TranSwitch Services has implemented two new Aquanta HR/6 NT 4.0 servers from Unisys South Africa to manage the more than two million transactions per month that are routed through the company`s system between Pick `n Pay and South Africa`s banks. "This is a mission critical system for us. Our business depends on the reliability of servers and therefore uptime is vital. The Aquanta servers allow us to have one machine up and running around the clock in primary mode, with the second machine replicating the first as a disaster recovery system," said TranSwitch Services IT manager, Rob du Preez. "We opted for the Aquanta HR/6 NT 4.0 server from Unisys because we needed to be certain of support and performance of the products. Unisys allows us to focus on growing our business - rather than worrying about the technicalities of machine setup and support," continued Du Preez. The Aquanta HR/6 NT 4.0 server is a rack-mounted enterprise server that will serve up to 350 networked computers. It has system and CPU failsafes that allow for the continuous exchange of data over high volume networks. It uses `hot pluggable` components that allow the system to remain up and functioning while hardware is being replaced or added. Initially the system will only switch transactions for existing TranSwitch Services customers such as ABSA and Pick `n Pay, but the Cape Town based company plans to make its services available on a broader commercial base in the future. The servers are scalable, and will accommodate six 200Mhz Pentium Pro processors - which will allow for the TranSwitch system`s growth. Commenting on TranSwitch Services` decision to use the Aquanta servers, Andr'e Purchase, account manager, Computer Systems Group, Unisys, said: "Today, customers want the benefits of standard hardware, open operating systems like Microsoft NT Server as well as high levels of scalability, availability and manageability. The Aquanta HR/6 Server meets these requirements and provides a cost effective alternative to RISC based systems. By working closely with TranSwitch, Unisys was instrumental in assisting the company with its decision to move from a Unix environment to NT." The Aquanta Servers use Microsoft NT4.0 as the operating system and run a Mosaic application that carries out the electronic transactions countrywide.
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