Symetrix implements VPN for PPS Insurance within 24 hours

Symetrix Information Technologies, a leading provider of innovative and high availability IT solutions to medium and large corporations, recently migrated the legacy infrastructure of PPS Insurance Company Limited (PPS Insurance) to a virtual private network (VPN). This migration was prompted by PPS Insurance's need to create a fully redundant and scalable wireless area network (WAN).

The previous PPS Insurance infrastructure utilised diginet lines to connect the head office in Johannesburg to its other offices in Durban, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria.

"We needed a solution that would provide us with the benefits of network reliability and availability, as well as security," said Jonathan Boucher, IT relations manager at PPS Insurance. "With a VPN migration, our organisation now uses a shared infrastructure provided by Telkom, reducing hidden costs. We also looked at the VPN's flexibility in terms of growth and upgrades and we were satisfied with the prospects."

The migration took place over a weekend as PPS Insurance operates on a skeleton staff during that period and this ensured that there was zero downtime for the company. PPS Insurance was migrated from its legacy diginet infrastructure to a full frame relay VPN within 24 hours. "The management of this project was so professional that even the minor glitch in Durban did not hinder any progress. On Monday, the system was up and running," said Ben Swartz, managing director of Symetrix.

The migration changed the layout from 128k to 256k completely eliminating the use of diginet lines. The system is now fully triangulated with increased bandwidth and complete fault tolerance. "Uptime is extremely important to our business as data is gathered every working day from our various branches and then sent through to our main data base," said Boucher. "This high volume of data is vital to the day-to-day running of the business and we can't afford to lose it."

"A VPN migration allows for an increased level of connectivity, which in turn allows for a more effective flow of information and opens the door for improved client service, vendor support and company communications," said Swartz.

"The migration process was well managed, it was seamless and transparent, so that on Monday when everybody came to work, they didn't notice that there had been activity during the weekend except for the improved functionality of the system," said Boucher.