Independent resource company Rand Uranium has awarded a contract for the outsourced provision of information and communication technology services to Datacentrix, a leading provider of computing power, business value and solutions to corporate organisations in South Africa. The contract was won on open tender.
Rand Uranium was formed in November 2008 when Harmony Gold, the world's fifth largest gold producer, sold the Cooke sections of its Randfontein Estates Gold Mine to Pamodzi Resources Fund (PRF), backed by First Reserve and AMCI Capital. Its objective is to capitalise on the global nuclear renaissance, building an independent uranium and gold company to exploit the low risk, high margin characteristics of the Cooke asset base and consolidating uranium production both locally and internationally.
Shawn Winterburn, outsource business development manager at Datacentrix, says a number of services are being provided to Rand Uranium within the contract, including a service desk that operates not only as a help desk, but also as a provider of total service aggregation to ensure a single point of contact for all ICT services.
“The service desk provision will also manage third party service providers from a service level and reporting perspective,” he explains. “Another important aspect of the service provision is end-user support and the management of all end-user devices, including personal computers, laptops and printers.”
A critical aspect of the contract is the hosting and management of all the server and back office equipment. Winterburn says this includes services such as Microsoft Exchange, AD, SCCM, SCOM, file and print and Windows server platform as well as fixed and wireless LAN support, WAN support, mail archiving and security support, ranging from anti-virus devices to firewall and intrusion detection.
The contract originally stipulated a user base of 140. However, this has grown over the past six months to 310.
Datacentrix designed and implemented an entirely new server environment on the Microsoft Hyper V (virtualised) platform, which enables all services on three locations to be consolidated.
“The solution is based upon 18 physical servers with 35 virtualised,” Winterburn adds. “Our networking team also implemented a Broadlink WAN infrastructure which has built-in redundancy at a fraction of the cost of traditional fixed-line infrastructure. Wireless is a good fit for Rand Uranium and also eliminates the possibility of system downtime as a result of cable theft.”
Rand Uranium has a large resource base on the West Rand, including a unique mix of proven gold operations and a highly promising surface uranium development project, the quality of which has been verified by extensive feasibility studies. The Cooke Tailings Dam is also one of the world's premier above-ground uranium assets - a large scale, low risk surface operation.
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