from virtually anywhere." "We had to develop our solution because the Internet is a highly volatile delivery mechanism," he says.
The StorageTek is connected to a Digital Unix cluster comprising 16 processors, enabling all the processors to communicate with each other simultaneously.
"It is a one-of-a-kind solution because of our server cluster, the scalability of our software and our dynamic development environment."
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