Financial management software solutions provider, IDU has partnered with CipherWave to offer local SMEs end-to-end cloud solutions on a managed or non-managed basis.
Established in 2010, CipherWave specialises in providing growing businesses with a range of Internet solutions to help them connect, communicate and collaborate with their customers, employees and suppliers.
Through the partnership, CipherWave offers IDU clients locally hosted cloud infrastructure, which the IDU software is hosted on. Clients benefit by having access to readily available, scalable and redundant managed infrastructure, without having to worry about providing hardware infrastructure for the IDU software, the companies say.
"The CipherWave cloud infrastructure is hosted and managed out of CipherWave's data centre in Midrand, Johannesburg. CipherWave provides local support to IDU and their clients through the CipherWave support centre, which is available around the clock," explains Wayne D'sa, MD of CipherWave.
"Customers are looking for products and services they can easily access - the partnership provides this platform - enabling IDU customers to have direct access to the software without the responsibility of supplying, managing or maintaining hardware."
Local organisations, he adds, face a number of challenges when looking to migrate to the cloud namely: sufficient bandwidth to be able to connect to the services; seamless migration of company data into a reliable platform; and a lack of resources or expertise.
Kevin Phillips, CEO of IDU Group, explains: "IDU and CipherWave are locally based products, offering local support and access to local consultants and resources as and when required. The partnership of two local providers allows us to be competitively priced and to offer better overall performance. It also ensures compliance with local data regulations such as the upcoming Protection of Personal Information Act.
IDU, adds Phillips, offers a one-stop solution for both infrastructure and product, enabling clients to benefit by not having to invest in expensive on-site infrastructure, allowing IT to focus on delivering business value and not maintaining infrastructure.
"Other concerns which local firms have when moving to cloud are security, regulatory compliance as well as performance. We have also noted reluctance from business to put potentially sensitive financial information in the cloud, however this reluctance is softening," Phillips points out.
In future CipherWave says it will continue to focus on furtherdevelopment of its backup and disaster recovery cloud offerings; cloud backup services for mobile devices as well as desktop and standalone servers. The company is also currently working on a virtual desktop offering which will be added to its cloud solutions.
Earlier this year, CipherWave appointed a regional director for KwaZulu-Natal, Rajan Ponnen, in efforts to expand the company into a leading position in the province.
Local SMEs, explained Ponnen at the time, struggle to find the perfect Internet partner that understands their business and would be able to offer a custom solution that would allow for the business to reach its full potential through increased productivity and profitability.
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