The e-Skills Academy of South Africa (Pty) Ltd, an independent training organisation that provides internationally accredited ICT courses and professional qualifications, has completed the installation of advanced ICT infrastructure to keep up with an increase in demand from the market.
The institution partnered with Integr8 IT to successfully roll-out the technology.
The education institution was officially opened recently by president Thabo Mbeki and communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.
Integr8 IT is South Africa's largest privately owned national BEE ICT network integration and infrastructure management specialist. The company was approached by representatives of the e-Skills Academy of South Africa to enhance the institution's infrastructure and its ability to meet an increasing demand for e-learning.
This large-scale project involved one of the most advanced and sophisticated IT infrastructures of its type in the country, including server and security hardware and software, LAN and WAN.
The company was also tasked with the delivery of general IT support that encompassed installation, configuration and troubleshooting on routers, servers, desktops, laptops, firewalls and Microsoft operating systems, databases and applications.
Specific business requirements included a network that could support more than 250 students at a time using desktop systems running a range of applications, including personal, professional (such as Microsoft Office) and high-end enterprise solutions.
There was also a definite requirement for the ability to switch between open source, industry standard and even proprietary operating systems as dictated by various courses in a totally transparent and heterogeneous environment.
Furthermore, the academy required high-speed and totally reliable connectivity for downloading and managing courseware and applications over the Internet and for e-learning applications. The service mandate handed to Integr8 IT required that the academy's IT infrastructure incorporate all the latest technologies in order to foster practical, hands-on experience among students wanting to enter the formal workplace environment.
"In addition to high levels of reliability and redundancy in order to avoid any downtime during student training, the academy also required a high performance data storage and backup infrastructure," explains Dan Ellappa, CEO at the e-Skills Academy of South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
Technical engineers at Integr8 IT integrated Active Directory and Exchange 2007 Messaging. The core element of this solution involved a new Windows 2003 domain, using Windows server 2003 R2x64 and a deployment of six new 64-bit servers.
"The new domain was implemented as a single forest domain infrastructure with local domain controllers at the e-skills primary date centre. A client access server, hub transport and mailbox server with redundancy was also introduced into the environment to allow the high volume of e-mail entering the network," explains Robert Sussman, joint-MD of Integr8 IT.
One of the main reasons behind the selection of Integr8 IT as a trusted provider of support and services is because of its skills acumen and its track record as an established Microsoft Certified Gold Partner. The company is certified in four competencies including advanced infrastructure management, an area that covers the introduction and integration of solutions like the one implemented at the e-Skills Academy.
"Integr8 IT is part of the Microsoft early adoption programme and we were in a position to implement, test, study and refine the administration of Exchange 2007 before the RTM versions were available. This gives us the advantage of providing expert knowledge with our solution service," he adds.
According to Ellappa, the academy's core business requirements combined with the level of skills necessary for the project made this installation unique.
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Integr8 IT is South Africa's largest privately owned national BEE ICT network integration and infrastructure management specialist.
A renowned leader in the field of system integration, infrastructure management and support services, the company employs over 350 full-time highly skilled professionals.
Integr8 IT is the innovator, founder and operator of the only South African-based Nerve Centre (www.nervecentre.co.za), providing a digital hub to manage and regulate many of the country's leading corporations.
The company's core focus is on network infrastructures specialising in design, planning, deployment, management and maintenance. Integr8 IT has offices in South Africa, Botswana United States of America and the United Kingdom. The South African Offices are found in Gauteng, Cape Town, Durban and representation in Port Elizabeth, East London, and across the southern Africa region.
Integr8 IT is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner for Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Network Infrastructure Solutions, Information Worker Solutions, and Security Solutions.
It has been acknowledged and accredited with many awards, namely Microsoft Gold Partner of the Year, African ICT Achievers CIO of the Year for Africa, Best Customer Experience of the Year, Network Infrastructure Solution of the Year, Security Solution of the Year for Middle-East, Africa, & Eastern Europe, Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, and many others, every year, since its inception.
Named as one of the country's Top ICT Companies and honoured with a position among South Africa's Technology Top 100 Companies, Integr8 IT has established itself as a strategic partner with numerous internationally-recognised technology vendors and industry leaders.
Integr8 IT has been nominated as the Most Innovative Company in Africa and Microsoft Network Infrastructure Solutions of the Year
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