Internet Solutions (IS) today announced the company has expanded its operation in Bloemfontein, with the launch of new offices and a data centre within the central business district.
Prenesh Padayachee, Chief Technology Officer at IS, explains the operation has been moved into bigger, more centralised offices to accommodate the data centre and meet the growing demand for IT and communication services in the region.
“The new IS premises in Bloemfontein is centrally located on the Bloemfontein fibre ring, giving us access to redundant network infrastructure,” says Padayachee. “This ensures that the data centre has the same level of redundancy as the other data centres in our network, along with the other mandatory elements, such as secured bulk power supply with a substation on site, along with UPS and generators, as well as air-conditioning for cooling.”
The Bloemfontein data centre currently offers 125m^2 of space, with the ability to expand both the data centre and office as and when required. “There is a burgeoning SME market in Bloemfontein, and it is also one of South Africa's leading medical research centres for the pharmaceutical industry,” continues Padayachee. “As such, we expect to see a great deal of growth in the region, especially in the areas of connectivity, access and hosted and managed services.”
The Bloemfontein office and data centre will also service the greater Free State province, where IS sees the greatest demand coming from the mining and government sectors. “There is a growing need for better IT infrastructure in these regions, and we will be able to offer these sectors a wider selection of services by establishing a node in Bloemfontein. This also gives us the ability to reach our Johannesburg and Durban data centres to provision any other services that may be required, and connects these companies with the IS backbone.”
IS is also looking to deploy wireless connectivity solutions into the surrounding regions, to connect key disparate and isolated towns and areas with the data centre, to also connect them to the IS network.
“The dedicated team in the Bloemfontein office is currently supported by the sales team from Johannesburg, but as the demand in the region grows, we will increase headcount accordingly,” says Padayachee. He explains that IS will be looking to staff the office with local members of the community, and will be working with IS' head offices in Johannesburg to create skills development programmes in the region to identify and develop the necessary expertise locally.
The new IS Bloemfontein office and data centre site is already operational, with the ability to provision rack space in the data centre on demand, or scale to accommodate any level of business requirement. Rachelle Pienaar +27 87 3515349 or Rachelle.pienaar@is.co.za
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