Internet Solutions (IS) has announced that it has been chosen by the Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa (ISPA) to host the Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX) for a third term. In addition, IS has also been chosen to host the revived Cape Town Internet Exchange (CINX).
An Internet Exchange, explains Greg Montjoie, Hosting Business Unit Manager at IS, is for all intents and purposes a peering point between Internet service providers (ISPs) in a country or region. “A peering point adds a vital level of redundancy into the local Internet and boosts the performance of local Internet usage by creating shorter routes between ISPs. In doing so, an Internet Exchange also affects valuable cost savings for all parties involved,” he explains.
“Because Internet Exchanges are of massive importance to the quality of a country's Internet experience, we're extremely proud to have been chosen for a third term,” he adds.
Rob Hunter, Chair of the INX Working Group at ISPA, says that the contract to host an Internet Exchange such as JINX is awarded every three years, and that IS has been the host for the past two terms. In fact, IS first hosted JINX from 1996 to 1999. ISPA then chose to host the exchange themselves, but moved the contract back to IS again in 2002, and has continued to host with IS since then, for a total of seven years. “We haven't experienced a failure since IS has been hosting JINX,” explains Hunter.
"IS' record of service as JINX's host and their continued desire to partner with us contributed to our decision not to move to another partner," he adds. That said, however, Hunter says the most recent application from IS was still thoroughly vetted before the renewal of the contract was announced.
“We're obviously extremely proud of becoming the JINX host for another three years,” Montjoie says “It speaks volumes about our ability to handle a mission-critical hosting project such as this, not to mention the world class nature of the IS Johannesburg and Cape Town data centres.
“We're committed to providing ISPA with the same excellent level of service we have up until now and trust that the hosting we provide will make it a little better for the South African Internet user community to communicate effectively with each other,” he concludes.
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Internet Solutions (IS) is southern Africa's most established and experienced Internet service provider. Since 1993, IS has been providing end-to-end connectivity solutions and related services across the African continent. IS is now also able to self-provision, having received an ECNS license in 2008. This is enabling the company to deliver fully aggregated telecommunications services to the South African market.
The innovative solutions and services offered by IS are underpinned by the company's founding principles; developing a robust infrastructure that enables corporates and other organisations to communicate, which is then brought to life and implemented by the passionate people who work at the company. For 15 years, IS has been delivering these products and services to over 80% of South Africa's top businesses, from listed companies to non-governmental organisations, local and national government and small to medium sized enterprises.
All IS products and services are built on a world-class, secure and resilient infrastructure, delivered according to global best practices and in partnership with the world's leading technology vendors, such as Cisco and Microsoft. IS is a Microsoft Gold Partner with competencies in Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (Hosted Exchange and SharePoint) and Advance Infrastructure (Managed Hosting) Solutions. IS is the first ISP in Africa and the Middle East to achieve this accreditation. Similarly, in 2002 IS was certified as a Cisco Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), the first company outside of the US to be awarded this accolade. IS also embraces open source technology and partners with leading local and international companies to deliver business ready Linux and open source solutions.
IS continues to enjoy market-leading positions across multiple vertical market segments through the company's current product mix of hosting, access, security, virtual private network (VPN), mobile, VOIS, wireless, broadband and application services solutions. Recent growth in the African economy has resulted in IS spreading its services across all parts of the continent, as clients demand reliable and robust networking connectivity throughout Africa.
IS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dimension Data and has been certified as a level 3 contributor to BEE (110% compliant). IS is a value-added supplier, enabling clients to claim 135% of their expenditure with Internet Solutions and BBBEE spend.
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