Medical Aid scheme administrator Bankmed has opted for Dimension Data Networking`s Managed Online (MON) service, for increased uptime, capacity planning and server consolidation.
Bankmed administers a medical aid scheme for the majority of the larger banking groups, such as ABSA, First National Bank, Standard Bank, SA Reserve Bank and Land Bank. This is financially one of the strongest medical schemes in South Africa and caters for over 86 000 principal members. In addition, Bankmed administers 13 other commercial schemes catering for a total of around 176 000 families.
Dimension Data Networking Western Cape is currently monitoring four of Bankmed`s HP servers. The service includes the monitoring of hardware as well as the Microsoft NT operating system. This enables Dimension Data Networking Western Cape to provide a proactive server management service, where engineers can monitor measure, interpret and, if necessary, troubleshoot and fix problems remotely.
Says Patrick Wright, IT manager of Bankmed: "The idea of remote monitoring was very attractive. Due to the critical nature of our 24 by 7 business, the promise of what MON can deliver was exactly what Bankmed needed.
"The pro-active side of MON Server is a major advantage, warning us of possible bottlenecks and problems in areas, such as the exchange server, which are critical to how our business is run. MON Server also highlights potential problems, enabling us to be pro-active instead of reactive."
Through the utilisation of the network management service, Bankmed has seen an improvement in capacity planning. Brandon Bekker, account manager at Dimension Data Networking Western Cape explains that should additional memory or hard drive space be required on Bankmed`s servers, Dimension Data Networking can detect this and advise them to upgrade the hardware capabilities of those servers. "A further benefit of this is that the business can budget server spend to our recommendations."
Wright adds: "Through this service, we can also see which servers are under stress, and re-deploy certain services and applications among the various servers at Bankmed as necessary. This ensures our servers run at the optimum levels."
"Dimension Data`s strong national presence made us feel comfortable," he explains. "Many national IT companies do not have a strong Cape Town presence. We also knew the MON division in Johannesburg is up and running and enjoying great success.
Dimension Data Networking are able to support across platforms, providing a broader scope of services and expertise."
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